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Lutheranism

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Lutheranism is a movement within Christianity that began with the theological insights of Martin Luther in the 16th century. Luther's writings are credited with launching the broader Protestant Reformation. This attempt to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church led to the separation between a large number of Christians and the Roman Catholic tradition.[1] Today nearly seventy million Christians belong to Lutheran churches worldwide;[2] furthermore, many of the four hundred million Protestant Christians[3] can trace their tradition, at least in part, back to Luther's reforming work.

History

Main articles: History of Lutheranism and The 95 Theses

Lutheranism as a movement traces its origin to the work of Martin Luther, a German monk, priest, and theologian who sought to reform the practices of the Catholic Church in the 16th century. The symbolic beginning of the Reformation occurred on October 31, 1517 when Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Luther's ideas are generally held to have been a major foundation of the Protestant movement.

Doctrine

Central doctrines

The material principle of Lutheranism is the Lutheran doctrine of justification: salvation by God's grace alone (Sola Gratia), through faith alone (Sola Fide) for the sake of Christ's merit alone (Solus Christus). Traditional Lutheran theology holds that God made the world, including humanity, perfect, holy, and sinless. However, humanity chose to disobey God, trusting in their own strength, knowledge, and wisdom, naratively understood through the story of Adam and Eve. Because of this Original Sin—the sin from which all other sins come—all humans are born in sin and are sinners. For Lutherans, original sin could be characterized as the "chief sin, a root and fountainhead of all actual sins" (Formula of Concord).

Lutherans teach that sinners cannot do anything (i.e. "good works") to satisfy God's justice. Every human thought and deed is colored by sin and sinful motives. God has intervened in this world because God loves humanity and does not want it to be eternally damned. By God's grace, made known and effective in the person and work of Jesus Christ, a person is forgiven, adopted as a child of God, and given eternal salvation.

For this reason, Lutherans teach that salvation is possible only because of the grace of God made manifest in the birth, life, suffering, death, and resurrection, and continuing presence by the power of the Holy Spirit, of Jesus Christ. In the person of Jesus Christ, Lutherans believe God and humanity meet.

Lutherans believe that individuals receive this gift of salvation through faith alone—a full and complete trust in God's promises to forgive and to save. Even faith itself is seen as a gift of God, created in the hearts of Christians by the work of the Holy Spirit through the means of God's grace, the Word and the Sacraments. It is important to note the words - through faith, not by faith. Faith is seen as an instrument that receives the gift of salvation, not something that causes salvation. Thus, Lutherans reject the so-called "decision theology" which is common among modern evangelicals.

Traditionally, Lutherans have rejected synergism, and the doctrine that humans have a free will concerning spiritual matters. They have also believed that there is a predestination to salvation. Properly understood, the doctrine of predestination is simply another way of expressing the doctrine of salvation by grace alone. Here Lutherans have share belief with Calvinism; unlike some in Calvinism, however, Lutherans do not believe in a predestination to damnation.

Lutherans generally speak of only two sacraments: Holy Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar, the Lord's Supper. They teach that Holy Baptism is a work of God, founded on the word and promise of Christ[4]. Thus it is administered to both infants and adults. Children born to practicing Lutheran families are usually baptized shortly after birth. Holy Absolution is also confessed to be a sacrament. [5]

Lutherans believe that the Sacrament of the Altar, the holy eucharist, is the true body and blood of Christ "in, with, and under" the bread and wine for all those who eat and drink it (1 Cor 10:16, 11:27), a doctrine that Luther named the Sacramental Union.

Lutherans believe that all who trust in Jesus alone can be certain of their salvation, for it is in Christ's work and his promises in which their certainty lies. They teach that, at death, Christians are immediately taken into the presence of God, where they await the resurrection of the body at the second coming of Christ. Lutherans do not believe in any sort of millennial kingdom of Christ either before or after his second coming on the last day.

