finitum non capax infiniti

This semester I am taking a course on the Reformation taught by Dr. Carl Trueman. At this point in the course we are learning about the life and teachings of Martin Luther. One of our required text books is A Reformation Reader edited by Denis Janz which contains primary texts from figures leading up to, during, and stemming from the Reformation. I am finding it extremely enlightening to read about the historical context of the Reformation in our other text book (European Reformations by Carter Lindberg) and hear about the ideological and historical context of the Reformation in class and then to turn to what these figures actually wrote themselves. It really gives you the ‘feel’ of both why they were writing and what issues they were actually writing about.

During one of the lectures, Dr. Trueman made a connection between Martin Luther and Mark Driscoll. Both are known for their harsh language (although Driscoll has been behaving himself lately), their brutally honest evaluations, and their strong personalities. Dr. Trueman also made the comment that Martin Luther would almost certainly join Mark Driscoll in his hatred for light beer (Luther bragged that his wife made the best beer that he ever tasted…we can all only hope to be so lucky to marry a woman who is also a master-brewer!!).

I was reading some of the primary literature from Luther this afternoon when I ran across this passage. It was something that I could almost certainly imagine Mark Driscoll saying:

Tomorrow I have to lecture on the drunkenness of Noah (Genesis 9.20-27), so I should drink enough this evening to be able to talk about that wickedness as one who knows by experience.
Luther’s Works, vol. 54, no. 3476 (cited in Janz, A Reformation Reader, 79)

Gotta love “our Martin”!!!