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Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teaching of Martin Luther, a 16th century German reformer. Luther's 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.[1]
The split between the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics arose mainly over the doctrine of Justification. Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification "by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone" which went against the Roman view of "faith formed by love", or "faith and works". Unlike the Reformed Churches, Lutherans retain many of the liturgical practices and sacramental teachings of the pre-reformation Church. Lutheran theology significantly differs from Reformed theology in Christology, the purpose of God's Law, divine grace, the concept of "once saved always saved", and predestination.
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Lutheranism has its roots in the efforts of Martin Luther who sought to reform the Western Church to a more biblical foundation.[2][3][4][5]
Lutheranism spread through all of Scandinavia during the sixteenth century, as the monarch of Denmark-Norway (also ruling Iceland) and the monarch of Sweden (also ruling Finland) adopted Lutheranism.
Since 1520, regular[6] Lutheran services were held in Copenhagen. Under the reign of Frederick I (1523–33), Denmark-Norway remained officially Catholic. Although Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he soon adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers, the most significant being Hans Tausen.[7] During his reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads among the Danish population. At an open meeting in Copenhagen attended by the king in 1536, the people shouted; "We will stand by the holy Gospel, and do not want such bishops any more".[8] Frederick's son, Christian, was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his father's death. However, following his victory in the civil war that followed, in 1537 he became Christian III and advanced the Reformation in Denmark-Norway. The constitution upon which the Danish-Norwegian Church, according to the Church Ordinance should rest was "The pure word of God, which is the Law and the Evangelium", i.e. the Ten Commandments and the message of the four Canonical Gospels.[9] It does not even mention the[10] Augsburg Confession. The priests at least had to[11] understand the Holy Script well enough to preach and explain the Gospel and the Epistles for their congregations. The youths were taught[12] from the Small Catechism, available in Danish since 1532. They may in the end expect:[13] "forgiving of their sins", "to be counted as just", and "the eternal life". Regulation is still similar.[14] The first Bible in Danish was Martin Luther's. It was translated by 1550 and made available in 3000 copies.[15] It was sold out 30 years later. Important differences relative to today's Roman Catholicism are the Lutherans' refutation of; that the tradition is a carrier of the "Word of God", and that only the communion of the Bishop of Rome had been entrusted to interpret the "Word of God".[16][17]
The Reformation in Sweden began with Olaus and Laurentius Petri, brothers who took the Reformation to Sweden after studying in Germany. They led Gustav Vasa, elected king in 1523, to Lutheranism. The pope's refusal to allow the replacement of an archbishop that supported the invading forces opposing Gustav Vasa during the Stockholm Bloodbath led to the discontinuance of any official connection between Sweden and the papacy in 1523.[7] Four years later, at the Diet of Västerås, the king succeeded in forcing the diet to accept his dominion over the national church. The king was given possession of all church properties such as the church appointments and the clergy. While this effectively granted official sanction to Lutheran ideas,[7] Lutheranism did not become official until 1593, when the Uppsala Synod declared Holy Scripture the sole guideline for faith, with four documents accepted as faithful and authoritative explanations of it: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the unaltered Augsburg Confession of 1530.[18]
After the death of Luther in 1546, the Schmalkaldic War started out as a conflict between two German Lutheran rulers in 1547. Soon, Holy Roman Imperial forces joined the battle and conquered the members of the Schmalkaldic League, oppressing and exiling many German Lutherans as they enforced the terms of the Augsburg Interim. Religious freedom was secured for Lutherans through the Peace of Passau in 1552 and under the Cuius regio, eius religio and Declaratio Ferdinandei clauses of the Peace of Augsburg in 1555.[19]
Religious disputes between the Crypto-Calvinists, Philippists, Sacramentarians, Ubiquitarians, and Gnesio-Lutherans raged within Lutheranism during the middle of the 16th century. This finally ended with the resolution of the issues in the Formula of Concord. Large numbers of politically and religiously influential leaders met together, debated, and resolved these topics on the basis of Scripture, resulting in the Formula, which over 8,000 leaders signed. The Book of Concord replaced earlier, incomplete collections of doctrine, unifying all German Lutherans with identical doctrine and beginning the period of Lutheran orthodoxy.
The historical period of Lutheran Orthodoxy is divided into three sections: Early Orthodoxy (1580-1600), High Orthodoxy (1600-1685), and Late Orthodoxy (1685-1730). Lutheran scholasticism developed gradually, especially for the purpose of arguing with the Jesuits, and it was finally established by Johann Gerhard. Abraham Calovius represents the climax of the scholastic paradigm in orthodox Lutheranism. Other orthodox Lutheran theologians include Martin Chemnitz, Aegidius Hunnius, Leonhard Hutter, Nicolaus Hunnius, Jesper Rasmussen Brochmand, Salomo Glassius, Johann Hülsemann, Johann Conrad Dannhauer, Johannes Andreas Quenstedt, Johann Friedrich König, and Johann Wilhelm Baier.
Near the end of the Thirty Years' War, the compromising spirit seen in Philip Melanchthon rose up again in Helmstedt School and especially in theology of Georgius Calixtus, causing the Syncretistic Controversy. Another theological issue that arose was the Crypto-Kenotic Controversy.[20]
Late orthodoxy was torn by influences from rationalism, philosophy based on reason, and Pietism, a revival movement in Lutheranism. After a century of vitality, the Pietist theologians Philipp Jakob Spener and August Hermann Francke warned that orthodoxy had degenerated into meaningless intellectualism and Formalism, while orthodox theologians found the emotional and subjective focuses of Pietism to be vulnerable to Rationalist propaganda.[21] The last famous orthodox Lutheran theologian before the rationalist Aufklärung, or Enlightenment, was David Hollatz. Late orthodox theologian Valentin Ernst Löscher took part in the controversy against Pietism. Medieval mystical traditions continued in works of Martin Moller, Johann Arndt, and Joachim Lütkemann. Pietism became a rival of orthodoxy but adopted some orthodox devotional literature; for example, Arndt's, Scriver's and Prätorius' which were combined Pietistic literature.
