The term Evangelical Catholic (from catholic meaning universal and evangelical meaning Gospel-centered) is used in Lutheranism, alongside the terms Augsburg Catholic or Augustana Catholic, with those calling themselves Evangelical Catholic Lutherans or Lutherans of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship stressing the catholicity of historic Lutheranism in liturgy (such as the Mass), beliefs (such as the perpetual virginity of Mary), practices (such as genuflection), and doctrines (such as apostolic succession).[1][2] Evangelical Catholics teach that Lutheranism at its core "is deeply and fundamentally catholic".[3] The majority of Evangelical Catholic Lutheran clergy and parishes are members of mainstream Lutheran denominations.[1]
The Augsburg Confession found within the Book of Concord, a compendium of belief of the Lutheran churches, teaches that "the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church".[4] When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1530, they believed it "showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils".[4]
The Augsburg Confession further states that:
...one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.[5]
In Lutheranism, the term Evangelical Catholic or Augsburg Catholic has a specific meaning. Lutheran Protestantism differs historically from most other kinds of Protestantism in that Lutheranism is the only historical Protestant denomination that confesses belief in three sacraments: regeneration in Holy Baptism, Confession as the sacrament of Absolution, and the Real Presence of Christ in Holy Eucharist.[6][7] In Anglicanism and Methodism, two other Protestant traditions, there has also been a sacramentalism similar to that in orthodox Lutheranism, especially in the high church movement. The Book of Concord states, contrary to "Enthusiast" belief, that salvation can be received only through the means of grace: God's Word and sacraments.[8] The Augsburg Confession stresses that "in doctrine and ceremonies nothing has been received on our part against Scripture or the Catholic Church."[8] Article XXIV of the Augsburg Confession "Of the Mass" states: "Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence." Some Lutheran church bodies claim to also have retained the historical episcopate and apostolic succession. The evangelical feature of Lutheranism is justification by faith, as defined by Law and Gospel and simul iustus et peccator. The term evangelical has a different origin and meaning in Lutheranism than in "Evangelicalism". (In German, there is a difference between evangelisch and evangelikal; in Swedish, there is a corresponding difference between evangelisk and evangelikal). In the Lutheran tradition, evangelical (evangelisch) refers to the gospel, with the specific meaning of "grace centered". The opposite of evangelical is not "catholic" or "liberal", but legalistic.[9]
Woodcut of the Augsburg Confession, Article VII, "Of the Church". Lutherans of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship regard the Augsburg Confession as a thoroughly Catholic document.
Gnesio-Lutherans and the continuity of Apostolic Christianity
The Lutheran Church traditionally sees itself as the "main trunk of the historical Christian Tree" founded by Christ and the Apostles, holding that during the Reformation, the Church of Rome fell away.[10][11]
In early Lutheranism, the Gnesio-Lutherans compiled the first modern critical history of the world, the Magdeburg Centuries, to show that the Lutheran Church was a continuation of the Christian church throughout its history, though stripped of abuses originating from the pope. Gnesio-Lutherans such as Joachim Westphal and Andreas Musculus had a "high" understanding of the sacraments, and therefore were strongly opposed to any compromise with Calvinism and Zwingliism, as well as with Roman Catholic doctrine. In the era of Lutheran orthodoxy, theologians Martin Chemnitz and Johann Gerhard (especially in his Confessio Catholica) made extensive use of patristic sources. They saw the continuity of the pre-Reformation church in Lutheranism, which they understood not as a re-formation of the church, but rather a renewal movement within and for the Christian church, from which the Roman church did truly represent.
