These Words We Speak: Law and Gospel in Contemporary Conversations

All Lutherans speak about law and gospel, but what do these terms mean to those who use them? Across the fractured landscape of contemporary American Lutheranism, how might we learn to listen to each other? Matthew Borrasso proposes a thoughtful reframing of the conversation, centering law and gospel as God's address to and for the people God loves–that is, all people who live in this world. When we focus our attention on hearing God–and that of God in each other–we can begin to explore how different Lutherans see and express these core theological concepts without immediately dismissing the other.

Through careful analysis and a clear-eyed view of the Lutheran landscape from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Borrasso demonstrates how important it is to ground all our words in the work of the Holy Spirit. These words we speak do not belong to us; rather, they are God's. In the words of American Lutheran theologian Martin Franzmann, "With the meekness of Christ implanted in us we can be strong; we shall have confessional strength without rigidity, and we shall have firmness without contempt or malice." Lutherans of differing stripes may not agree, but with God at the center, we may learn again what it means to speak to–and hear–each other.