ILLUMINATION
(Lat. illuminatio; Gk.
photismos) : In Protestant dogmatics a name of a part
of the ordo salutis (see
Order of Salvation),
signifying an activity of the Holy Spirit closely
connected with the Calling (q.v.). So far as the
New-Testament usage of photimos and photizein
is concerned, it may be said, on the one hand, that
the light brings forth ethical fruits in the children
of light
(Eph. v. 9-10;
cf.
Isa. ii. 5, lx. 3),
and, on
the other, that these children, as instruments appointed
by God, illuminate the world and convert
it unto God and his light
(Matt. v. 14, 16;
II Cor. iv. 5-6;
cf.
Rom. ii. 19;
Acts xxvi. 18).
But the
real illuminator is Christ; the true light
(John i. 9;
cf.
II Tim. i. 10).
The apostolic preaching of the
Gospel is itself "illumination," and its purpose is
"to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Christ"
(II Cor. iv. 6).
The
Christians, accordingly, are those who have been
"once enlightened"
(Heb. vi. 4, x. 32).
It is
important for the mystical conception that illumination and contemplation take place only upon the
basis of a moral purification. It was, significant
for Protestant theology that Luther in his Smaller
Catechism inserted the illumination in the
ordo salutis ("calls, gathers, illumines, sanctifies").
The Apology and the Formula of Concord represent
the illumination as taking place through the Word,
and regard it as a fanatical error to teach an
illumination without the Word. This difference gives
the conception its peculiar stamp: the illumination
is subordinated to the calling and is effected only
through the Word. And this is the reason, too,
why the older Protestant dogmaticians use the term
only occasionally. Hollaz was the first to give it
a place of its own in the ordo salutis (Examen
theologicum, Stockholm, 1741, pp. 813 sqq.). This
is due to the importance which the illumination.
received in the mystical and Pietistic literature.
For Hollaz, in introducing the idea, takes the
position that the illumination may be present in
an imperfect degree in the human intellect without
any sanctification of the will. Johann Arndt, however,
in his Bücher vom wahren Christentum
(Magdeburg, 1610), defends the mystical usage of the term
rejected by Hollaz, declaring that the Holy Spirit
illuminates only those who renounce the world
and on this wise follow Christ (I. xxxvii. 16,
xxxix. 4, III. i. 2, 11). In this way the illumination is made
a special divine act, surpassing the
vocation, inasmuch as it is realized only in the case
of those who "desist from all that which God himself
is not, from oneself and all creatures," "and keep
their inmost souls pure from the creatures and the
world. Thus God illuminates from within,
for all must stream forth from within God's being. This
inner light then shines forth in the works " (III., xi.).
It is from the point of view of this opposition that
the view of Hollaz is to be understood. The conception
of Hollaz was also that of the Pietistic
dogmaticians: "illumination itself consists in this,
that the Holy Ghost in his light by means of the
Word of God pictures and makes known heavenly
truth to the human understanding with such clearness,
force, and conviction that man thereby recognizes
it as truth, believes it with divine assurance,
and thus knows what God has graciously given him,
and is able to judge spiritual things spiritually."
(Freylinghausen, Grundlegung der Theologie,
p. 166, Halle, 1705). The same is true also of the
rationalistic dogmaticians (e.g., Wegscheider, Institutiones
theologice, Halle, 1815, § 158, pp. 497-498). In the
same direction, moreover, tend the views of the
more modern dogmaticians so far as they employ
the term at all (e.g., Dorner, Glaubenslehre, ii. 2,
p. 727, Berlin, 1881, and, especially, Frank, System
der Christlichen Wahrheit, ii. 333, Leipsic, 1894).
The dogmatician's attitude to the term will vary,
according to his conception of the call as a mere
offering of salvation, or as the effectual appropriation
of it. If the Biblical conception of
vocation
as an effectual divine influence through the Word
is retained, it is difficult to vindicate a special place
for illumination. But this conception is to be preferred
for the obvious reason that, by the other
theory, the call could not at all be reckoned among
the proper acts of grace meant for the individual,
but would amount to a mere presupposition for
this work of grace. Thus considered, vocation
denotes the effectual influence of the revelation of
salvation upon the personal life; illumination the
transference of the person into the sphere of God.
In this connection there is just as little need, so
far as Scriptural usage is concerned, of restricting
illumination to the intellect as there is of supplementing the conception of vocation in any such
way as that. Illumination is to be regarded as a
synonym of vocation, without having any special
locus in systematic theology. Both terms denote
the influences of God in the Word, the effects
of which are seen in regeneration and conversion.
These influences address themselves to the whole
man; they move the will as well as the intellect.
That is as true of the calling as of the illumination.
It would be well if the practical discussions based
upon Luther's Catechism should likewise put the
two terms together; not, therefore, as if the call
outwardly offered the Word and the illumination
inwardly appropriated its content, but in such a
way that with the call and through it the illumination
of man takes place.
R. Seeberg.
Bibliography:
Besides the works mentioned in the text,
consult the text-books on Dogmatics in the department of
Soteriology, and J. H. Blunt, Dictionary of Doctrinal and
Historical Theology, p. 324, London,
1870; A. A. Benton,
Church Cyclopaedia, p. 374, Philadelphia, 1884.