With regard to the nature of the church, Lutheran theology therefore holds that:[11]
There can only be one true visible Church. Of this our Catechism speaks in Question 192: "Whom do we call the true visible Church?" Answer: "The whole number of those who have, teach and confess the entire doctrine of the Word of God in all its purity, and among whom the Sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's institution." That there can be but one true visible Church, and that, therefore, one is not just as good as another stands to reason because there is only one truth, one Bible, one Word of God. Evidently that Church which teaches this truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is the true visible Church. Christ says John 8, 31. 32: "If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Again Christ says Matt. 28, 20: "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Whatsoever He has commanded us, His Word, and nothing else, we should teach. And again, all things which He has commanded us we should teach. That, therefore is the true visible Church which does this. But that all visible Churches do not this is plain from the fact that they do not agree among themselves. If every Church would teach the whole truth and nothing but the truth as God has revealed it, there could be no difference. So, then, by calling other denominations Churches, we do not mean to say that one Church is just as good as another. Only that one is the true visible Church which teaches and confesses the entire doctrine of the Word of God in all its purity, and in whose midst the Sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's institution. Of all Churches, this can only be said of our Lutheran Church.[11]
Lutherans had different views regarding religious imagery than Reformed Christians.[13][14]Martin Luther in Germany allowed and encouraged the display of religious imagery in churches, seeing the Evangelical Lutheran Church as a continuation of the "ancient, apostolic church".[14] Lutheran altarpieces like the Last Supper by the younger Cranach were produced in Germany, especially by Luther's friend Lucas Cranach, to replace Catholic ones, often containing portraits of leading reformers as the apostles or other protagonists, but retaining the traditional depiction of Jesus. As such, "Lutheran worship became a complex ritual choreography set in a richly furnished church interior."[15] Lutherans proudly employed the use of the crucifix as it highlighted their high view of the theology of the Cross.[14][16] Stories grew up of "indestructible" images of Luther that had survived fires by divine intervention.[17] Thus, for Lutherans, "the Reformation renewed rather than removed the religious image."[18] As such, "Lutheran places of worship contain images and sculptures not only of Christ but also of biblical and occasionally of other saints as well as prominent decorated pulpits due to the importance of preaching, stained glass, ornate furniture, magnificent examples of traditional and modern architecture, carved or otherwise embellished altar pieces, and liberal use of candles on the altar and elsewhere."[19]
Lutherans strongly defended their existing sacred art from a new wave of Reformed-on-Lutheran iconoclasm in the second half of the century, as Reformed rulers or city authorities attempted to impose their will on Lutheran populations in the "Second Reformation" of about 1560-1619.[14][20] Against the Reformed, Lutherans exclaimed: "You black Calvinist, you give permission to smash our pictures and hack our crosses; we are going to smash you and your Calvinist priests in return".[14] The Beeldenstorm, a large and very disorderly wave of Calvinist mob destruction of images and church fittings that spread through the Low Countries in the summer of 1566 was the largest outbreak of this sort, with drastic political repercussions.[21] This campaign of Reformed iconoclasm "provoked reactive riots by Lutheran mobs" in Germany and "antagonized the neighbouring Eastern Orthodox" in the Baltic region.[22]
Lutheran Mariology is informed by the Augsburg Confession and honours Mary as "the most blessed Mother of God, the most blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ," and "the Queen of Heaven."[23][24] The Smalcald Articles, a confession of faith of the Lutheran churches, affirm the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary.[25] Lutherans of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship tend to stress a continuity with these pre-Reformational beliefs that have been upheld by many Lutherans theologians since Martin Luther himself.[26][27] As a sign of reverence for and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Martin Luther advocated the use of the original version of the Hail Mary prayer before it was modified at the Roman Catholic Church's Council of Trent (that is, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.")[28] The 1522 Betbüchlein (Prayer Book) retained the Ave Maria.[29]
The Wreath of Christ, also known as the Pearls of Life, is a set of prayer beads developed by the Swedish Evangelic-Lutheran bishop Martin Lönnebo.[30] They are a devotion used by communicants in the Lutheran churches.[31]
Many Lutheran women of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship wear a veil during prayer and worship.[32] The General Rubrics of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, as contained in "The Lutheran Liturgy", state in a section titled Headgear for Women: "It is laudable custom, based upon a Scriptural injunction (1 Cor. 11:3-15), for women to wear an appropriate head covering in Church, especially at the time of divine service."[33]
Episcopal polity and apostolic succession
Nathan Söderblom is ordained as archbishop of the Church of Sweden, 1914.
