DRAFT OF A CHAPTER
Charles P. Poole, Jr.
CONTENTS
1.
Introduction
2.
The 95 Theses and the Book of
3.
The Sacraments in the Book of
4.
Agreement on Justification
5.
Lutheran World Federation
1. INTRODUCTION
If
the Fifth Lateran Council, which ended the same year that Luther proposed his
95 Theses, had taken seriously its commission to bring about reform within the
Church, then the Protestant revolt might never have occurred. One can deduce from the basic writings of the
Reformation that the reformers justifiably found certain aspects of
contemporary Catholicism to be intolerable.
The Council had done very little to address these terrible abuses and
implement reforms. As a result two
decades later the Anglican, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches were founded, had become entrenched
in
2. THE 95 THESES
In
1517 Martin Luther wrote his disputation on the Power and Efficacy of
Indulgences (95 Theses) in which he claimed that neither the Pope nor the
proclamation of an indulgence can have an effect on those who are dead, or in
any way lessen their punishment in purgatory.
In writing these theses Luther had identified one of the main practices
that was particularly offensive to many Christians of
his day. It seems incredible to me that Luther was able to write as many as 95
theses on ideas that could have been very easily presented in several short
statements. Four years later the emperor
Charles V’s Edict of Worms outlawed Luther and his proposals. Philipp Melanchthon prepared 28 articles that summarized Luther’s
ideas and presented them at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, and then published an
Apology or defense of this Augsburg Confession a year later. These documents, plus the three ecumenical
creeds (Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian), the Smalcald Articles (summary of Luther’s evangelical
confession), his Short and Long Catechisms, a Treatise on the Primacy of the
Pope, and the Formula of Concord, were gathered together in The Book of Concord
in 1580, which has the subtitle “The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church.” This became the basic doctrinal
expression of the Lutheran faith subscribed to by 83 princely and municipal
governments, as well as by 8,188 theologians.
Before
appending the first signature to the Smalcald
articles Martin Luther wrote: “These are the Articles on which I must stand,
and on which I intend to stand until my death.
I cannot change nor concede anything in them.” Melanchthon signed
last and added after his signature: “I also regard the above articles as true
and Christian. However, concerning the
pope I maintain that if he would allow the gospel, we, too, may (for the sake
of peace and unity among those Christians who are now under him and might be in
the future) grant to him his superiority over the bishops which he has ‘by
divine right’.” This is reminiscent of the traditional Orthodox Church position
acknowledging the Pope as primus inter
pares. The other five signers of
these articles subscribed without comment.
It is interesting to note that the birth name Schwartzerd
was changed to Melanchthon, which are , respectively,
German and Greek for Black Earth, and he signed the Smalcald
Articles with a later spelling Melanthon.
The
Book of Concord cites many of the Fathers of the Church and other early
Christian writers: Anthony of Egypt, Athanasius,
Augustine (67 times), Basil, Benedict of Nursia,
Bernard, Bonaventure, Cassiodorus, Cyprian, Cyril of
Alexandria, Dominic, Duns Scotus, Eusebius, Francis
of Assisi, Gerson, Gratian
(35 times), Hilary of Poitiers, Hugh of St. Victor, Irenaeus, Jerome (17 times). John Chrysostom
(19 times), John of Damascus, Laurence the deacon, Origen,
Peter Lombard (17 times), Pseudo-Dionysius, Teresa of Avila, Tertullian, Thomas Aquinas (43 times), Venerable Bede, and William of
Occam. It also
attests to the three creeds, and the first four Ecumenical Councils of Nicaea (325),
I
could not find the phrase sola scriptura anywhere in the Book of Concord. However, at the beginning of the Formula of Concord
the following statement appears: “Holy
Scripture alone remains the only judge, rule, and guiding principle, according
to which, as the only touchstone, all teachings should and must be recognized
and judged, whether they are good or evil, correct or incorrect. The other symbols, however, and other
writings listed above are not judges, as is Holy Scripture, but they are only
witnesses and explanations of the faith, which show how Holy Scripture has at
various times been understood and interpreted by the church of God by those who
lived at the time in regard to the articles of faith under dispute, and how
teachings contrary to the Scripture were rejected and condemned.” A similar statement appears several pages later
in the section “The Solid Declaration.”