Rationalist philosophers from France and England had an enormous impact during the 18th century, along with the German Rationalists Christian Wolff, Gottfried Leibniz, and Immanuel Kant. Their work led to an increase in rationalist beliefs, at the expense of faith in God and agreement with the Bible.[21] Dissenting Lutheran pastors were often reprimanded by the government bureaucracy overseeing them, for example, when they tried to correct Rationalist influences in the parish school.[22] As a result of the impact of a local form of rationalism, termed Neology, by the latter half of the 18th century, genuine piety was found almost solely in small Pietist conventicles. However, some of the laity preserved Lutheran orthodoxy from both Pietism and rationalism through reusing old catechisms, hymnbooks, postils, and devotional writings, including those written by Johann Gerhard, Heinrich Müller, and Christian Scriver.[23] However, Lutheranism was extinguished during the course of the 18th century.[21]
Napoleon's invasion of Germany promoted Rationalism and angered German Lutherans, stirring up a desire among the people to preserve Luther's theology from the Rationalist threat. A revival began, termed the Erweckung, or Awakening. Those associated with this Awakening held that reason was insufficient and pointed out the importance of emotional religious experience. Small groups sprang up, often in universities, which devoted themselves to Bible study, reading devotional writings, and revival meetings. Although the beginning of this Awakening tended heavily toward Romanticism, nationalism, and experience, the emphasis of the Awakening shifted around 1830 to restoring the traditional liturgy, doctrine, and confessions of the Lutheran church in the Neo-Lutheran movement.[24][25] A layman, Luther scholar Johann Georg Hamann, became famous for countering Rationalism and advancing the Awakening.[26]
This Awakening also swept through Scandinavia, influenced by both German Neo-Lutheranism and Pietism. Danish pastor and philosopher Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig reshaped church life throughout Denmark through a reform movement beginning in 1830. He also wrote about 1,500 hymns, including God's Word Is Our Great Heritage.[27] In Norway, Hans Nielsen Hauge, a lay street preacher, emphasized spiritual discipline and sparked the Haugean movement.[28] In Sweden, Lars Levi Læstadius began the Laestadian movement that emphasized moral reform.[28] In Finland, a farmer, Paavo Ruotsalainen, started a reform movement when he took to preaching about repentance and prayer.[28]
In 1817, 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 unification of the two branches of German Protestantism sparked the Schism of the Old Lutherans. Many Lutherans, called "Old Lutherans", despite imprisonment and military force,[26] chose to leave the established churches and form independent church bodies, or "free churches" while others left for the United States and Australia. A similar legislated merger in Silesia prompted thousands to join the Old Lutheran movement. The dispute over ecumenism overshadowed other controversies within German Lutheranism.[29]
Despite political meddling in church life, local leaders sought to restore and renew Christianity. Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg began to study the Bible for his work as a professor, and in doing so became convinced of its reliability and the usefulness of the Augsburg Confession as a summary of faith. High school teacher August Friedrich Christian Vilmar turned from rationalism to faith, and in doing so, realized the importance of the unaltered Augsburg Confession and the other Lutheran Confessions of faith. An advocate of the Neo-Lutheran movement (which was allied with the Old Lutherans against rationalism), he worked to renew the church through the use of the Lutheran Confessions. [26] Neo-Lutheran Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe and Old Lutheran free church leader Friedrich August Brünn[30] both sent young men overseas to serve as Pastors to German Americans, while the Inner Mission focused on renewing the situation home.[31] Johann Gottfried Herder, superintendent at Weimar and part of the Inner Mission movement, joined with the Romantic movement with his quest to preserve human emotion and experience from Rationalism.[32]
The Neo-Lutheran movement managed to slow secularism and counter atheistic Marxist Socialism, but it did not fully succeed in Europe.[31] It partly succeeded in continuing the Pietist movement's drive to right social wrongs and focus on individual conversion. The Neo-Lutheran call to renewal failed to achieve widespread popular acceptance because it both began and continued with a lofty, idealistic Romanticism that did not connect with an increasingly industrialized and secularized Europe.[33] At best, the work of local leaders resulted in specific areas with vibrant spiritual renewal, but people in Lutheran areas overall continued to become increasingly distant from church life.[31]
Traditionally, Lutherans hold the Bible of the Old and New Testaments to be the only divinely inspired book, the only source of divinely revealed knowledge, and the only norm for Christian teaching.[34] Scripture alone is the formal principle of the faith, the final authority for all matters of faith and morals because of its inspiration, authority, clarity, efficacy, and sufficiency.[35]
The authority of the Scriptures has been challenged during the history of Lutheranism. Martin Luther taught that the Bible was the written Word of God, and the only reliable guide for faith and practice. He held that every passage of Scripture has one straightforward meaning, the literal sense as interpreted by other Scripture.[36] This belief was accepted during the orthodox Lutheranism of the 17th century. During the 18th century, Rationalism advocated reason rather than the authority of the Bible as the final source of knowledge, but most of the laity did not accept this Rationalist position.[37] In the nineteenth century, a confessional revival reemphasized the authority of the Bible and agreement with the Lutheran Confessions.