Traditions, such as episcopal polity and apostolic succession are also maintained and seen as essential by Lutherans of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship; the Church of Sweden for example teaches that "Since this ordinance was very useful and without doubt proceeded from the Holy Ghost, it was generally approved and accepted over the whole of Christendom. . . . It belongs to the office of the Bishop that he in his diocese shall ordain and govern with Priests, and do whatsoever else is required."[34] The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Church of Sweden continue the apostolic succession of bishops who ordain priests through the laying on of hands.[35][36]
What made the Church of Sweden an evangelical-catholic church was to Archbishop Söderblom the fact that the Reformation in Sweden was a 'church improvement' and a 'process of purification' which did not create a new church. As a national church, the Church of Sweden succeeded in bringing together medieval Swedish tradition with the rediscovery of the gospel which the Reformation brought with it. Archbishop Söderblom included the historic episcopate in the tradition-transmitting elements. The Church of Sweden was, according to Söderblom, in an even higher degree than the Anglican Church a via media. —Together in Mission and Ministry: The Porvoo Common Statement[37]
Such a view sees the congregational form of church governance as non-Lutheran and not reflective of Lutheranism's identity as a catholic Church; the Evangelical Catholic Church, a Lutheran denomination based in North America, taught:[34]
A so-called democratic form of Church polity, or congregational rule/autonomy, where the children rule the father, is unscriptural, non-Catholic, non-Lutheran, and a subversion of God's natural, revealed Order. The form of Church government practiced by the LC-MS and ELCA (and almost all other expressions of American Lutheranism) was condemned by Fr. Luther when Philip of Hesse (perhaps the most prominent Prince within the Reformation Movement next to the Elector of Saxony), prevailed upon the synod at Hamburg in 1526 to adopt a form of congregational government ordered by a constitution accepted by all. In January 1527 Dr. Luther convinced Philip to repudiate this plan for congregational government. Such polity (i.e., congregationalism) undermines The Gospel and usually leads to the distorted view that, because The Faithful are a royal priesthood (I Pet. 2:9), all Christians (the priesthood of all believers) possess the public office of the ministry. Such a teaching (i.e., the mandate or justification of a congregational form of Church polity) is not found in Holy Scriptures; such a practice does not conform to the teachings of Dr. Luther. That is why, without a doubt, the Lutheran Confessions nowhere mention such a "doctrine". The congregational (or priesthood of all believers) form of Church polity has no foundation in the Scriptures, the canons of the undivided Church, the Lutheran Confessions, or the writings of Dr. Martin Luther. For this reason the canons of The Evangelical Catholic Church state that the parish Pastor is the spiritual father of his parish (XIII,1).[34]
These views have proved to be influential in all of Lutheranism, especially when ecumenical agreements between churches are made; in the largest Lutheran denomination in United States, for example, "all episcopal installations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America take place with the participation of bishops in the apostolic succession."[38]
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada defines its doctrinal basis as such: "We derive our teachings from the Holy Scriptures and confess the three ecumenical creeds of the Christian church. We hold to orthodox catholic theology as enunciated in the ecumenical councils of the first five centuries of Christianity."[43] Some small "Evangelical Catholic" church bodies include the Evangelical Catholic Church, Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, Lutheran Church - International, and the Lutheran Episcopal Communion. The Nordic Catholic Church in Norway has roots in High Church Lutheranism. However, most Evangelical Catholic Lutheran clergy and Evangelical Lutheran parishes are part of mainstream Lutheran denominations such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Sweden.[1] Many Lutherans hold beliefs that would be characterized as being of the Evangelical Catholic churchmanship of Lutheranism, but prefer to be called simply as "Lutherans" as they view the catholic nature of Lutheranism to be inherent in Lutheranism and prefer to stress the unity within Lutheranism as a whole.[3][1]
Consecration and elevation of the host at a mass with an Evangelical Catholic/high church profile in the Church of Sweden.
In 1976, Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, suggested that the Augsburg Confession might be possible to recognise as a Catholic statement of faith. This did not happen due to differences in understanding of the theology on justification.[9][44] Various Roman Catholic leaders and theologians, such as Cardinal Kurt Koch have proposed the idea of Lutheran Ordinariates within the Catholic Church, which would allow Lutherans to join the Catholic Church and retain aspects of their liturgy and traditions.[45][46] Lutherans of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship, however, have opposed conversion to Roman Catholicism, arguing that the "riches of the catholic tradition are already ours, and at our best we embrace that heritage".[3]
As used by the Roman Catholic Church, the term evangelical Catholic refers to Roman Catholics in full communion with the Holy See in Rome and who hold the four characteristics of evangelicalism. The first is a strong theological and devotional emphasis on the Christian scriptures, often holding to a prima scriptura position regarding the Deposit of Faith. Secondly, evangelical Catholics stress justification by faith alone. A personal need for interior conversion is the third defining mark, and, consequently, the fourth is a deep commitment to evangelization.
