-
In
all my reading of Alexander Campbell I have found nothing that
states his understanding of the meaning of religion as well as a
dialogue that he invented between Martin Luther and a monk named
Erastian. The dialogue deals with the nature of piety, which is the
essence of religion, according to Mr. Campbell. The dialogue helps
us to understand something very important in the thinking of our
pioneers:
the
principle of available light,
or
the view that one is to be judged by the opportunities he has had.
-
-
In
the dialogue Campbell has the monk asking Luther, “Friend
Luther, What think you has become of your father?” Luther
replies that he is sure that his father has gone to heaven. “And
your mother too?,” asked the monk. Luther expresses confidence
that not only his parents but his grandparents as well are all in
heaven “for Saxony cannot boast of more devout Catholics than
they.”
-
-
At
this Erastian presses his point: “In the name of both St.
Peter and St. Paul, why have you raised all this fuss in Germany and
throughout the world? Do you expect anything better than to go to
heaven when you die?”
-
-
Luther
concedes that nothing is better than heaven and that he expects no
more. The monk now wants to know that if his parents could be saved
in the Roman church why couldn’t he. “How dare you
separate from the church in which your parents were saved?,”
he asked Luther.
-
-
Luther
answers: “Because my parents were
pious
members
of that church, which I could not possibly be.” Erastian wants
to know why not. The reformer answers:
Because
I have been favored with more knowledge than they.
-
-
Campbell
goes on to use this device to show that “more knowledge”
condemns, more knowledge than one conforms to, for one is
responsible according to his knowledge and ability. And so Campbell
has Luther say of his parents: “They lived in conformity to
all they knew, and died in the church; I live in conformity to what
I know, and have left the church.”
-
-
This
gives Campbell an opportunity to deal with the nature of piety. It
was piety that kept Luther’s parents loyal to the Roman
church, and it was piety that caused Luther to leave that church. In
other contexts Campbell equates piety to sincerity and makes the
pious, sincere heart the basis of one’s acceptance before God.
He is quick to explain that he does not mean anything like “It
doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you are sincere.”
To Campbell piety and sincerity imply that one is never wilfully
ignorant but he humbly seeks to know and to obey God’s will.
-
-
Campbell
has Luther make an incisive observation in this mock dialogue:
the
ratio of piety
is
the
ratio of conformity to the revealed will of God.
So
to be pious one must sincerely seek to do the will of God as he
understands it, and not merely conform to the knowledge of his
ancestors. Campbell also says: “No man can be justified today
by living in accordance with the knowledge that he had yesterday.”
-
-
We
have here a sobering view of the nature of piety. How many of us
really make a sincere effort to conform to the truth we know? When
we see how Campbell has Luther saying, “I must obey the light
which God has given me,” we can ask ourselves if we are
responsive to the light given to us in this enlightened 20th
century.
-
-
And
it makes us less judgmental to realize that others can respond only
to the light they have. Many people, such as the American Indians
for instance, have been so blighted by ignorance and by limited
opportunity that they can only be judged by the measure of light
given to them. But this is part of what Paul argues in
Romans,
that
even if people have but little light they are responsible to that
light. And we all have some light, to which we are less than
faithful. This is what makes us all sinners. But still we are to
grant to others what the God of heaven grants to all in terms of
judgment, that it is required of a person according to what he has
and not according to what he has not. —
the
Editor