The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. As of 2018, it has approximately 3.4 million baptized members in 9,091 congregations.
The Book of Concord (1580) or Concordia is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since the 16th century. They are also known as the symbolical books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Confessional Lutheranism is a name used by Lutherans to designate those who believe in the doctrines taught in the Book of Concord of 1580 in their entirety. Confessional Lutherans maintain that faithfulness to the Book of Concord which is a summary of the teachings found in Scripture, requires attention to how that faith is actually being preached, taught, and put into practice. Confessional Lutherans believe that this is a vital part of their identity as Lutherans.
The Apology of the Augsburg Confession was written by Philipp Melanchthon during and after the 1530 Diet of Augsburg as a response to the Pontifical Confutation of the Augsburg Confession, Charles V's commissioned official Roman Catholic response to the Lutheran Augsburg Confession of June 25, 1530. It was intended to be a defense of the Augsburg Confession and a refutation of the Confutation. It was signed as a confession of faith by leading Lutheran magnates and clergy at the meeting of the Smalcald League in February, 1537, and subsequently included in the German [1580] and Latin [1584] Book of Concord. As the longest document in the Book of Concord it offers the most detailed Lutheran response to the Roman Catholicism of that day as well as an extensive Lutheran exposition of the doctrine of Justification.
Neo-Lutheranism was a 19th-century revival movement within Lutheranism which began with the Pietist-driven Erweckung, or Awakening, and developed in reaction against theological rationalism and pietism. This movement followed the Old Lutheran movement and focused on a reassertion of the identity of Lutherans as a distinct group within the broader community of Christians, with a renewed focus on the Lutheran Confessions as a key source of Lutheran doctrine. Associated with these changes was a renewed focus on traditional doctrine and liturgy, which paralleled the growth of Anglo-Catholicism in England. It was sometimes even called "German Puseyism". In the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, neo-Lutheranism was paralleled by Johann Adam Möhler. The chief literary organ of the neo-Lutheranism was Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, edited by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg.
The term Evangelical Catholic is used in Lutheranism, alongside the term Augsburg Catholic, with those calling themselves Evangelical Catholic Lutherans or Lutherans of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship stressing the catholicity of historic Lutheranism in liturgy, beliefs, practices, and doctrines. Evangelical Catholics teach that Lutheranism at its core "is deeply and fundamentally catholic". The majority of Evangelical Catholic Lutheran clergy and Evangelical Catholic Lutheran parishes are members of mainstream Lutheran denominations.
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 both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy and the Anglo-Catholic wing of Anglicanism. In the more general usage of the term, it describes the general high church characteristics of Lutheranism in the Nordic countries such as Sweden, Finland, and the Baltics. The mentioned countries, once a part of the Swedish Empire, have more markedly preserved Catholic traditions.
Lutheranism is present on all inhabited continents with an estimated 80 million adherents, out of which 74.2 million are affiliated with the Lutheran World Federation. A major movement that first began the Reformation, it constitutes one of the largest Protestant branches claiming around 80 million out of 920 million Protestants. The Lutheran World Federation brings together the vast majority of Lutherans. Apart from it, there are also other organisations such as the International Lutheran Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as multiple independent Lutheran denominations.
Charles Porterfield Krauth was a pastor, theologian and educator in the Lutheran branch of Christianity. He is a leading figure in the revival of the Lutheran Confessions connected to Neo-Lutheranism in the United States.
Stimuli et clavi i. e. theses adversus huius temporis errores et abusus are 95 theses published by North German Lutheran pastor Heinrich Hansen at the Reformation jubilee of 1917.
Friedrich Heiler was a German theologian and historian of religion.
Heinrich Hansen was a German Lutheran theologian and the father of the Lutheran High Church movement in Germany.
The Lutheran liturgical calendar is a listing which details the primary annual festivals and events that are celebrated liturgically by various Lutheran churches. The calendars of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) are from the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship and the calendar of Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Lutheran Church - Canada use the Lutheran Book of Worship and the 1982 Lutheran Worship. Elements unique to the ELCA have been updated from the Lutheran Book of Worship to reflect changes resulting from the publication of Evangelical Lutheran Worship in 2006. The elements of the calendar unique to the LCMS have also been updated from Lutheran Worship and the Lutheran Book of Worship to reflect the 2006 publication of the Lutheran Service Book.
Hochkirchliche St. Johannes-Bruderschaft (SJB) is a German High Church Lutheran religious society for men and women under the patronate of John the Apostle within the Hochkirchliche Vereinigung. It has about 100 members in Germany, Netherlands, Austria and Czech Republic. It is headed by Apostolischer Vorsteher +Innocenz Konrad Schrieder.
Evangelisch-Lutherische Gebetsbruderschaft is a German Lutheran religious society for men and women, based on the doctrines of the Bible and Book of Concord, with regular prayer for the renewal and unity of the Church.
Vereinigung may refer to:
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism that identifies with the teachings of Martin Luther, a 16th-century German reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation. The reaction of the government and church authorities to the international spread of his writings, beginning with the 95 Theses, divided Western Christianity. During the Reformation, Lutheranism became the state religion of numerous states of Northern Europe, especially in northern Germany and the Nordic countries. Lutheran clergy became civil servants and the Lutheran churches became part of the state.
The Evangelical Church of Augustan Confession in Romania is a German-speaking Lutheran church in Romania, mainly based in Transylvania. Its history goes back to the 12th century when the Transylvanian Saxons arrived in the region, then part of Kingdom of Hungary.
The Slovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Serbia is a Lutheran church in Serbia.
The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria is a Lutheran denomination in Austria. It is a member of the Lutheran World Federation, which it joined in 1947. It is also a member of the World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe as well as the Conference of Churches on the Rhine.