Evangelical Catholics see these evangelical emphases as the core of the 2,000-year tradition of Catholic Christianity. Evangelical preaching movements such as St. Dominic's, who was called the Vir Evangelicus (evangelical man), are a common point of reference. To Catholics, the term 'evangelical' refers to its etymological root—the Greek word euangelion—which means 'good news' or 'Gospel', not to ProtestantEvangelicalism. To Catholics, being evangelical is understood in the context of the adherence to the dogma and Sacred Tradition of the Catholic Church and in a Catholic interpretation of Scripture, and not in the doctrinal and ecclesiological upheavals of the Protestant Reformation.
Increasingly, the Roman Catholic Church is appropriating the evangelical witness of the recent popes and their encyclicals, especially Pope Paul VI's Evangelii nuntiandi (On Evangelization in the Modern World), John Paul II's Redemptoris missio (The Mission of the Redeemer), and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's Declaration Dominus Iesus (The Lord Jesus), for which Pope Benedict XVI was primarily responsible, when he was previously Prefect of the Congregation. New bibles[citation needed], catechetical materials, youth ministry programs, and young adult ministries witness to greater evangelical zeal within the Church. College campus ministry and parish ministry are focusing more of their resources on outreach (pre-evangelization and evangelization).[47] A Catholic organization called the Evangelical Catholic exists for the purpose of equipping Catholic ministries to be evangelical.[48] In Greenville, South Carolina, a Catholic organization called the Center for Evangelical Catholicism exists for the purpose of spreading the "New Evangelization" program of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization in Roman Catholic parishes and schools across the United States.
Since the call to evangelization is so integral to the Catholic faith and solidly attested to in the ecumenical councils, the writings of the Church Fathers, and papal teaching, the late well-known Father Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009), (a former longtime Evangelical Lutheran pastor) looked to the day when the term 'evangelical Catholic' would be redundant - when identifying as 'Catholic' would imply active evangelization so strongly that the addition of 'evangelical' would be unnecessary.[49] As a group, they are often not disaggregated in social science research, though there have been recent calls to change this.[50]
Old Catholicism, Methodism, and Reformed Christianity
In recent years, the term Evangelical Catholic, has been adopted by high church elements of the Methodist and Reformed churches. This is especially apt among the Reformed, given that one of the older documented uses of the term is by John Williamson Nevin and Philip Schaff, during their efforts (from roughly 1841 forward) to repristinate the theology of the German Reformed Church in the United States. In 1849 the Mercersburg Review was founded as the organ of their "Mercersburg Theology".
Already earlier, there was an evangelical revival in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, involving Boos, Gossner and Feneberg. This evangelical revivalist movement also spread to German Lutheranism.
In England, Ulric Vernon Herford (1866–1938), irregularly consecrated as Mar Jacobus, Bishop of Mercia & Middlesex, founded The Evangelical Catholic Communion. His succession line was brought to the United States in the 1960s and continues in the Syro-Chaldean Church of North America.[52]
Some members of various Christian denominations may use the term Evangelical Catholic to indicate the fact that they are evangelical and maintain their catholicity. For example, Methodists and Presbyterians believe their denominations owe their origins to the Apostles and the early church, but do not claim descent from ancient church structures such as the episcopate. However, both of these churches hold that they are a part of the catholic (universal) church. According to Harper's New Monthly Magazine:
The various Protestant sects can not constitute one church because they have no intercommunion...each Protestant Church, whether Methodist or Baptist or whatever, is in perfect communion with itself everywhere as the Roman Catholic; and in this respect, consequently, the Roman Catholic has no advantage or superiority, except in the point of numbers. As a further necessary consequence, it is plain that the Roman Church is no more Catholic in any sense than a Methodist or a Baptist.[53]
As such, according to one viewpoint, for those who "belong to the Church," the term Methodist Catholic, or Presbyterian Catholic, or Baptist Catholic, is as proper as the term Roman Catholic.[53] It simply means that body of Christian believers over the world who agree in their religious views, and accept the same ecclesiastical forms.[53]
New church bodies
At the end of the 20th century, the Convergence Movement formed new church bodies, including the Charismatic Episcopal Church, the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, and the King's Family of Churches. It governs by an Episcopal polity, embraces the Charismatic renewal, uses different liturgical versions in worship, both Anglican and Lutheran, and supports church missions and church planting.[54]
Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is considered by some Christian denominations to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bishops. Those of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Scandinavian Lutheran, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Hussite, Moravian and Old Catholic traditions maintain that "a bishop cannot have regular or valid orders unless he has been consecrated in this apostolic succession". These traditions do not always consider the episcopal consecrations of all of the other traditions as valid.
