Living by Faith: Justification and Sanctification by Oswald Bayer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This explanation of the centrality of justification in Luther's theology makes timely contact with atheistic thought.
Some highlights (numbers are approximate Kindle locations):
* Those with God's passive righteousness need not concern themselves with the judgments of others as if they were the final judgment (342).
* The power of God's word can be seen in even the smallest parts of his creation (382).
* God's actions are his words to us (588).
* Believers now have eternal life by promise, not yet by something that is felt (450).
* Make your plans as if God does not exist in order to let him work secretly through the mask of means (484, 487).
* Your justification depends in no way and your success (496).
* "Ethical progress is only possible by returning to Baptism" (779).
* In lament, the believer questions God regarding the apparent contradiction between his promise and the suffering, injustice, and other evil observed in the world (808).
* Judging on the basis of that evil, human reason always comes to the conclusion that either God does not exist or, if he exists, then he is not just (901).
* According to St. Paul's letter to the Romans, if God's righteousness could be judged by the standard of human righteousness, then his righteousness would not really be divine, but merely human (970, 973).