Ilmari Karimies investigates Martin Luther's understanding of reality and faith. He examines
Luther's understanding of reality from three perspectives: firstly God as the self-giving
highest good uniting opposites and hiding beneath them secondly the visible and invisible
world and thirdly human beings as tripartite (body soul spirit) and bipartite
(flesh-spirit). The author explores the cognitive conflict between these in relation to
spirit's grasping of God and the invisible world with reference to Augustinian Platonism. He
analyses aspects of faith from the perspective of the theory of divine illumination and shows
that Luther represents a realistic Augustinian view. Faith functions as the theological
intellect grasping the invisible world and showing human beings the future good in a manner
similar to the medieval notion of ecstatic knowledge. It differs from vision in glory because
of sin as mixed with humanity and as partial knowledge.
