St. Antony’s Cave

There is such a thing as the tyranny of conscience. This early quote from Luther applies: Luther’s own appraisal of his “Here I Stand” 95 Theses in a 1518 letter to his superior, the Bishop of Brandenburg, said in part: “For I doubt some of them, am ignorant about others, and deny some, while not positively asserting any, but submitting all to the holy Church’” (Plass, Ewald, This is Luther, 201). Susan Howatch in her The Starbridge series of novels covers an Anglican cathedral from the 30’s – 60’s. A young priest’s revelatory moment, saving him from a nervous breakdown, is the sudden thought, “I may be wrong.” This is what I find is lacking in many of today’s Confessional Lutheran pastors. They have a drop- dead certainty about things that the Lord has not said, and this leads to a tyrannical conscience. This is a letter from Oliver Cromwell that addressed this tyranny. Continue reading →