Although Lutherans believe that good works do not satisfy God's justice, this is not to say that they hold good works to play no role in the Christian life. Good works are the fruit of saving faith, and always and in every instance spring spontaneously from true faith. Any true good works have their true origin in God, not in the fallen human heart or in human striving; their complete absence would demonstrate that faith, too, is absent.

The Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions

The formal principle of Lutheranism is the Bible. Lutherans believe the Bible is divinely inspired and is the final authority for all matters of faith and doctrine. Lutherans also hold that Holy Scripture is explained and interpreted faithfully by Scripture itself. This teaching is expanded upon in the Book of Concord, a series of Confessions of faith composed by Lutherans in the 16th Century. Traditionally, Lutheran pastors, congregations, and church bodies agree to teach in harmony with the Lutheran Confessions. Some Lutheran church bodies require this pledge to be unconditional, while others allow their congregations to do so "in so far as" the Confessions are in agreement with the Bible.

As a vital key to interpreting the Bible and fully understanding the Gospel of justification by faith in Jesus, Lutherans have articulated and practiced the proper distinction between Law and Gospel.[6] In their view, without this proper distinction, the Bible becomes a closed book and the Gospel, unclear.

Over the history of the Lutheran tradition, views on the nature of "biblical authority" have varied. Martin Luther held that the scriptures were the Word of God in as much as they preached "Christ crucified". Later, the 17th-century period of Lutheran scholasticism began to hold to a stronger view of biblical inerrancy. In the 20th- and 21st- centuries, Lutheran groups continue to vary, with more conservative groups holding to biblical inerrancy and the theology of 17th-century Lutheran scholasticism (for example, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod), and more moderate and liberal groups combining a more Reformation-period understanding with the insights of modern biblical scholarship (for example, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).

Ecumenism with other Christians

Although Martin Luther decried the disunity of the Church that resulted from his reforms, for the few hundred years following his death, Lutherans tended to avoid ecumenism with other Churches in order to protect their unique doctrines. Exceptions to this were seen, though; for instance, in the 18th- and early 19th-centuries, German Lutherans cooperated with German Reformed churches on the frontiers of the newly formed United States.

In 1817, King Frederick William III of Prussia ordered the Lutheran and Reformed churches in his territory to unite, forming the Evangelical Church of the Prussian Union. The uniting of Lutheran and Reformed Christians in Germany continued, although some Lutheran groups dissented and formed independent churches.

Presently, Lutherans are divided over how to interact with other Christian denominations. Conservative Lutherans insist that there be complete unity in teaching before there can be complete fellowship with another church body. On the other hand, most mainline, moderate-to-liberal Lutherans are willing to engage in ecumenical dialogue with other Christian bodies.

Although the Lutheran World Federation has been in ecumenical dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church since shortly after Vatican II, it wasn't until 1999 that far-reaching ecumenical relations were established between the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church when they jointly issued a statement, the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, that declared commonality of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran doctrines on Justification.[1]. While many Lutheran theologians from some Lutheran traditions saw this as a sign the Roman Catholic Church was essentially adopting the Lutheran position, other Lutheran theologians disagreed.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been actively involved in ecumenical dialogues with several denominations (the ELCA is one of the members of the LWF that signed the JDDJ). Recently, the ELCA has established "full communion" with several American Churches: the Moravian Church, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), the Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ.

Although not an "ecumenical" movement in the formal sense, in the 1990's influences from the megachurches of American evangelicalism (eg Hybels' "Becoming a Contagious Christian" from Willow Creek and Warren's "Purpose Driven Life" from Saddleback Church) have become common, particularly among more socially, politically, and theologically conservative Lutherans. These influences are criticised by both conservative-confessional Lutherans and by liberal-progressive Lutherans as being foreign to the Lutheran tradition.

Ecumenism among Lutherans

The largest organizations of Lutheran churches around the world are the Lutheran World Federation, the International Lutheran Council, and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference. These organizations together include the great majority of Lutheran denominations around the globe.