Today, Lutherans disagree about the inspiration and authority of the Bible. Theological conservatives use the historical-grammatical method of Biblical interpretation, while theological liberals use the higher critical method. The 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center surveyed 1,926 adults in the United States that self-identified as Lutheran. The study found that 30% believed that the Bible was the Word of God and was to be taken literally word for word. 40% held that the Bible was the Word of God, but was not literally true word for word or was unsure if it was literally true word for word. 23% said the Bible was written by men and not the Word of God. 7% didn't know, weren't sure, or had other positions.[38]
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Historically, Lutheranism affirms that the Bible does not merely contain the Word of God, but every word of it is, because of verbal inspiration, the direct, immediate word of God.[40] As Lutherans confess in the Nicene Creed, the Holy Spirit "spoke through the prophets". The Apology of the Augsburg Confession identifies Holy Scripture with the Word of God[41] and calls the Holy Spirit the author of the Bible.[42] Because of this, Lutherans confess in the Formula of Concord, "we receive and embrace with our whole heart the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the pure, clear fountain of Israel."[43] The apocryphal books were not written by the prophets, by inspiration; they contain errors[44] were never included in the Judean Canon that Jesus used,[45] and therefore are not a part of Holy Scripture.[46] The prophetic and apostolic Scriptures are authentic as written by the prophets and apostles. A correct translation of their writings is God's Word because it has the same meaning as the original Hebrew and Greek.[46] A mistranslation is not God's word, and no human authority can invest it with divine authority.[46]
Historically, Lutherans maintain that Holy Scripture, the Word of God, carries the full authority of God. Every single statement of the Bible calls for instant and unqualified acceptance.[47] Every doctrine of the Bible is the teaching of God and therefore requires full agreement.[48] Every promise of the Bible calls for unshakable trust in its fulfillment.[49] Every command of the Bible is the directive of God himself and therefore demands willing observance.[50]
Historically, Lutherans understand the Bible to present all doctrines and commands of the Christian faith clearly.[51] God's Word is freely accessible to every reader or hearer of ordinary intelligence, without requiring any special education.[52] Of course, one must understand the language God's Word is presented in, and not be so preoccupied by contrary thoughts so as to prevent understanding.[53] As a result of this, no one needs to wait for any clergy, and pope, scholar, or ecumenical council to explain the real meaning of any part of the Bible.[54]
Lutherans confess that Scripture is united with the power of the Holy Spirit and with it, not only demands, but also creates the acceptance of its teaching.[55] This teaching produces faith and obedience. Holy Scripture is not a dead letter, but rather, the power of the Holy Spirit is inherent in it.[56] Scripture does not compel a mere intellectual assent to its doctrine, resting on logical argumentation, but rather it creates the living agreement of faith.[57] As the Smalcald Articles affirm, "in those things which concern the spoken, outward Word, we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one, except through or with the preceding outward Word."[58]
Lutherans are confident that the Bible contains everything that one needs to know in order to obtain salvation and to live a Christian life.[59] There are no deficiencies in Scripture that need to be filled with by tradition, pronouncements of the Pope, new revelations, or present-day development of doctrine.[60]
Lutherans understand the Bible as containing two distinct types of content, termed Law and Gospel (or Law and Promises).[61] Properly distinguishing between Law and Gospel prevents the Gospel teaching of justification by grace through faith alone from being obscured.[62]
The Book of Concord, published in 1580, contains ten documents which some Lutherans believe are faithful and authoritative explanations of Holy Scripture. Besides the three Ecumenical Creeds, which date to Roman times, the Book of Concord contains seven credal documents articulating Lutheran theology in the Reformation era.
The doctrinal positions of Lutheran churches are not uniform because the Book of Concord does not hold the same position in all Lutheran churches. For example, the state churches in Scandinavia consider only the Augsburg Confession as a "summary of the faith" in addition to the three ecumenical Creeds.[63] Lutheran pastors, congregations, and church bodies in Germany and the Americas usually agree to teach in harmony with the entire Lutheran Confessions. Some Lutheran church bodies require this pledge to be unconditional because they believe the confessions correctly state what the Bible teaches. Others allow their congregations to do so "insofar as" the Confessions are in agreement with the Bible.
The key doctrine, or material principle, of Lutheranism is the doctrine of justification. Lutherans believe that humans are saved from their sins by God's grace alone (Sola Gratia), through faith alone (Sola Fide). Lutherans believe that this grace is granted for the sake of Christ's merit alone (Solus Christus). Orthodox Lutheran theology holds that God made the world, including humanity, perfect, holy and sinless. However, Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, trusting in their own strength, knowledge, and wisdom.[64][65] Consequently, people are saddled with original sin, born sinful and unable to avoid committing sinful acts.[66] For Lutherans, original sin is the "chief sin, a root and fountainhead of all actual sins."[67]
Lutherans teach that sinners, while capable of doing works that are outwardly "good," are not capable of doing works that satisfy God's justice.[68] Every human thought and deed is infected with sin and sinful motives.[69] Because of this, all humanity deserves eternal damnation in hell.[70] God in eternity has turned His Fatherly heart to this world and planned for its redemption because he loves all people and does not want anyone to be eternally damned.[71]
By God's grace, made known and effective in the person and work of Jesus Christ, a person is forgiven, adopted as a child and heir of God, and given eternal salvation.[72] 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.[73]
Lutherans believe that individuals receive this gift of salvation through faith alone.[74] Saving faith is the knowledge of[75], acceptance of [76], and trust[77] in the promise of the Gospel.[78] Even faith itself is seen as a gift of God, created in the hearts of Christians[79] by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word[80] and Baptism.[81] Faith is seen as an instrument that receives the gift of salvation, not something that causes salvation.[82] Thus, Lutherans reject the "decision theology" which is common among modern evangelicals.
Lutherans are Trinitarian; they confess in the Athanasian Creed, "we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal".[83] Lutherans reject the idea that the Father and the Son are merely faces of the same person, stating that both the Old Testament and the New Testament show them to be two distinct persons.[84] Lutherans believe the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son.[85]
Lutherans believe Jesus Christ is both by nature God and by nature man in one person, as they confess in Luther's Small Catechism that he is "true God begotten of the Father from eternity and also true man born of the Virgin Mary".[86]
Lutherans hold that sacraments are sacred acts of divine institution.[87] Whenever they are properly administered by the use of the physical component commanded by God[88] along with the divine words of institution,[89] God is, in a way specific to each sacrament, present with the Word and physical component.[90] He earnestly offers to all who receive the sacrament[91] forgiveness of sins[92] and eternal salvation.[93] He also works in the recipients to get them to accept these blessings and to increase the assurance of their possession.[94]
Lutherans are not dogmatic about the number of the sacraments.[96] In line with Luther's initial statement in his Large Catechism some speak of only two sacraments,[97] Baptism and Holy Communion, although later in the same work he calls Confession and Absolution[98] "the third sacrament."[99] The definition of sacrament in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession lists Absolution as one of them.[100] Since Absolution is a return to the forgiveness given in baptism, strictly speaking there are only two sacraments. Private confession is not practiced among many Lutherans, although some churches allow for individual absolution before the Holy Communion service or on Saturdays. A general absolution is proclaimed in the Holy Communion liturgy. Lutherans do not emphasize "penance" as a retribution of sin but rather the proclamation of God's forgiveness by the "called and ordained" minister of the Holy Gospel.
