Theology Mission Theology and Practice

Question: Discuss about theTheologyfor Mission Theology and Practice. Answer: In this paper, varied theological beliefs and arguments are presented from two theologizes, from Martin Luther and Count Nicolus von Zinzendorf. In the first part, Luther explains the way he is unable to understand the meaning of the phrase; Gods righteousness as it appears in the Bible. Although he was a monk, Luther admitted that he could not explain this phrase and hence he felt quite uneasy. His goals and passion as a monk and having studied theology is to understand the letters of Saint Paul, especially his letter to Galatians and Romans. Luther views God to be a judge who passes penalty to any person who sins against Him. Moreover, Luther depicts God to be full of wrath. This is why he fails to understand the fact that God is righteous to His people (Wright, 2014). Luther then wonders how a God who loves His people still punishes them severely when they sin. Moreover, Luther portrays God to love to His people because He reveals Himself to His people in a number of ways. From th is passage, Luther portrays God to be a living God based on his personal experience. Having struggled for a long time to understand God, Luther finally came to peace with his doubts. Having gone through a long period of meditation, Luther came to understand that in the Bible, it is stated that the righteous shall live by faith. Luther finally found out that God has a passive righteousness via which Gods mercy justifies His people through belief in His word and deeds. Later he went through the Bible and found other attributes of God which made him to understand the scriptures better. In the second part of the article, Count Nicolus, makes a legacy by providing a combination of mission, heart and mind with regards to the bible (Gallagher, 2008). The author indicates various aspects that relate to understanding of religion. For instance, the author argues that religion needs to be grasped through experience in absence of reason. In this case, the statement of Nicolas Ludwig agrees with that of Luther because, he never found reasons to believe about the righteousness of God from the biblical perspective. However, when the grace of God appeared to him in a special form of experience and he was able to understand very many things in the bible. Moreover, the view of Count Nicolus concerning the religion indicates that an understanding of religion from a personal experience is greater as compared to an understanding induced by education or time (Fogleman, 2014). This is because despite the fact that Luther had been to the University, studied theology and was a monk, he lacked a clear understanding of some concepts in the letters of Saint Paul, until when God shed some light on him. Count Nicolus again indicates that unless divinity gives itself for man to understand then religion could not been in existence. Sometimes men have to listen to the inner voice of God, with fait so that they can know what god requires of them through the bible. In the end, religion is understood holding on to experiences and not going in search of reasons to believe. References Fogleman, A. S. (2014). Jesus is female: Moravians and radical religion in early America. University of Pennsylvania Press. Gallagher, R. L. (2008). The integration of mission theology and practice: Zinzendorf and the early Moravians. Mission Studies, 25(2), 185-210. McGrath, A. E. (2011). Luther's theology of the cross: Martin Luther's theological breakthrough. John Wiley Sons. Wright, N. T. (2014). What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.