In preparation for the fifth centenary of the Reformation in
2017, the Vatican and the World Lutheran Federation are
preparing a joint document on the course of events in the early
sixteenth century. The Humboldt University in Berlin is also
building up to the centenary with lectures and discussions. I
was honored to take part in a disputatio with Professor Notger
Slencka, a foremost connoisseur of Luther’s work, under the
auspices of the Romano Guardini foundation, on May 7, 2012, in
which I took the side of Erasmus as we re-argued the famous
discussion on free will between the Humanist and the Reformer.
The epoch of the Renaissance and the Reformation sought to
overcome scholastic metaphysics by a return to the sources, a
purification of language, and a new encounter with the realities
of human experience and biblical revelation. Overcoming
metaphysics in theology means protecting the biblical language
and the biblical phenomena against the insidious falsification
brought about by metaphysical habits of tho