Recovering Protestantism’s Original Insight

“Paul Capetz takes us on a deep journey into the theology of interpreting the Bible from Luther and Calvin to Schleiermacher, Barth, Bultmann, and the present day. Along the way, he shows why appeals to biblical authority alone are never sufficient for Christian theology and ethics, and why progressives who want to proclaim the gospel should engage the Reformation heritage. It’s a trip no serious contemporary Protestant thinker should miss.”


—Douglas F. Ottati, Davidson College





“Paul Capetz argues that proclamation of the Christian message can and must be compatible with commonsense canons of reason and logic, and scientific and historical knowledge. At the center of his case is Protestantism’s ‘original insight’—the distinction between the Bible and the witness within it to the ‘good news’ that Jesus is the decisive representation of God’s pure, unconditional love. This insight is key to a response to both ‘evangelical’ despisers of human intellect and cultural despisers of Christianity.”


—David J. Lull, Wartburg Theological Seminary





“Drawing on decades of experience as a historical theologian, teacher, and pastor, Paul Capetz zeroes in on the problem of biblical authority that has long divided American Protestantism and now even threatens our republic. This is a rare and full-throated defense of Luther’s ‘original insight’ and its continuing significance by a scholar too well-versed in the Christian theological tradition to let the currently fashionable dismissals of historical-critical exegesis—on the postmodern left as well as the atavistic right—go unchallenged.”


—Brent W. Sockness, Stanford University





“Here Paul Capetz makes a provocative argument about untapped resources of the Protestant Reformation and how they can be utilized by contemporary Christians to transcend trenchant liberal/conservative divides in order to proclaim the gospel. Returning to Luther’s original insight that proclamation of the gospel is not synonymous with proclaiming Scripture, Capetz demonstrates, can counter anti-intellectual tendencies in contemporary American Christianity and speak in more compelling ways to the issues of our day.”


—Deanna A. Thompson, St. Olaf College





“Paul Capetz is telling us not to run from critical thinking. But he is not running from the Bible or tradition. He’s leaning in with the conviction that Luther’s take on Scripture is precisely what progressive Protestants need if they are to avoid falling into cultural irrelevancy. This set of deeply informed and precisely reasoned essays should convince you that he might just be right.”


—Stephen Patterson, Willamette University