The perspective, held by Lutheran World Federation (LWF) aligned Lutherans, do not believe any one church to be singularly true in its teachings. This belief protrays Lutheranism as a reform movement rather than as a movement into doctrinal correctness. For that reason, a number of more doctrinally diverse Lutheran denominations, now largely separated from state control, are declaring fellowship and joint statements of agreement with other Lutheran or non-Lutheran Christian denominations.

However Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference and International Lutheran Council aligned Lutherans as well as members of non-body-affiliated churches such as the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC) maintain that that the orthodox confessional Lutherans are the only church with completely correct doctrine. They teach that while other Christian churches teach orthodox doctrine and have true Christians as members the doctrines of those churches contain errors. More conservative Lutherans strive to maintain historical distinctiveness while emphasizing doctrinal purity alongside Gospel motivated outreach. They state that the LWF Lutherans are practicing "false ecumenism" rather than true ecumenism by desiring church-fellowship outside of actual unity of teaching.

In the United States, the largest organization of Lutheran congregations is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), formed in 1988 by a merger of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church in America and the American Lutheran Church, groups mainly distinguished by history and historical connections to immigrant groups (German versus Scandinavian, for instance) rather than by doctrine. The ELCA has a membership of about 5 million.

The second largest group is the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), which despite its name has numerous congregations outside of Missouri. A more theologically conservative group, it has about 2.5 million members.

The third largest is the Lutheran Church-Wisconsin Synod, theologically similar to LCMS, which has about half a million members.

Other Lutheran organizations number a total of about 80,000 members in the U.S.

Religious practices

Many Lutherans place great emphasis on a liturgical approach to worship services; although there have always been substantial non-liturgical minorities (Hauge Lutherans from Norway, contemporary-worship oriented Lutherans today—see paragraph below). Music forms a large part of a traditional Lutheran service. Lutheran hymns are sometimes known as chorales, and Luther himself composed hymns and hymn tunes, perhaps the most famous of which is "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" ("Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott"). Lutheran hymnody is reputed for its doctrinal, didactic, and musical riches. Many Lutheran churches are active musically with choirs, hand-bell choirs, children's choirs, and sometimes carillon societies (to ring bells in a bell tower). Johann Sebastian Bach, a devout Lutheran, composed music for the Lutheran church.

Many Lutherans also preserve a liturgical approach to the Eucharist, considering Holy Communion (or the Lord's Supper) the central act of Christian worship. Lutherans believe that Jesus' actual body and blood are present in, with and under the bread and the wine. This belief is called Real Presence or Sacramental Union and is different than consubstantiation and transubstantiation. Additionally Lutherans reject the idea that communion is a mere symbol or memorial. They confess in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession:

"...we do not abolish the Mass but religiously keep and defend it. Among us the Mass is celebrated every Lord's Day and on other festivals, when the Sacrament is made available to those who wish to partake of it, after they have been examined and absolved. We also keep traditional liturgical forms, such as the order of readings, prayers, vestments, and other similar things." (Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXIV.1)

In the 1970s, many Lutheran churches began holding "contemporary" worship services for the purpose of evangelical outreach. These services were in a variety of styles, depending on the preferences of the congregation. Often they were held alongside a traditional service, to cater to those who were not comfortable with the more liturgical forms. As the Lutheran church enters the 21st century, some Lutheran congregations are holding "Contemporary Worship" services as their sole form of worship. Outreach is no longer given as the primary motivation, rather this form of worship is seen as more in keeping with the desires of individual congregations. Because Luther contemporized the worship service for his community, these congregations see their position as in keeping with "Confessional Lutheranism". Principle examples of this in the ELCA include Family of God, Cape Coral FL., The Well, Charlotte NC, and Church of the Apostles, Seattle WA. Those who hold to traditional, more liturgical, styles of worship often view typical contemporary styles as straying from Luther's embrace of Christ-centered worship. Where traditional hymns frequently have God as the subject in the lyrics and rich theological subject material, contemporary hymns more often have the person (I) as the subject in the lyrics with very little theological content. They also believe that the Cross, the Word, and the Sacraments no longer serve as the focus in contemporary worship services.