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasize the Catholic heritage and identity of the Church of England and various churches within the Anglican Communion. Anglo-Catholics are primarily concerned with restoring the liturgical and devotional expression of the Christian faith in the life of the Anglican Church.
Ecumenism – also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalism – is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjective ecumenical is thus applied to any non-denominational or inter-denominational initiative which encourages greater cooperation and union among Christian denominations and churches. Ecumenical dialogue is a central feature of contemporary ecumenism.
In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus Christ. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a synonym for Christianity, despite the fact that it is composed of multiple churches or denominations, many of which hold a doctrinal claim of being the "one true church" to the exclusion of the others.
Crypto-Calvinism is a pejorative term describing a segment of those members of the Lutheran Church in Germany who were accused of secretly subscribing to Calvinist doctrine of the Eucharist in the decades immediately after the death of Martin Luther in 1546. It denotes what was seen as a hidden Calvinist belief, i.e., the doctrines of John Calvin, by members of the Lutheran Church. The term crypto-Calvinist in Lutheranism was preceded by terms Zwinglian and Sacramentarian. Also, Jansenism has been accused of crypto-Calvinism by Roman Catholics.
In Christian theology, ecclesiology is the study of the Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its polity, its discipline, its eschatology, and its leadership.
Via media is a Latin phrase meaning "the middle road" or the "way between two extremes".
The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue is a series of discussions that began during July 1964 as an outgrowth of the Second Vatican Council. These gatherings reflect the new openness of the Catholic Church to dialogue with other Christian denominations as well as other religions. These dialogues have been primarily between representatives of the Lutheran World Federation and representatives of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
High church Lutheranism is a movement that began in 20th-century Europe and emphasizes worship practices and doctrines that are similar to those found within Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglo-Catholicism. In the more general usage of the term, it describes the general high church characteristics of Lutheranism in Nordic and Baltic countries such as Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia. The mentioned countries, once a part of the Swedish Empire, have more markedly preserved Catholic traditions.
Catholicity is a concept pertaining to beliefs and practices that are widely accepted by numerous Christian denominations, most notably by those Christian denominations that describe themselves as catholic in accordance with the Four Marks of the Church, as expressed in the Nicene Creed formulated at the First Council of Constantinople in 381: "[I believe] in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church." The English adjective catholic is derived from the Ancient Greek adjective καθολικός, meaning "general", "universal". Thus, "catholic" means that in the Church the wholeness of the Christian faith, full and complete, all-embracing, and with nothing lacking, is proclaimed to all people without excluding any part of the faith or any class or group of people. An early definition for what is "catholic" was summarized in what is known as the Vincentian Canon in the 5th century Commonitory: "what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all."
Anglican doctrine is the body of Christian teachings used to guide the religious and moral practices of Anglicanism.
Anglican interest in ecumenical dialogue can be traced back to the time of the Reformation and dialogues with both Orthodox and Lutheran churches in the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, with the rise of the Oxford Movement, there arose greater concern for reunion of the churches of "Catholic confession". This desire to work towards full communion with other denominations led to the development of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, approved by the Third Lambeth Conference of 1888. The four points were stipulated as the basis for church unity, "a basis on which approach may be by God's blessing made towards Home Reunion":
The Four Marks of the Church, also known as the Attributes of the Church, describes four distinctive adjectives of traditional Christian ecclesiology as expressed in the Nicene Creed completed at the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381: "[We believe] in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that identifies primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 1517. Lutheranism subsequently became the state religion of many parts of Northern Europe, starting with Prussia in 1525.
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes justification of sinners by grace through faith alone, the priesthood of all believers, and the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. The five solae summarize the basic theological beliefs of mainstream Protestantism.
A sacrament is a Christian rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the reality of God, as well as a channel for God's grace. Many denominations, including the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist, and Reformed, hold to the definition of sacrament formulated by Augustine of Hippo: an outward sign of an inward grace, that has been instituted by Jesus Christ. Sacraments signify God's grace in a way that is outwardly observable to the participant.
