The Meaning and Purpose of Law, Grace, and Gospel in Protestant Hermeneutics and Theology

Seminary Room N310

The purpose of the investigation is to clarify the meaning of Law, Grace, and Gospel in Protestant Christianity and to evaluate their function in the development of Protestant hermeneutics and theology. This investigation will approach Protestantism from the perspective of its major hermeneutical-theological traditions: Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism, and New Covenant Theology. This investigation will demonstrate how Luther’s dichotomy between Law and Gospel translates into particular understandings of the Old/Mosaic covenant and the new covenant in the hermeneutical and theological traditions that were developed after Luther. This investigation will clarify how the Lutheran interpretation of the Law-Gospel/Grace relationship serves as the basis for the distinction between the Mosaic covenant as a legal covenant, and the new covenant as a graceful covenant, and how these understandings have guided the interpretation of the relationship between the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant in Protestantism since Luther.