Catechism, especially children's, is considered fundamental in most Lutheran churches. Almost all maintain Sunday Schools, and some host or maintain private nursery-schools, primary schools, regional high schools and universities.

Life-long catechesis, since Martin Luther's day, was intended for all ages so that the abuses of the Church of that day would not reoccur. Reference: prefaces to Luther's Large and Small Catechisms. With the emphasis on proper life-long catechesis, the Lutheran Church has a heritage rich in theology and doctrine.

Pastors usually teach in the common language of the parish. In the U.S., some congregations and synods traditionally taught in German, Finnish, or Norwegian, but this custom, which attracted unfavorable attention during World War I, has been in significant decline since the early/middle 20th century.

Pastors almost always have substantial theological educations, including Greek and Hebrew so that they can refer directly to the canonical Christian scriptures in the original language. Lutheran pastors may marry and have families.

Some groups of Lutherans believe that members of the church should not be members of Freemasonry. In a 1958 Lutheran Church report it states that, "Masonry is guilty of idolatry. Its worship and prayers are idol worship. The Masons may not with their hands have made an idol out of gold, silver, wood or stone, but they created one with their own mind and reason out of purely human thoughts and ideas. The latter is an idol no less than the former."[7]

Lutheran Churches in the United States use a number of hymnals as well as electronic projection media. The most widely used are: The Lutheran Book of Worship (1978, ELCA and ELCIC), Lutheran Worship (1982, LCMS), Christian Worship ([[Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod|WELS), and The Lutheran Hymnal (1941, LCMS, WELS & CLC). In 2006, both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, the two largest Lutheran denominations, released new hymnals: Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELCA) and Lutheran Service Book (LCMS).

International bodies

The three largest international Lutheran bodies are the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), of which the ELCA and ELCIC are members; the International Lutheran Council (ILC), of which the LCMS and the LCC are members; and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC), of which the WELS and ELS are members. The Lutheran World Federation supports the activities of Lutheran World Relief, a relief and development agency active in more than 50 countries.

These three communions together consist of about 200 church bodies in about 80 nations. Other members of these church bodies can be found listed in their respective articles.

Many Lutheran churches exist throughout the world which are not affiliated with the large LWF, ILC and CELC, such as those affiliated with Augsburg Lutheran Churches or Church of the Lutheran Confession which are especially active in Africa and India; and those affiliated with the Church of the Lutheran Brethren, which are especially active elsewhere in Asia.

Throughout the world

Main article: Lutheranism by region

Lutheranism is present on all populated continents.

See also

  • ELCA Perspective: Braaten, Carl E., Principles of Lutheran Theology Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.
  • LCMS Historical Perspective: Pieper, Franz. Christian Dogmatics. 3 Volumes. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1950-1957.

Footnotes

  1. ^ MSN Encarta, s.v. "Lutheranism" by George Wolfgang Forell; Christian Cyclopedia, s.v. "Reformation, Lutheran" by Theore Hoyer.
  2. ^ Lutheran World Federation, "Slight Increase Pushes LWF Global Membership to 66.2 Million", The Lutheran World Federation, http://www.lutheranworld.org/ (accessed May 18, 2006).
  3. ^ "Major Branches of Religions Ranked by Number of Adherents," adherents.com http://www.adherents.com/adh_branches.html#Christianity (accessed May 22, 2006).
  4. ^ Martin Luther, Small Catechism 4
  5. ^ The Apology of the Augsburg Confession XIII, 3, 4 reads: "If we define the sacraments as rites, which have the command of God and to which the promise of grace has been added, it is easy to determine what the sacraments are, properly speaking. For humanly instituted rites are not sacraments, properly speaking, because human beings do not have the authority to promise grace. Therefore signs instituted without the command of God are not sure signs of grace, even though they perhaps serve to teach or admonish the common folk. Therefore, the sacraments are actually baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and absolution (the sacrament of repentance).
  6. ^ Apology of the Augsburg Confession IV, 5)
  7. ^ Report of the Lutheran Church, The Northwestern Lutheran, page 281, August 31, 1988.

Church Bodies

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