In a recent post, Father Jonathan Mitchican took on our colleague, Jordan Hylden, as well as Joel Osteen, and, implicitly, many of us who are skeptical of a theology “that makes it seem as if the Christian life is not actually a part of God’s Good News in Christ.”
Echoing countless Christians throughout the ages, Mitchican rightly worries about Pelagianism. I appreciate his critique of what he dubs “Osteenism.” Yet, against Hylden’s prescription for particular categories of preaching, Mitchican argues for the standard Lutheran homiletical diet of law and grace, with the balance skewed heavily toward grace. I suspect fans of Lutheranism find Mitchican’s account familiar and a sufficient and successful answer to Hylden. In what follows, however, I argue that Mitchican’s account would benefit from a dose of Aquinas and Hooker. For, other than a commendable passing endorsement of holy living, Mitchican’s account of the law, gospel, and grace leaves little room for Christian ethics. Moreover, my suggestion is that it does so because it echoes Luther in positing a false dichotomy between law and grace and by misidentifying us as the subject of the gospel.
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