De libertate et servitute spiritus

Martin T. Dietzaims to demonstrate the pneumatological character of Luther's Treatise on Christian Freedom. Although the treatise does not explicitly develop a pneumatology, it describes Christian existence as pneumatic. Inspired by the apostle Paul, Luther describes a movement which is constantly oriented downwards. Faith receives the fruitful consequences of divine humiliation towards humanity through Christ. Love communicates God's justice, experienced in faith, to one's neighbour, and in so doing becomes involved in God's (con)descendent acting. Faith active through love does not represent a human possibility, though. It is an experience produced by the Spirit, experience which can be most adequately described through a “pneumatology of the cross”. The dissertation describes the pneumatic character of Christian existence as freedom to serve, and points to the staurological stance of the Treatise on Christian Freedom.