Criticism of Protestantism covers critiques and questions raised about Protestantism, the Christian denominations which arose out of the Protestant Reformation. While critics may praise some aspects of Protestantism which are not unique to the various forms of Protestantism, Protestantism is faced with criticism mainly from the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, although Protestant denominations have also engaged in self-critique and criticized one another. According to both the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy, many major, foundational Protestant doctrines have been officially declared heretical.
Protestant theology refers to the doctrines held by various Protestant traditions, which share some things in common but differ in others. In general, Protestant theology, as a subset of Christian theology, holds to faith in the Christian Bible, the Holy Trinity, salvation, sanctification, charity, evangelism, and the four last things.
The Communion of Nordic Lutheran Dioceses are Lutheran dioceses that entered into schism with their nordic national churches in 2003 due to what they perceived as "the secularization of the national/state churches in their respective countries involving matters of both Christian doctrine and ethics". These dioceses are members of the International Lutheran Council, a body of Confessional Lutherans, they are in full communion with one another and include the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, Mission Province of the Church of Sweden, and the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of Norway. These dioceses entered into schism with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Church of Sweden, and Church of Norway, respectively, though the Mission Province considers itself to be a non-territorial diocese within the Church of Sweden. Their lines of apostolic succession derive from other traditional Lutheran Churches, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya; Walter Obare Omwanza, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya, assisted by bishops Leonid Zviki from Belarus, David Tswaedi from South Africa, Børre Knudsen and Ulf Asp from Norway, consecrated Arne Olsson in apostolic succession as the Ordinary for the Mission Province. The first bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, Risto Soramies, was then ordained by Matti Väisänen of the Mission Province of the Church of Sweden. These dioceses have an Evangelical Catholic churchmanship, reflective of the influence of High Church Lutheranism and Pietist Lutheranism in Scandinavia. As such, the Communion of Nordic Lutheran Dioceses affirms:
We believe, teach and confess that biblical faith and doctrine which is founded on the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the New and the Old Testament and which has been expressed in the three main creeds of the Early Church, that is, the Apostolic, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan and the Athanasian Creed, and in the unaltered Augsburg Confession, and that is rightly and bindingly explained by all the books accepted into the Book of Concord of the Lutheran Church.
References
1 2 3 4 Cimino, Richard (2003). Lutherans Today: American Lutheran Identity in the Twenty-First Century. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p.95. ISBN978-0-8028-1365-7.
↑ Armstrong, John H.; Eagle, Paul E. (26 May 2009). Understanding Four Views on the Lord's Supper. Zondervan. ISBN978-0310542759. Lutherans worship Christ wherever he is, including the sacraments, and thus Luther genuflected before the baptismal font and the sacrament.
1 2 Ludwig, Alan (12 September 2016). "Luther's Catholic Reformation". The Lutheran Witness. When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession before Emperor Charles V in 1530, they carefully showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils and even the canon law of the Church of Rome. They boldly claim, "This is about the Sum of our Doctrine, in which, as can be seen, there is nothing that varies from the Scriptures, or from the Church Catholic, or from the Church of Rome as known from its writers" (AC XXI Conclusion 1). The underlying thesis of the Augsburg Confession is that the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church. In fact, it is actually the Church of Rome that has departed from the ancient faith and practice of the catholic church (see AC XXIII 13, XXVIII 72 and other places).{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
↑ Haffner, Paul (1999). The Sacramental Mystery. Gracewing Publishing. p.11. ISBN9780852444764. The Augsburg Confession drawn up by Melanchton, one of Luther's disciples admitted only three sacraments, Baptist, the Lord's Supper and Penance. Melanchton left the way open for the other five sacred signs to be considered as "secondary sacraments". However, Zwingli, Calvin and most of the later Reformed tradition accepted only Baptism and the Lord's Supper as sacraments, but in a highly symbolic sense.
↑ Smith, Preserved (1911). The Life and Letters of Martin Luther. Houghton Mifflin. p.89. In the first place I deny that the sacraments are seven in number, and assert that there are only three, baptism, penance, and the Lord's Supper, and that all these three have been bound by the Roman Curia in a miserable captivity and that the Church has been deprived of all her freedom.