3. THE SACRAMENTS IN THE
BOOK OF
The
Book of Concord provides the Evangelical Lutheran position on the Sacraments,
repeated at several places in the text, and cited here by page in the 1999 edition. The
sacraments are baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and absolution, or the sacrament of
repentance (p. 219).
Baptism
is considered necessary for salvation, the grace of God is offered through
Baptism, and children should be baptized (p. 43, 183,
320, 375, 456). The person’s body is
immersed or has water poured over it while saying “I baptize you in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
In
the Lord’s Supper the true Body and Blood of Christ are truly and substantially
present under the form of bread and wine, and are distributed and received by
the people (pp. 44, 184, 320, 362, 467).
The “subtle sophistry” of transubstantiation is rejected (p. 321).
Confession
should be made annually (p. 185), and private
absolution is to be retained (p. 44). Page 185 of the Apology of
the Augsburg Confession states that one should recollect and enumerate all sins
that can be recalled to memory, while on p. 45 the
Augsburg Confession asserts that the enumeration of all faults is not
necessary. The Smalcald Articles insist that “Confession, or absolution,
should by no means be allowed to fall into disuse” (p.
321).
Marriage
is not considered to be a sacrament because it was not first instituted in the
New Testament, but rather at the creation of the human race (221).
On
page 220 the Apology of the Augsburg Confession states that confirmation and
extreme unction are rites inherited from the Fathers, which even the Church
does not require as necessary for salvation, since they lack the command of
God. Thomas Aquinas is quoted as saying
“Confirmation is necessary for salvation, although one can be saved without it
as long as it is not held in contempt.”
From a Catholic perspective historically the rite of confirmation is
quite ancient in the Church, having been treated at the Councils of Elvira (c.
300),
The
commission to practice Extreme Unction comes from the Epistle of James [
On
this same page of the Apology we read “Priests are not called to offer
sacrifice for the people as in the Old Testament law so that through them they
might merit the forgiveness of sins for the people; instead they are called to
preach the gospel and administer the sacraments to the people. We do not have another
priesthood like the Levitical priesthood - as
the epistle to the Hebrews [chaps. 7-9] sufficiently teaches. But if ordination is understood with
reference to the ministry of the Word, we have no objection to calling
ordination a sacrament.” Later we read
on this same page, ”If ordination is understood in
this way, we have no objection to calling the laying on of the hands a
sacrament. For the
Church has the mandate to appoint ministers, which ought to please us because
we know that God approves this ministry, and is present in it.” It is appropriate to point out, by way of
balance, that in the last chapter 13 of Hebrews we read “Through him (Jesus)
let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips
that confess his name. Do not neglect to
do good, and to share what you have; God is pleased by
sacrifices of this kind.” From a Catholic
perspective we can interpret this as referring to the sacrifice of praise that
is called the Mass, and further infer that ministers are called to preach the
gospel, administer the sacraments, and offer the sacrifice of the
4. AGREEMENT ON JUSTIFICATION
.
In
the year 1517 Martin Luther began his public discussion of Justification, Good
Works, and Grace at the
After
Pope John Paul II’s trip to
The Official
Common Statement says that “A consensus to basic truths of the doctrine of
justification exists between Lutherans and Catholics” so “the earlier mutual
condemnations do not apply” to the teaching in the JD. The Joint Declaration (#15) affirms: “Together
we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of
any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who
renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.” There follows seven agreed upon particular
joint statements introduced by the phrase “We confess together that . . ..” Each of
these is followed by a declaration in Lutheran terminology and another in
Catholic terminology which are affirmed to agree with the prior particular
joint statement.
5. LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION
The
Catholics reformed the Lectionary by adopting three Sunday and two weekday
cycles, and the Anglican and Lutheran Communions responded by utilizing much of
this new lectionary reform. More
recently (1999) the Lutherans and Catholics signed the Joint Declaration of
Justification mentioned above. Thus we
are now much closer to each other in belief and in practice. Perhaps we may eventually approach the point
where the Pope might be accepted by Protestants as primus inter pares at meetings, or as Melanchthon
said “if he would allow the gospel, we, too, may (for the sake of peace and
unity among those Christians who are now under him and might be in the future)
grant to him his superiority over the bishops which he has iure humano” (Book of Concord, p.
326).
The
are two main Lutheran church groups in the United States, the 3.7 million
member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that we mentioned in the last
section, and the more conservative 1.9 million member Lutheran Church -
Missouri Synod. The former belongs to
the 69.8 million member Lutheran World
Federation.