Lutherans hold that Baptism is a saving work of God,[101] mandated and instituted by Jesus Christ.[102] Baptism is a "means of grace" through which God creates and strengthens "saving faith" as the "washing of regeneration"[103] in which infants and adults are reborn.[104] Since the creation of faith is exclusively God's work, it does not depend on the actions of the one baptized, whether infant or adult. Even though baptized infants cannot articulate that faith, Lutherans believe that it is present all the same.[105] Because it is faith alone that receives these divine gifts, Lutherans confess that baptism "works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare."[106] Therefore, Lutherans administer Baptism to both infants[107] and adults.[108] In the special section on infant baptism in his Large Catechism, Luther argues that infant baptism is God-pleasing because persons so baptized were reborn and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.[109]
Lutherans hold that within Holy Communion, also referred to as the Sacrament of the Altar, the Mass, or the Lord's Supper, the true body and blood of Christ are "in, with, and under the form" of bread and wine for all those who eat and drink it,[110] a doctrine that the Formula of Concord calls the sacramental union.[111] Some Lutherans use the term Eucharist to refer to Communion, noting its use in the Book of Concord; however, others reject the term on the basis that the word Eucharist ("thanksgiving") puts the emphasis on the human response to the sacrament, which is contrary to the Lutheran emphasis on God's omnipotence and human powerlessness. They note that in almost every case, the use of the term in the Book of Concord refers to doctrinal statements that are part of the Roman Catholic tradition.
In Lutheranism, conversion or regeneration in the strict sense of the term is the work of divine grace[112] and power[113] by which man, born of the flesh,[114] and void of all power to think,[115] to will,[116] or to do[117] any good thing, and dead in sin[118] is, through the gospel and holy baptism,[119] taken[120] from a state of sin and spiritual death under God's wrath[121] into a state of spiritual life of faith and grace,[122] rendered able to will and to do what is spiritually good[123] and, especially, made to trust in the benefits of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.[124] During conversion, one is moved from impenitence to repentance. The Augsburg Confession divides repentance into two parts: "One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that for Christ's sake, sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terrors."[125]
Lutherans adhere to divine monergism, the teaching that salvation is by God's act alone, and therefore reject the idea that humans in their fallen state have a free will concerning spiritual matters.[127] Lutherans believe that although humans have free will concerning civil righteousness, they cannot work spiritual righteousness without the Holy Spirit, since righteousness in the heart cannot be wrought in the absence of the Holy Spirit.[128] Lutherans believe that the elect are predestined to salvation.[129] Lutherans believe Christians should be assured that they are among the predestined.[130] 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.[131] According to Lutheranism, the central final hope of the Christian is "the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting" as confessed in the Apostles' Creed rather than predestination. Lutherans disagree with those that make predestination the source of salvation rather than Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection. Unlike Calvinists, Lutherans do not believe in a predestination to damnation.[132] Instead, Lutherans teach eternal damnation is a result of the unbeliever's sins, rejection of the forgiveness of sins, and unbelief.[133]
According to Lutherans, God preserves his creation, cooperates with everything that happens, and guides the universe.[134] While God cooperates with both good and evil deeds, with evil deeds he does so only inasmuch as they are deeds, but not with the evil in them. God concurs with an act's effect, but he does not cooperate in the corruption of an act or the evil of its effect.[135] Lutherans believe everything exists for the sake of the Christian Church, and that God guides everything for its welfare and growth.[136]
The explanation of the Apostles' Creed given in the Small Catechism declares that everything good that people have is given and preserved by God, either directly or through other people or things.[138] Of the services others provide us through family, government, and work, "we receive these blessings not from them, but, through them, from God."[139] Since God uses everyone's useful tasks for good, people should look not down upon some useful vocations as being less worthy than others. Instead people should honor others, no matter how lowly, as being the means God uses to work in the world.[139]
Good works are the fruit of saving faith,[140] and always and in every instance spring spontaneously from true faith.[141] Any true good works have their true origin in God,[142] not in the fallen human heart or in human striving;[143] their absence would demonstrate that faith, too, is absent.[144] Although Christians are no longer compelled to keep God's law, they freely and willingly serve God and their neighbors.[145]
Lutherans do not believe in any sort of earthly millennial kingdom of Christ either before or after his second coming on the last day.[146] Lutherans teach that, at death, the souls of Christians are immediately taken into the presence of Jesus,[147] where they await the second coming of Jesus on the last day.[148] On the last day,[149] all the dead will be resurrected.[150] Their souls will then be reunited with the same bodies they had before dying.[151] The bodies will then be changed, those of the wicked to a state of everlasting shame and torment,[152] those of the righteous to an everlasting state of celestial glory.[153] After the resurrection of all the dead,[154] and the change of those still living,[155] all nations shall be gathered before Christ,[156] and he will separate the righteous from the wicked.[157] Christ will publicly judge[158] all people by the testimony of their deeds,[159] the good works[160] of the righteous in evidence of their faith,[161] and the evil works of the wicked in evidence of their unbelief.[162] He will judge in righteousness[163] in the presence of all people and angels,[164] and his final judgment will be just damnation to everlasting punishment for the wicked and a gracious gift of life everlasting to the righteous.[165]
This table summarizes the classical views of three different Protestant beliefs.[166]
| Topic | Lutheranism | Calvinism | Arminianism |
| Human will | Total Depravity without free will | Total Depravity without free will | Depravity does not preclude free will |
| Election | Unconditional election to salvation only | Unconditional election to salvation and damnation | Conditional election in view of foreseen faith or unbelief |
| Justification | Justification of all people completed at Christ's death. | Justification is limited to those elected to salvation, completed at Christ's death. | Justification possible for all, but only completed when one chooses faith. |
| Conversion | Through the means of grace, resistible | Without means, irresistible | Involves free will and is resistible |
| Preservation and apostasy | Falling away is possible, but God gives assurance of preservation. | Perseverance of the saints, once saved, always saved | Preservation upon the condition of persevering faith with the possibility of a total and final apostasy. |
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Most Lutherans place great emphasis on a liturgical approach to worship services; although there have always been substantial non-liturgical minorities, for example, the Haugean Lutherans from Norway. Music forms a large part of Lutheran services. Lutheran hymns are sometimes known as chorales. Lutheran hymnody is well known for its doctrinal, didactic, and musical richness. Many Lutheran churches are active musically with choirs, handbell choirs, children's choirs, and occasionally carillon groups that 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 celebration of the Holy Communion (or the Holy Eucharist/Lord's Supper), emphasizing the sacrament as the central act of Christian worship. Lutherans believe that the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ are present in, with and under the bread and the wine. This belief is called Real Presence or Sacramental Union and is different from 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:
Besides the Holy Communion [Divine Service], congregations also hold offices, which are worship services without communion. They may include Matins, Vespers, Compline, and Easter Vigil. Private or family offices include the Morning and Evening Prayers from Luther's Small Catechism.[167] Meals are blessed with the Common Table Prayer, Psalm 145:15-16, or other prayers, and after eating the Lord is thanked, for example, with Psalm 136:1.[167] In addition, Lutherans use devotional books, from small daily devotionals, for example, Portals of Prayer, to large breviaries, including the Breviarium Lipsiensae and Treasury of Daily Prayer.