↑ "Kloster Ebstorf". Medieval Histories. 8 August 2014. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 20 November 2017. The monastery is mentioned for the first time in 1197. It belongs to the group of so-called Lüneklöstern (monasteries of Lüne), which became Lutheran convents following the Protestant Reformation. […] It is currently one of several Lutheran convents maintained by the Monastic Chamber of Hanover (Klosterkammer Hannover), an institution of the former Kingdom of Hanover founded by its Prince-Regent, later King George IV of the United Kingdom, in 1818, in order to manage and preserve the estates of Lutheran convents.
↑ Nuechterlein, Jeanne Elizabeth (2000). Holbein and the Reformation of Art. University of California, Berkeley.
1 2 3 4 5 Lamport, Mark A. (31 August 2017). Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p.138. ISBN9781442271593. Lutherans continued to worship in pre-Reformation churches, generally with few alterations to the interior. It has even been suggested that in Germany to this day one finds more ancient Marian altarpieces in Lutheran than in Catholic churches. Thus in Germany and in Scandinavia many pieces of medieval art and architecture survived. Joseph Leo Koerner has noted that Lutherans, seeing themselves in the tradition of the ancient, apostolic church, sought to defend as well as reform the use of images. "An empty, white-washed church proclaimed a wholly spiritualized cult, at odds with Luther's doctrine of Christ's real presence in the sacraments" (Koerner 2004, 58). In fact, in the 16th century some of the strongest opposition to destruction of images came not from Catholics but from Lutherans against Calvinists: "You black Calvinist, you give permission to smash our pictures and hack our crosses; we are going to smash you and your Calvinist priests in return" (Koerner 2004, 58). Works of art continued to be displayed in Lutheran churches, often including an imposing large crucifix in the sanctuary, a clear reference to Luther's theologia crucis. ... In contrast, Reformed (Calvinist) churches are strikingly different. Usually unadorned and somewhat lacking in aesthetic appeal, pictures, sculptures, and ornate altar-pieces are largely absent; there are few or no candles; and crucifixes or crosses are also mostly absent.
↑ Spicer, Andrew (5 December 2016). Lutheran Churches in Early Modern Europe. Taylor & Francis. p.237. ISBN9781351921169. As it developed in north-eastern Germany, Lutheran worship became a complex ritual choreography set in a richly furnished church interior. This much is evident from the background of an epitaph pained in 1615 by Martin Schulz, destined for the Nikolaikirche in Berlin (see Figure 5.5.).
↑ Marquardt, Janet T.; Jordan, Alyce A. (14 January 2009). Medieval Art and Architecture after the Middle Ages. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p.71. ISBN9781443803984. In fact, Lutherans often justified their continued use of medieval crucifixes with the same arguments employed since the Middle Ages, as is evident from the example of the altar of the Holy Cross in the Cistercian church of Doberan.
↑ Dixon, C. Scott (9 March 2012). Contesting the Reformation. John Wiley & Sons. p.146. ISBN9781118272305. According to Koerner, who dwells on Lutheran art, the Reformation renewed rather than removed the religious image.
↑ Lamport, Mark A. (31 August 2017). Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p.138. ISBN9781442271593.
↑ Kleiner, Fred S. (1 January 2010). Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Concise History of Western Art. Cengage Learning. p.254. ISBN9781424069224. In an episode known as the Great Iconoclasm, bands of Calvinists visited Catholic churches in the Netherlands in 1566, shattering stained-glass windows, smashing statues, and destroying paintings and other artworks they perceived as idolatrous.
↑ Marshall, Peter (22 October 2009). The Reformation. Oxford University Press. p.114. ISBN9780191578885. Retrieved 30 April 2018. Iconoclastic incidents during the Calvinist 'Second Reformation' in Germany provoked reactive riots by Lutheran mobs, while Protestant image-breaking in the Baltic region deeply antagonized the neighbouring Eastern Orthodox, a group with whom reformers might have hoped to make common cause.
↑ McNabb, Kimberlynn; Fennell, Robert C. (2019). Living Traditions: Half a Millennium of Re-Forming Christianity. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN978-1-5326-5979-9. Luther's focused position on Mary has more in common with the Orthodox Christian view of the Theotokos, Mary as the Mother of God, rather than with the Roman Catholic view of her as intercessor. ... As a result, the early Lutheran Reformation had both a "biblically based Theotokos-dogma using the Mariology of the ancient church, and it had a Marian piety and devotion based on this dogma, taking its bearings from the soteriologically interpreted notion of God's condescension." ... Lutherans thus confessed in the Formula of Concord in the Solid Declaration, Article VIII.24: On account of this person union and communion of the natures, Mary, the most blessed virgin, did not conceive a mere, ordinary human being, but a human being who is truly the Son of the most high God, as the angel testifies. He demonstrated his divine majesty even in his mother's womb in that he was born of a virgin without violating her virginity. Therefore she is truly the mother of God and yet remained a virgin.
