The definition of a hero is: “a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.” We do sometimes use it for a person with heroic qualities, such as the widowed mother who yet manages to raise kids in a quality lifestyle despite a near poverty existence but more often we use it of someone who has done a great deed.
Generally, our impression of a great person is a person who has brought some significant change to a community (or country, or even world). Generally, there is an expectation that a great person has done this over the course of time. So, for instance, a fireman who saves a person from a burning building is considered a hero. Mother Theresa is considered a great person. [Of course, the word saint also springs to mind in her case.]
But, in either case we honor them for the decisions that they have made, whether immediate decisions or long-term decisions. We call them heroes and great persons precisely because we consider that their actions were uncoerced, unimpaired, and their decisions made in their full free will. To give an extreme example, a physician who would be forced to save someone’s life at gunpoint would not be considered a hero, but a victim. Neither would a person who was forced to run into a burning building under threat of death be considered a hero for saving someone, but a victim. It is precisely the choices of heros and great persons that we honor.
That is, until we discuss them in the guise of Christian theology. Then, suddenly, it appears that free will almost pulls a disappearing act. Now, mind you, there is a significant difference between the East and the West on the idea of free will prior to redemption, but that is not what I am talking about. I am speaking about the use of free will post-redemption. We almost seem to go to great lengths to try to prove how little actual free will was involved in what a person did. Yes, I know that the Scriptures say, “. . . God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” But that is only the last part of the verse. The full verse reads, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
This verse is a favorite of the Eastern Orthodox to talk about “synergy.” That is, it is possible to work out our salvation in fear and trembling precisely, and only, because God is at work within us. The Orthodox/Lutheran Joint Commission quoted Cyril of Alexandria in 1993, “For it is unworkable for the soul of man to achieve any of the goods, namely, to control its own passions and to escape the mightiness of the sharp trap of the devil, unless he is fortified by the grace of the Holy Spirit and on this count he has Christ himself in his soul.” Yes, of course, we know we cannot do it on our own. We must have the help of the Holy Spirit in us to make it possible for our will to carry on, and Christ within us to make that possible. But, sometimes we seem to be saying that even post-redemption we are unable to make a decision of the will to obey Christ.
But, if we do that, if we damage free will (post-redemption) sufficiently, that is, if we essentially eliminate it, we are in real danger of making God responsible for our actions, good and bad. Over my years as a pastor, I have met more than one believer whom it is impossible to thank. What do I mean? They do something with excellence, and they quickly pass it off by saying something like, “Oh no, it really was not me, it was just God at work.” I am not talking about the humility that a hero often expresses, but rather, the conviction that to simply say thanks is somehow to do damage to God. It is as though some have decided that any expression of free will somehow damages God’s salvation. Carry it out far enough, and there are no heroes or great persons or saints or martyrs, only God functioning almost as a puppeteer among us. And, if we are not careful, we run the danger of making God responsible for decisions that are not made.
There is a mystery involved in this, but it is similar in mystery to the Incarnation. As the Orthodox on the Joint Commission said in 1993 in the agreed upon statement, “The understanding of synergy in salvation is helped by the fact that the human will in the one person of Christ was not abolished when the human nature was united in Him with the divine nature, according to the Christological decisions of the Ecumenical Councils.” The synergy of which we speak images the mystery of the Incarnation itself. Our free will is not abolished, rather it is made more possible. We are capable of becoming saints, martyrs, heroes, and great persons precisely because we have free will. Oh, no, not absolute free will, see the quote from Cyril above. Nor is that free will fully effective. But, it is present and must be active in order for us to grow into the likeness of Christ.
No, I do not understand all parts of that mystery, let alone the even greater and unfathomable mystery of the Incarnation. But, I do understand this. I believe in heroes, great persons, martyrs, and saints. And, I honor them for the Holy Spirit empowered decisions of their will that have become such a great example for us.
Fr. Obregon,
I think that at least a part of our problem is that we tend to migrate toward the extremes, the black and white’s of belief and life. The synergy that you mentioned is an uncomfortable one for the modern mind because it requires us to be at peace with the mystery of how two seemingly opposing beliefs can both be true. Another example of this is the synergy of sovereign election and man’s volition. Our Enlightenment roots beg us to understand and figure things out, but our faith begs us to let God be God (Deut. 29:29). Blessings to you.
I think you nailed it on the head, Charlie.
In actual fact Lutheran Theology as expressed in the Augsburg Confession Article XVIII does not deny free will, except in Spiritual matters. IF you want to know what Lutherans teach but don’t want to spend a lot of time studying us. Read the Augsburg Confession, and or Luther’s Small Catechism, but you can line the bird cage with that Joint Declaration.
I’ll quote this article here for you:Article XVIII: Of Free Will.
1] Of Free Will they teach that man’s will has some liberty to choose civil righteousness, and to work 2] things subject to reason. But it has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness; since the natural man 3] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2:14; but this righteousness is wrought in the heart when the Holy Ghost is received 4] through the Word. These things are said in as many words by Augustine in his Hypognosticon, Book III: We grant that all men have a free will, free, inasmuch as it has the judgment of reason; not that it is thereby capable, without God, either to begin, or, at least, to complete aught in things pertaining to God, but only in works of this life, whether good 5] or evil. “Good” I call those works which spring from the good in nature, such as, willing to labor in the field, to eat and drink, to have a friend, to clothe oneself, to build a house, to marry a wife, to raise cattle, to learn divers useful arts, or whatsoever good 6]pertains to this life. For all of these things are not without dependence on the providence of God; yea, of Him and through Him they are and have their being. “Evil” 7] I call such works as willing to worship an idol, to commit murder, etc. 8] They condemn the Pelagians and others, who teach that without the Holy Ghost, by the power of nature alone, we are able to love God above all things; also to do the commandments of God as touching “the substance of the act.” For, although nature is able in a manner to do the outward work, 9] (for it is able to keep the hands from theft and murder,) yet it cannot produce the inward motions, such as the fear of God, trust in God, chastity, patience, etc.
You cna find the Augsburg Confession here: http://www.bookofconcord.org/augsburgconfession.php
The upshot of this is we do believe you can thank a heroe for heroic acts, it just doesn’t do much for him when it comes to salvation, justification or sanctification.
Hey Bror, the reason I quoted the Orthodox/Lutheran joint statement was to subtly communicate that there is some common and/or similar ground between the Orthodox and the Lutherans on this particular issue. But, I would agree with you that many on the Orthodox side also would say that the joint declaration is somewhat short of adequate.
Your quote from the Augsburg Confession is most appropriate, and certainly better than the way the Westminster Confession of Faith handles the issue of free will. In fact, the way in which the Augsburg Confession puts it would be most agreeable to most Orthodox with a caveat or two. The caveat is, as Bishop Kallistos Ware put it, that we are what the West would call Arminian, but not Pelagian. Just remember, that is a rough approximation, as Arminius comes out of the context of the West, many centuries after the Church Fathers.
And, I promise, I am trying to understand Lutherans better. I have also been looking at one or two other “Lutheran” blogs to see how they express themselves.