路德所作的一切「都帶有牧靈的特質」，1 這是德國爾蘭根大學的路德專家勒芬尼希（Walther von Loewenich）用來形容路德的神學工作，並表示應另闢專章討論路德的牧靈。2 本文期待為這個複雜的議題拋磚引玉，探索對路德牧靈觀帶來影響的可能因素與傳統。本論文要將焦點放在對青年路德3 的成長至關重要的一位人物：遵規派奧古斯丁隱修會 總會督施道比次（ Johann von Staupitz）。4

John Staupitz had a deep impact on Luther’s personal and theological development. This article sketches out the main lines of the pastoral theology of John Staupitz and looks for connections to Luther’s later reformation theology. At the center of Staupitz’ consolative theology was his reference to Christ at the Cross. Staupitz emphasized that Christ suffered personally for Luther. With that he prefigured Luther’s later accentuation of pro me/pro nobis (for me, for us) in the latter’s theology of the Cross. Another major hint was Staupitz’s focus on the total gratuity of grace: it is not that God is the one who asks for love, but rather that He makes himself lovable through his never ending gift of grace, which evokes love out of itself. This article first analyses Staupitz’s best known tract “On the Eternal Providence of Predestination”. Following Staupitz, the young Luther declined the idea of assurance of salvation. Uniquely, Luther emphasized the triumph over spiritual struggle by imitating the suffering of Christ. Luther not only valued spiritual struggle, but, at this stage of his theological understanding, interpreted it to be the sign of God’s favor. Staupitz’s teaching about predestination focuses more on the topic of God’s loving attitude towards man. For those who suffer the spiritual struggle, predestination means exactly this: God’s love in Jesus Christ never fails, and that sign of God’s love is what those who are not certain about themselves should pay attention to. So Staupitz as pastoral theologian opened Luther’s heart to understand the promise of the Gospel. Luther later referred not explicitly to Staupitz’ literary works but gave Staupitz credit for converting him to see the light of the Gospel. This article comes to the conclusion that Staupitz had no interest in some kind of innovative approach but looked for a pastoral-care-centered biblical interpretation of the Scriptures. His language became increasingly “biblical” and his pastoral advice helped Luther to explore the gratuity of Grace.