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 in order to cater to those who preferred contemporary worship music. Today, some Lutheran congregations have contemporary worship 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.[169] In Finland, Lutherans have experimented with the St Thomas Mass or Metal Mass in which traditional hymns are adapted to heavy metal. The Lutheran World Federation, in its Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture, recommended every effort be made to bring church services into a more sensitive position with regard to cultural context.[170]
Lutheran churches use hymnals as well as electronic projection media. In 2006, both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, in cooperation with certain foreign English speaking church bodies within their respective fellowships, released new hymnals: Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELCA) and Lutheran Service Book (LCMS). Along with these, the most widely used among English speaking congregations include: Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996, ELS), The Lutheran Book of Worship (1978, LC-USA), Lutheran Worship (1982, LCMS), Christian Worship (1993, WELS), and The Lutheran Hymnal (1941, Synodical Conference). In the Lutheran Church of Australia, the official hymnal is the 'Lutheran Hymnal with Supplement' of 1986, which includes a supplement to the 'Lutheran Hymnal' of 1973, itself a replacement for the 'Australian Lutheran Hymn Book' of 1921. Prior to this time, the two Lutheran church bodies in Australia (which merged in 1966) used a bewildering variety of hymnals, usually in the German language.
Catechism, especially children's, is considered fundamental in most Lutheran churches. Almost all maintain Sunday Schools, and some host or maintain Lutheran schools, at the preschool, elementary, middle, high school or university level. Life-long study of the catechism is intended for all ages so that the abuses of the pre-Reformation Church will not recur.[171] With the emphasis on proper life-long catechesis, Lutherans have a heritage of not only learned theologians, but also theologically adept laypeople.
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. All Lutheran pastors may marry and have families. Some Lutheran synods allow women pastors. Pastors usually teach in the common language of the parish. In the U.S., some congregations and synods historically 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.
Lutherans were divided about the issue of church-fellowship for the first thirty years after Luther's death. Philipp Melanchthon and his Philippist party felt that Christians of many different beliefs should join in union with each other without completely agreeing on doctrine. Against them stood the Gnesio-Lutherans, led by Matthias Flacius and the faculty at Jena. They condemned the Philippist position for indifferentism, describing it as a "unionistic compromise" of precious Reformation theology. Instead, they held that genuine unity between Christians and real theological peace was only possible with an honest agreement about every subject of doctrinal controversy.[173]
Complete agreement finally came about in 1577, after the death of both Melanchthon and Flacius, when a new generation of theologians resolved the doctrinal controversies on the basis of Scripture in the Formula of Concord of 1577.[174] Although they decried the visible division of Christians on earth, orthodox Lutherans avoided ecumenical fellowship with other churches, believing that Christians should not join together for the Lord's Supper or exchange pastors if they do not completely agree about what the Bible teaches. In the 17th century, Georgius Calixtus began a rebellion against this practice, sparking the Syncretistic Controversy.
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In the 18th century, there was some ecumenical interest between the Church of Sweden and the Church of England. John Robinson, Bishop of London, planned for a union of the English and Swedish churches in 1718. The plan failed because most Swedish bishops rejected the Calvinism of the Church of England, although Svedberg of Skara and Gezelius, Bishop of Turku (Finland) were in favor.[175]
In the 19th century, Samuel Simon Schmucker attempted to lead the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of the United States toward unification with other American Protestants. His attempt to get the synod to reject the Augsburg Confession in favor of his compromising Definite Platform failed. Instead, it sparked a Neo-Lutheran revival, prompting many to form the General Council, including Charles Porterfield Krauth. Their alternative approach was “Lutheran pulpits are for Lutheran ministers only, and Lutheran altars are for Lutheran communicants only.”
Beginning in 1867, confessional and liberal minded Lutherans in Germany joined together to form the Common Evangelical Lutheran Conference against the ever looming prospect of a state-mandated union with the Reformed.[176] However, they failed to reach a consensus among themselves on how much agreement in doctrine is necessary for church union.[31] Eventually, the fascist German Christians movement forced the final national merger of Lutheran, Union, and Reformed state churches into a single Reich Church, now the Evangelical Church in Germany, in 1933.
Presently, Lutherans are divided over how to interact with other Christian denominations. Some Lutherans assert that everyone must share the "whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27) in complete unity (1 Cor. 1:10)[177] before pastors can share each others' pulpits, and before communicants commune at each others' altars, a practice termed closed (or close) communion. On the other hand, other Lutherans are practice varying degrees of open communion and allow preachers from other Christian denominations in their pulpits.
While not an issue in the majority of Lutheran church bodies, some of them forbid membership in Freemasonry. Partly, this is because the lodge is viewed as spreading Unitarianism, as the Brief Statement of the Missouri Synod reads, "Hence we warn against Unitarianism, which in our country has to a great extent impenetrated the sects and is being spread particularly also through the influence of the lodges."[178] A 1958 report from the publishing house of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod 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."[179]
The Lutheran World Federation and the Missouri Synod have been in official dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church since shortly after the Second Vatican Council. In 1999 the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church when they jointly issued a statement, the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification ("JDDJ"), that stated that the LWF and the Roman Catholic churches agreed about the basics of Justification and lifted certain Roman Catholic anathemas formerly applying to the LWF member churches.[3]. The Missouri Synod has participated in every series of talks, except that which produced the Joint Declaration and to which they were not invited. While some Lutheran theologians saw the Joint Declaration as a sign that the Roman Catholic Church was essentially adopting the Lutheran position, other Lutheran theologians disagreed, claiming that, considering the public documentation of the Roman Catholic Church's position, this assertion does not hold up.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) 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 declared full communion with several American Churches: the Moravian Church, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America, the United Methodist Church, and the United Church of Christ.
