Forde: Our Perennial Discomfort with 'Faith Alone'

Just got in the mail Gerhard Forde's 1982 Justification by Faith: A Matter of Death and Life, the thesis of which is that the reason justification by faith has experienced such historical turmoil is the failure of its adherents to incorporate the notion of dying and rising with Christ into explications of what is otherwise a 'merely' legal doctrine. Looks like it will be fascinating. Forde taught systematic theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul from the 60s to the 90s; he passed away in 2005.

This early statement rang true--

'But, don't we have to do something?'--the question always bubbles to the surface out of deep moral and self-protective undercurrents. . . .

Even when we attempt to stick with faith alone we are usually driven to define, qualify, and hedge about the faith of which we speak so that no one will get the 'wrong idea.' Of course we don't mean just any old faith, we mean really believing; we mean a really sincere, heartfelt trust, we mean a living, active faith, a faith which comes after deep and despairing repentance--all that 'adverbial' theology. Before we are through we have so qualified and modified faith as to make it even less obtainable than the justice we failed to reach by the law!

--Gerhard Forde, Justification by Faith: A Matter of Death and Life (Fortress 1982), 9-10; italics original