Tuomo Mannermaa (
Oulu
Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, 29 September 1937 –
Espoo
Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...
, 19 January 2015) was professor emeritus of ecumenical theology at
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...
. He is known especially for his theological criticism of the
Leuenberg Concord and his research on the relationship between
justification and
theosis in the theology of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
. His initiating and furthering this research caused him to be regarded as the father of "The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther" or "the Finnish School of Tuomo Mannermaa".
Finnish School
Mannermaa led the development of "The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther" that presents Luther's views on
salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
in terms much closer to the
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
doctrine of
theosis rather than established interpretations of German Luther scholarship. This research has recently been presented in English in an anthology of papers edited by
Carl E. Braaten
Carl Edward Braaten (born January 3, 1929) is an American Lutheran theologian and minister.
Biography
Carl Braaten has authored and edited numerous books and theological papers, including ''Principles of Lutheran Theology'' (Fortress Press, 1983) ...
and
Robert W. Jenson in a work entitled, ''Union with Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther''. Mannermaa states, "the external impulse for this new wave of Luther studies in Helsinki came surprisingly from outside the boundaries of Luther research. It came from the ecumenical dialogue between the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland ( fi, Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko; sv, Evangelisk-lutherska kyrkan i Finland) is a national church of Finland. It is part of the Lutheran branch of Christianity. The church has a legal positio ...
and the
Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
that was initiated by Archbishop
Martti Simojoki
Martti Ilmari Simojoki, previously Simelius (September 17, 1908 in Uusikaupunki – April 25, 1999 in Helsinki) was the Archbishop of Turku, and the spiritual head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland between 1964 and 1978. Simojoki becam ...
at the beginning of the nineteen-seventies."
The New Finnish Interpretation has been challenged because it downplays Luther's roots in key theological developments in Western Christendom, and it characterizes Luther's teaching on
Justification as based on Jesus's righteousness which indwells the believer rather than Jesus's righteousness as imputed to the believer.
[William Wallace Schumacher, "'Who Do I Say That You Are?' Anthropology and the Theology of ''Theosis'' in the Finnish School of Tuomo Mannermaa" (Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, 2003), 260 ''et passim''. Cf. also the papers that constitute ''Union with Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther'' by various authors; cf. also Robert Kolb and Charles P. Arand, ''The Genius of Luther's Theology: A Wittenberg Way of Thinking for the Contemporary Church'', (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2008), 48: "These views ignore the radically different metaphysical base of Luther's understanding and that of the Eastern church, and they ignore Luther's understanding of the dynamic, re-creative nature of God's Word."]
Selected works
*Von Preussen nach Leuenberg: Hintergrund und Entwicklung der theologischen Methode der Leuenberger Konkordie. Lutherisches Verlagshaus, 1981
*Christ Present in Faith: Luther's View of Justification. Fortress Press, 2005
References
External links
Rethinking Justification. A Review of Christ Present in Faith: Luther's View of Justification by Tuomo Mannermaa''Developing Theology ''
Mannermaa, Tuomo. "The Doctrine of Justification and Christology Chapter A, Section One of The Christ Present in Faith" ''Concordia Theological Quarterly'' 64 (2000)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mannermaa, Tuomo
1937 births
2015 deaths
People from Oulu
Finnish Lutheran theologians
Academic staff of the University of Helsinki
20th-century Protestant theologians
20th-century Lutherans
20th-century Lutheran theologians
21st-century Lutheran theologians