Although not an "ecumenical" movement in the formal sense, in the 1990s influences from the megachurches of American evangelicalism have become somewhat common. Many of the largest Lutheran congregations in the United States have been heavily influenced by these "progressive Evangelicals." These influences are sharply criticized by some Lutherans as being foreign to orthodox Lutheran beliefs.[180]
The Porvoo Communion is a communion of episcopally led Lutheran and Anglican churches in Europe. Beside its membership in the Porvoo Communion, Church of Sweden also has declared full communion with the Philippine Independent Church and the United Methodist Church.
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Today, millions belong to Lutheran churches, which are present on all populated continents.[181] Lutheranism is the largest religious group in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Namibia, and the Dakotas. Lutheranism is also the dominant form of Christianity in the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache nations. In addition, Lutheranism is the dominant Protestant denomination but not the largest religious group in Germany,[182] Lithuania, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Papua New Guinea, and Tanzania.[183]
Although Namibia is the only country outside Europe to have a Lutheran majority, there are sizable Lutheran communities in many other countries; including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia (notably among the Orang Batak), Madagascar, and the United States, especially in the heavily Germanic Upper Midwest.[184] Lutheran missions have also been established in many African countries like Sierra Leone.
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 Lutheran World Federation supports the activities of Lutheran World Relief, a relief and development agency active in more than 50 countries. The LCMS and the LCC are members of the International Lutheran Council (ILC). The WELS and ELS are members of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference.
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Many Lutheran churches exist throughout the world which are not affiliated with the LWF, the ILC or the 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 Evangelical Lutheran Free Church (UAC)or Church of the Lutheran Brethren, which are especially active elsewhere in Asia.
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF)-aligned churches do not believe that one church is singularly true in its teachings. According to this belief, Lutheranism is a reform movement rather than a movement into doctrinal correctness. For that reason, a number of doctrinally diverse LWF denominations, now largely separated from state control, are declaring fellowship and joint statements of agreement with other Lutheran and non-Lutheran Christian denominations.
By contrast, the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference and International Lutheran Council as well as many unaffiliated denominations such as the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC) maintain that the orthodox confessional Lutheran churches are the only churches with completely correct doctrine. They teach that while other Christian churches teach partially orthodox doctrine and have true Christians as members, the doctrines of those churches contain significant errors. More conservative Lutherans strive to maintain historical distinctiveness while emphasizing doctrinal purity alongside Gospel-motivated outreach. They claim that LWF Lutherans are practicing "fake ecumenism" by desiring church fellowship outside of actual unity of teaching.[185]
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LUTHERANS, the general title given to those Christians who have adopted the principles of Martin Luther in his opposition to the Roman Church, to the followers of Calvin, and to the sectaries of the times of the Reformation. Their distinctive name is the Evangelical, - as opposed to the Reformed church. Their dogmatic symbols are usually said to include nine separate creeds which together form the Book of Concord (Liber Concordiae). Three belong to the Early Christian church - the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed (in its Western form, i.e. with the filioque), and the so-called Athanasian Creed; six come from the 16th century - the Augsburg Confession, the Apology for the Augsburg Confession, the Schmalkald Articles, Luther's two Catechisms, and the Form of Concord. But only the three early creeds and the Augsburg Confession are recognized by all Lutherans. Luther's Catechisms, especially the shorter of the two, have been almost universally accepted, but the Form of Concord was and is expressly rejected by many Lutheran churches. The Augsburg Confession and Luther's Short Catechism may therefore be said to contain the distinctive principles which all Lutherans are bound to maintain, but, as the principal controversies of the Lutheran church all arose after the publication of the Augsburg Confession and among those who had accepted it, it does not contain all that is distinctively Lutheran. Its universal acceptance is perhaps du g to the fact that it exists in two forms (the variata and the invariata) which vary slightly in the way in which they state the doctrine of the sacrament of the Supper. The variata edition was signed by Calvin, in the meaning, he said, of its author Melanchthon.
After Luther's death the more rigid Lutherans declared it to be their duty to preserve the status religionis in Germania per Lutherum instauratus, and to watch over the depositum Jesu Christi which he had committed to their charge. As Luther was a much greater preacher than a systematic thinker, it was not easy to say exactly what this deposit was, and controversies resulted among the Lutheran theologians of the 16th century. The Antinomian controversy was the earliest (1537-1560). It arose from differences about the precise meaning of the word "law" in Luther's distinction between law and gospel. Luther limited the meaning of the word to mean a definite command accompanied by threats, which counts on terror to produce obedience. He declared that Christ was not under the dominion of the law in this sense of the word, and that believers enter the Christian life only when they transcend a rule of life which counts on selfish motives for obedience. But law may mean ethical rule, and the Antinomians so understood it, and interpreted Luther's declaration to mean that believers are not under the dominion of the moral law. The controversy disturbed the Lutheran church for more than twenty years.
The Arminian controversy in the Reformed church, the Jansenist controversy in the Roman Catholic church, had their parallel in three separate disputes among the Lutherans lasting from 1550 to 1580. (r) George Major, discussing the relation of good works to conversion, declared that such works were both useful and necessary to holiness. He was attacked by Flacius and Amsdorf, and after a long controversy, full of ambiguities and lacking in the exhibition of guiding principles, he was condemned because his statement savoured of Pelagianism. (2) The same problem took a new form in the Synergist controversy, which discussed the first impulse in conversion. One party taught that while the first impulse must come from the Holy Spirit the work might be compared to reviving a man apparently dead. It was answered that the sinner was really dead, and that the work of the Spirit was to give an actually new life. The latter assertion was generally approved of. (3) Then a fresh controversy was started by the assertion that sin was part of the substance of man in his fallen condition. It was answered that sin had not totally destroyed man's ethical nature, and that grace changed what was morally insensitive into what was morally sensitive, so that there could be a cooperation between God's grace and man's will.
