{"id":7475,"date":"2025-08-23T22:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T22:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/?p=7475"},"modified":"2025-11-20T03:46:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T03:46:23","slug":"winter-2025-featured-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/?p=7475","title":{"rendered":"Autumn 2025 Featured Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"7475\" class=\"elementor elementor-7475\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-cb1eecb elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default qodef-elementor-content-no\" data-id=\"cb1eecb\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-6e574d9\" data-id=\"6e574d9\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-96358b1 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"96358b1\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><em>* The picture above shows Oswald Bayer, middle, flanked by Jeff Silcock on the left and Theo Dieter on the right.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-8234a89 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default qodef-elementor-content-no\" data-id=\"8234a89\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-1cf8fa4\" data-id=\"1cf8fa4\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8bc9be7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"8bc9be7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3>Promissio as Oswald Bayer\u2019s Key to Luther\u2019s Reformational Theology<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-29a48bb elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default qodef-elementor-content-no\" data-id=\"29a48bb\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-dca908c\" data-id=\"dca908c\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8db6f9e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"8db6f9e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5362 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/vdma_bw.jpg\" alt=\"VDMA\" width=\"172\" height=\"172\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/vdma_bw.jpg 172w, https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/vdma_bw-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/vdma_bw-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 172px) 100vw, 172px\" \/><br \/>by Theodor Dieter<br \/><br \/><em>Abstract<\/em><br \/><br \/><br \/><\/p><div style=\"margin: 0px 40px;\">The study is an introduction to Oswald Bayer\u2019s groundbreaking work Promissio: The Reformational Turn in Luther\u2019s Theology from 1972, which is now also available in English. It analyzes the research situation of the book and the approach and implementation of Bayer\u2019s investigation, which distinguishes between Luther\u2019s pre-reformational theology (until 1517) and his reformational theology since 1518, substantiating this distinction with a large\u00a0number of meticulous textual analyses. The key observations and arguments\u00a0are highlighted and compared with recent research and in some cases corrected. Particular emphasis is placed on the fact that linguistically identical\u00a0formulations and sentences can have different meanings in early and later contexts. While for Bayer the \u201creformational turn\u201d meant an insurmountable\u00a0separation from Catholic doctrine, the study argues that Luther\u2019s discovery of\u00a0the sacramental character of the promissio (promise) is precisely the basis for\u00a0a promising Catholic-Lutheran ecumenism. Bayer\u2019s findings are also shown to\u00a0be fruitful for the interdisciplinary discourse on \u201cgift giving.\u201d<\/div><p><br \/>Read the full essay <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Dieter_LUT_39-3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>HERE<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The study is an introduction to Oswald Bayer\u2019s groundbreaking work Promissio: The Reformational Turn in Luther\u2019s Theology from 1972.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,62,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bayer","category-essays","category-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7475"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7678,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7475\/revisions\/7678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}