Spenser, Donne, and the theology of joy

Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Wntr, 2006 by Adam Potkay

The contrast is striking between Aquinas's commentary and that of Luther. Luther's 1535 Galatians commentary was his most influential work in English, translated in 1575 and printed seven more times through 1644. (8) John Bunyan praised it highly: "I do prefer this book of Mr. Luther upon the Galathians, (excepting the Holy Bible) before all the books that ever I have seen, as most fit for a wounded Conscience." (9) A good part of the salve lies in Luther's comments on Galatians 5:22. He construes "love" as a self-abasement toward one's neighbor (not, as in Aquinas, an orientation toward the abstract "good"). Such love is entirely enabled and sustained by Christ and the Spirit. (10) Joy, accordingly, "means joyful thoughts about Christ, wholesome exhortations, happy songs, praise, and thanksgiving." (11) Luther describes joy as nothing less than a central Christian duty:

   God is repelled by sorrow of spirit; He hates sorrowful teaching and   sorrowful thoughts and words, and He takes pleasure in happiness. For   He came to refresh us, not to sadden us. Hence the prophets, apostles,   and Christ himself always urge, indeed command, that we rejoice and   exult. Zech. 9:9: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O   daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your King comes to you." And often in the   Psalms (32:11): "Be glad in the Lord." Paul says (Phil. 4:4): "Rejoice   in the Lord always." And Christ says (Luke 10:20): "Rejoice that your   names are written in heaven." When this is a joy of the Spirit, not of   the flesh, the heart rejoices inwardly through faith in Christ,   because it knows for a certainty that He is our Savior and High   Priest; and outwardly it demonstrates this joy in its words and   actions. (12) 

Luther presents "joy of the Spirit" as both a subjective attitude ("the heart rejoices inwardly") and as a set of outward practices ("words and actions," "wholesome exhortations, happy songs") that are dependent upon a proper inner state but that are also, paradoxically, enjoined upon all who would attain that state. Luther himself did much to institutionalize rejoicing (along with supplicating) in his translations of Psalms, his hymnody in general, and his emphasis on congregational singing in the vernacular. (13)

According to Luther, we are categorically urged or commanded to rejoice: rejoicing seems to partake of the law that Christians must follow. Of course, Luther's larger point in his exposition on Paul is that the law is precisely what fallen humans cannot follow and that it is not one's own works or merits that save but rather, and wholly, faith that one is saved through Christ's sacrifice. On Galatians 5:23--"against such [as have the fruits of the Spirit] there is no law"--Luther comments, "So a Christian fulfills the law inwardly by faith--for Christ is the consummation of the Law for righteousness to everyone who has faith." (14) Thus joy, which we are required to have, is that which we cannot have by our own efforts but only in conjunction with faith, itself a gift of the Spirit and of God's grace.