The controversy raised by Andrew Osiander was more important. He felt that Luther had omitted to make adequate answer to an important practical question, how Christ's death on the cross could be brought into such actual connexion with every individual believer as to be the ground of his actual justification. The medieval church had spanned the centuries by supposing that Christ's death was continuous down through the age in the sacrifice of the Mass; Protestant theology had nothing equivalent. He proposed to supply the lack by the theory that justification is a real work done in the individual by the same Christ who died so many centuries ago. Redemption, he said, was the result of the historical work of Christ; but justification was the work of the living risen Christ, dwelling within the believer and daily influencing him. Osiander's theory did not win much support, but it was the starting-point of two separate doctrines. In the Lutheran church, Striegel taught that the principal effect of Christ's work on the cross was to change the attitude of God towards the whole human race, and that, in consequence, when men come into being and have faith, they can take advantage of the change of attitude effected by the past historical work of Christ. The Reformed church, on the other hand, constructed their special doctrine of the limited reference in the atonement.
The other controversies concerned mainly the doctrine of the sacrament of the Supper, and Luther's theory of Consubstantiation. This required a doctrine of Ubiquity, or the omnipresence of the body of Christ extended in space, and therefore of its presence in the communion elements. Calvin had taught that the true way to regard substance was to think of its power (vis), and that the presence of a substance was the immediate application of its power. The presence of the body of Christ in the sacramental elements did not need a presence extended in space. Melanchthon and many Lutherans accepted the theory of Calvin, and alleged that Luther before his death had approved of it. Whereupon the more rigid Lutherans accused their brethren of Crypto-Calvinism, and began controversies which dealt with that charge and with a defence of the idea of ubiquity.
The university of Jena, led by Matthias Flacius, was the headquarters of the stricter Lutherans, while Wittenberg and Leipzig were the centres of the Philippists or followers of Melanchthon. Conferences only increased the differences. The Lutheran church seemed in danger of falling to pieces. This alarmed both parties. New conferences were held and various articles of agreement were proposed, the most notable being the Torgau Book (1576). In the end, the greater proportion adopted the Book of Concord (1577), drafted chiefly by Jacob Andreae of Tubingen, Martin Chemnitz of Brunswick and Nicolas Selnecker of Leipzig. Its recognition was mainly due to the efforts of Augustus, elector of Saxony. This Book of Concord was accepted by the Lutheran churches of Sweden and of Hungary in 1593 and 1597; but it was rejected by the Lutheran churches of Denmark, of Hesse, of Anhalt, of Pomerania and of several of the imperial cities. It was at first adopted and then rejected by Brunswick, the Palatinate and Brandenburg. The churches within Germany which refused the Book of Concord became for the most part Calvinistic or Reformed. They published, as was the fashion among the Reformed churches, separate creeds for themselves, but almost all accepted the Heidelberg Catechism. These differences in the German Protestant churches of the second half of the 16th century are reflected in the great American Lutheran church. The church exists in three separate organizations. The General Synod of the Evangelical Church of the United States, organized in 1820, has no other creed than the Augsburg Confession, so liberally interpreted as not to exclude Calvinists. The Synodical Conference of North America, organized in 1872, compels its pastors to subscribe to the whole of the nine creeds contained in the Book of Concord. The General Council, a secession from the General Synod, was organized in 1867, and accepts the "unaltered" (invariata) Augsburg Confession in its original sense, and the other Lutheran symbols as explanatory of the Augsburg Confession.
The divided state of German Protestantism, resulting from these theological differences, contributed in no small degree to the disasters of the Thirty Years' War, and various attempts were made to unite the two confessions. Conferences were held at Leipzig (1631), Thorn (1645), Cassel (1661); but without success. At length the union of the two churches was effected by the force of the civil authorities in Prussia (1817), in Nassau (1817), in Hesse (1823), in Anhalt-Dessau (1827) and elsewhere. These unions for the most part aimed, not at incorporating the two churches in doctrine and in worship, but at bringing churches or congregations professing different confessions under one government and discipline. They permitted each congregation to use at pleasure the Augsburg Confession or the Heidelberg Catechism. The enforced union in Prussia was combined with the publication of a new liturgy intended for common use. This led to secessions from the state church. These seceders were at first treated with great harshness, but have won their way to toleration, and form the Lutheran Free churches of Germany.
The most important of these latter is the Evangelical Lutheran church of Prussia, sometimes called the Old Lutherans. It came into being in 1817 and gradually gained the position of a tolerated nonconformist church (1845 being the date of its complete recognition by the state). At the 1905 census it numbered 51,600 members under 75 pastors. Its affairs are managed by an Oberkirchencollegium, with four ordained and two lay members. The Evangelical Lutheran Immanuel Synod came into being in 1864, and has a membership of 5300 with 13 ordained pastors. Its headquarters is Liegnitz. The In- dependent Evangelical Lutheran church in the lands of Hesse arose partly on account of the slumbering opposition to the union of 1823 and more particularly in consequence of an attempt made at a stricter union in 1874. It has a membership of about 1800. The renitente church of Lower Hesse has a membership of 2400. The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Hanover has a membership of 3050 under io ordained pastors. The Hermannsburg Free Church has a membership of about 2000 under 2 pastors. The Evangelical Lutheran Community in Baden has a membership of about 1 ioo with 2 ordained pastors. The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Saxony has a membership of about 3780 with 15 ordained pastors. These free churches exist separate from the State Evangelical United Church (Evangelische unirte Landskirche). The general system of ecclesiastical government which prevails among all Lutheran churches is called the consistorial. It admits of great variety of detail under certain common features of organization. It arose partly from the makeshift policy of the times of the Reformation, and partly from Luther's strong belief that the jus episcopale belonged in the last resort to the civil authorities. It may be most generally described by saying that the idea was taken from the consistorial courts through which the medieval bishops managed the affairs of their dioceses. Instead of the appointments to the membership of the consistories being made by the bishops, they were made by the supreme civil authority, whatever that might be. Richter, in his Evangelische Kirchenordnungen des 'Olen Jahrhunderts (2 vols., 1846), has collected more than one hundred and eight separate ecclesiastical constitutions, and his collection is confessedly imperfect. The publication of a complete collection by Emil Sehling was begun in 1902.