↑ Hillerbrand, Hans J. (2004). Encyclopedia of Protestantism: 4-volume Set. Routledge. ISBN978-1-135-96028-5. This view of the proper place of Mary and the saints in the lives of the faithful is codified for Lutherans in the BOOK OF CONCORD (1580); these confessions also include the reaffirmation of Mary's perpetual virginity (in Luther's SCHMALKALDIC ARTICLES of 1537) and her title of Theotokos, and praise her as "the most blessed virgin" (Formula of Concord, 1577).
↑ Kilcrease, Jack D. (2013). The Self-Donation of God: A Contemporary Lutheran approach to Christ and His Benefits. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN978-1-62032-605-3. As it is well known, the perpetual virginity of Mary was taught widely in the early Church, some claim as early as St. Ireneaus in the late second century. Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and the later Lutheran scholastics also supported the doctrine.
↑ The American Lutheran, Volume 49. American Lutheran Publicity Bureau. 1966. p.16. While the perpetual virginity of Mary is held as a pious opinion by many Lutheran confessors, it is not regarded as a binding teaching of the Scriptures.
↑ Johann G. Roten, S.M. "Lutheran rosary". University of Dayton. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
↑ Koopman, John Henry (August 3, 2022). A Defense of Headcoverings in the Lutheran Church. Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy. p.9-10.
↑ The Lutheran Liturgy: Authorized by the Synods Constituting The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 1941. p.427.
↑ Gassmann, Günther; Larson, Duane Howard; Oldenburg, Mark W. (2001). Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism. Scarecrow Press. ISBN0810839458. Retrieved 11 November 2012. In addition to the primary understanding of succession, the Lutheran confessions do express openness, however, to the continuation of the succession of bishops. This is a narrower understanding of apostolic succession, to be affirmed under the condition that the bishops support the Gospel and are ready to ordain evangelical preachers. This form of succession, for example, was continued by the Church of Sweden (which included Finland) at the time of the Reformation.
↑ Alan Richardson; John Bowden John (1 January 1983). The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN0664227481. Retrieved 11 November 2012. The churches of Sweden and Finland retained bishops and the conviction of being continuity with the apostolic succession, while in Denmark the title bishop was retained without the doctrine of apostolic succession.
↑ Jeffrey Gros; Daniel S. Mulhall (2006). The Ecumenical Christian Dialogues and The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Paulist Press. p.143. ISBN9781616438098.
↑ Stahl, Friedrich Julius (September 1857). Evangelische Katholizität -Die Verhandlungen des neunten evangelischen Kirchentages zu Stuttgart (in German). Berlin. pp.45–63.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ "Archived copy". The Syro-Chaldean Church of North America. Archived from the original on 2015-04-18. Retrieved 2015-04-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
1 2 3 "Editor's easy chair". Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 37 (219). Harper's Magazine Co.: 422 August 1868. Retrieved 2007-03-25. The various Protestant sects can not constitute one church because they have no intercommunion...each Protestant Church, whether Methodist or Baptist or whatever, is in perfect communion with itself everywhere as the Roman Catholic; and in this respect, consequently, the Roman Catholic has no advantage or superiority, except in the point of numbers. As a further necessary consequence, it is plain that the Roman Church is no more Catholic in any sense than a Methodist or a Baptist.
Aulén, Gustaf: The Catholicity of Lutheranism. A Contribution to the Ecumenical Discussion (World Lutheranism Today. A Tribute to Anders Nygren 15 November 1950. Lund 1950)
Braaten, Carl E. and Robert W. Jenson, editors: The Catholicity of the Reformation (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Brodd, Sven-Erik: Evangelisk katolicitet. Ett studium av innehall och funktion under 1800- och 1900-talet. GWK Gleerup, Uppsala 1982.
Edwards, Mark Thomas: The Right of the Protestant Left: God's Totalitarianism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), discusses Evangelical Catholicism among mainline and liberal Protestants during the twentieth century.
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