The liturgies of the Lutheran churches exhibit the same diversities in details as appear in their constitutions. It may be said in general that while Luther insisted that public worship ought to be conducted in a language understood by the people, and that all ideas and actions which were superstitious and obscured the primary truth of the priesthood of all believers should be expurged, he wished to retain as much as possible of the public service of the medieval church. The external features of the medieval churches were retained; but the minor altars, the tabernacula to contain the Host, and the light permanently burning before the altar, were done away with. The ecclesiastical year with its fasts and festivals was retained in large measure. In 1526 Luther published the German Mass and order of Divine Service, which, without being slavishly copied, served as a model for Lutheran communities. It retained the altar, vestments and lights, but explained that they were not essential and might be dispensed with. The peril attending the misuse of pictures in churches was recognized, but it was believed to be more than counterbalanced by the instruction given through them when their presence was not abused. In short Luther contented himself with setting forth general principles of divine service, leaving them to be applied as his followers thought best. The consequence was that there is no uniform Lutheran liturgy. In his celebrated Codex Liturgicus Ecclesiae Lutherande in epitomen redactus (Leipzig, 1848), Daniel has used 98 different liturgies and given specimens to show the differences which they exhibit.
The divergences in ritual and organization, the principle underlying all the various ecclesiastical unions, viz. to combine two different confessions under one common government, and, resulting from it, the possibility of changing from one confession to another, have all combined to free the state churches from any rigid interpretation of their theological formulas. A liberal and a corrservative theology (rationalist and orthodox) exist side by side within the churches, and while the latter clings to the theology of the 16th century, the former ventures to raise doubts about the truth of such a common and simple standard as the Apostles' Creed. The extreme divergence in doctrinal position is fostered by the fact that the theology taught in the universities is in a great measure divorced from the practical religious life of the people, and the theological opinions uttered in the theological literature of the country cannot be held to express the thoughts of the members of the churches. In each state the sovereign is still held to be the summus episcopus. He appoints a minister of public worship, and through him nominates the members of the governing body, the Oberkirchenrath or Consistorium or Directorium. This council deals with the property, patronage and all other ecclesiastical matters. But each parish elects its own council for parochial affairs, which has a legal status and deals with such matters as the ecclesiastical assessments. Delegates from these parish councils form the Landessynode. In cases that call for consultation together, the Consistorium and the Synod appoint committees to confer. In Alsace-Lorraine about half of those entitled to vote appear at the polls; but in other districts of Germany very little interest is shown in the elections to the parish councils.
The income of the state churches is derived from four sources. The state makes an annual provision for the stipends of the clergy, for the maintenance of fabrics and for other ecclesiastical needs. The endowments for church purposes, of which there are many, and which are destined to the support of foreign missions, clerical pensions, supply of books to the clergy, &c. are administered by the supreme council. The voluntary contributions of the people are all absorbed in the common income of the national churches and are administered by the supreme council. Each parish is legally entitled to levy ecclesiastical assessments for defined purposes.
Appointments to benefices are in the hands of the state (sometimes with consent of parishes), of private patrons and of local parish councils. The number of these benefices is always increasing; and in 1897 they amounted to 16,400, or 300 more than in 1890. The state appoints to 56%, private and municipal patrons to 34%, and congregations to io% of the whole. Customs vary in different states; thus in Schleswig-Holstein the state nominates but the parish elects; in Alsace-Lorraine the directorium or supreme consistory appoints, but the appointment must be confirmed by the viceroy; in Baden the state offers the parish a selection from six names and then appoints the one chosen.
The Lutheran state churches of Denmark, Sweden and Norway have retained the episcopate. In all of them the king is recognized to be the summus episcopus or supreme authority in all ecclesiastical matters, but in Norway and Sweden his power is somewhat limited by that of parliament. The king exercises his ecclesiastical authority through a minister who superintends religion and education. The position and functions of the bishops vary in the different countries. In all the rite of ordination is in their hands. In Denmark they are the inspectors of the clergy and of the schools. In Sweden they preside over local consistories composed of clerical and lay members. The episcopate in all three countries accommodates itself to something like the Lutheran consistorial system of ecclesiastical government.
The two leading religions within Germany are the Evangelical (Lutheran) and the Roman Catholic, including respectively 58 and 39% of the population. The proportions are continually varying, owing to the new migratory habits of almost every class of the population. Generally speaking, the Roman Catholics are on the increase in Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurttemburg; and the Evangelicals in the other districts of Germany, especially in the large cities. There is a growing tendency to mixed marriages, which are an important factor in religious changes.
B IBLIOGRAPHY. - Richter, Die evangelischen Kirl henordnungen des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts (Weimar, 1846); Sehling, Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des 'Olen Jahrhinderts (Leipzig, 1902, &c.); Richter, Lehrbuch des katholischen and evangelischen Kirchenrechts (8th ed., Leipzig, 1886); Hundeshagen, Beitrage zur Kirchenverfassungsgeschichte and Kirchenpolitik inbesondere des Protestantismus, i. (Wiesbaden, 1864), or in Ausgewahlte kl. Schriften, ii. (Gotha, 1875); Hofling, Grundseitze der evangelischen-Lutherischen Kirchenverfassung (Erlangen, 1850, 3rd ed., 1853); Drews, Das kirchl. Leben d. deutschen evangelischen Landeskirchen (Tubingen, 1902); Erich Forster, Die Enstehung der preussischen Landeskirchen unter der Regierung Konig Friedrich Wilhelms III., i. (Tubingen, 1905); Emil Sehling, Geschichte der protestantischen Kirchenverfassung (Leipzig, 1907); articles in Herzog's Realencyklopadie fiir protest. Theologie (3rd ed.), on Kirchenregiment, Kirchenrecht, Kirchenordnung, Konsistorien, Episcopalsystem, Gemeinde, Kollegialsystem, Territorialsystem; Schaff, History of the Creeds of Christendom (London; 1877). (T. M. L.)
Categories: LUD-LYT | Reformation
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