Lutheran Confessionalism

Werner Klän

This article understands the term ‘confessionalism’ as ‘defining the church by confessional document’ (Arand, Nestingen, and Kolb 2012: 5). The authors of the Lutheran Confessions (for the historical and theological background cf. Arand, Nestingen, and Kolb 2012) were deliberately conscious of the contemporary character of the confessional writings in the sixteenth century, but at the same time deeply convinced to confess the eternal truth of God’s word (Kolb 1999: 449–466).

Thus, the Lutheran confessions of faith are not simply ‘instruction about’ the gospel, propositions and theory, nor are they merely an ‘introduction to’ the gospel, but rather a guideline for making practical application of the gospel.

In the nineteenth century, confessional Lutheran churches created a new awareness of the Concordia-Lutheran principles of the sixteenth century and gave them renewed ecclesiological reality. In the International Lutheran Council, many of these, or those to follow their objectives, form the International Lutheran Council, committed to determining their decisions solely on the basis of the Word of God, and not on social, cultural or practical considerations.

Lutheran identity, however, is not first and foremost a special identity; it rather lays claim to catholicity. As in the Reformation, to renew the Church means to remain faithful to the One, Holy, Catholic Church. This approach includes an ecumenical dimension as well. Lutherans understand themselves as being at once evangelical, catholic, orthodox, and ecumenical in the best sense of the word.

Table of contents

• 1 Lutheran Confessionalism – Confessional Lutheranism

• 2 Confession – specifying Lutheran identity

• 3 The Lutheran confessions from the sixteenth century

• 4 The era of confessionalization (1555–1648)

• 5 The ‘Second Confessionalization’ (nineteenth century)

  • 5.1 Rediscovering the Church

  • 5.2 New confessional awareness in academic theology

• 6 The formation of (neo-)confessional Lutheran church bodies in Germany

  • 6.1 Resisting the foundation of unionist churches

    • 6.1.1 The ‘Old Lutherans’ in Prussia

    • 6.1.2 The establishment of confessional church bodies in Germany

    • 6.1.3 Concepts of constitutional reconstruction

  • 6.2 The Lutheran emigration from Germany: phase I (Silesia and Pomerania)

  • 6.3 The Lutheran emigration from Germany: phase II (Saxony)

  • 6.4 Lutheran emigration to South America

  • 6.5 Further emergence of confessional Lutheran churches (in Europe)

  • 6.6 Confessional endeavours in missionary movements

• 7 Conflicts on core issues of Confessional Lutheran theology

  • 7.1 The scriptures

  • 7.2 Church and congregation

  • 7.3 The office of the ministry

  • 7.4 Predestination

  • 7.5 Eschatology

• 8 Confessional Lutheran churches in the twentieth century

  • 8.1 Examples of developments to (re-)unification

    • 8.1.1 Aspects of confessional Lutheran alignments in North America

    • 8.1.2 The formation of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) in Germany

  • 8.2 New disruptions

• 9 New profiles in the twenty-first century

  • 9.1 Women’s ordination

  • 9.2 Same-sex marriages

• 10 World-wide associations of confessional Lutheran churches

  • 10.1 The International Lutheran Council (ILC)

  • 10.2 The Conference of Confessional Lutheran Churches (CELC)

  • 10.3 Ecumenical endeavours

• 11 Confession – determining doctrine and liturgy

  • 11.1 Confession – determining doctrine

  • 11.2 Confession – determining liturgy

• 12 Conclusion: confession – serving the Una Sancta

1 Lutheran Confessionalism – Confessional Lutheranism

Theological dictionaries of German origin typically attach a perjorative connotation to the term ‘Konfessionalismus’ (Deuerlein 1961; Fahlbusch 1989; Klueting 2001; Graf 2001; Grosse 2019). Scholars in the English-speaking realm of historiography and theology may restrict it to the ‘age of confessionalism 1500–1648’ (Nischan 1999; Fulbrook 2004) – or rather the era of ‘confessionalization’ (Kolb 1996) – while German-speaking scholars tend to use it for defining theological positions and ecclesial developments of the nineteenth century (Blaschke 2002). In this article, the term ‘confessionalism’ is understood as ‘defining the church by confessional document’ (Arand, Nestingen, and Kolb 2012: 5). This holds true, in particular, for the Lutheran church(es) ever since the Augsburg Confession (AC; 1530) ‘became recognized as a secondary authority’ – next to the scriptures – and later on as ‘a defining element of imperial law’ (Gehrt, Hund, and Michel 2019).

Lutheran Confessionalism claims that the teaching of the Book of Concord is derived from and congruent with the Holy Scriptures. Thus, the confessions found in the Book of Concord of 1580 are accepted without qualification because (quia) they are seen to be in accordance with the teachings of the Bible. Therefore, churches that adhere to Lutheran Confessionalism subscribe unconditionally to all the symbolical books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as true and unadulterated statements and expositions of the Word of God. In this regard, they are authoritative for all pastors, congregations, other church workers, but also for elders and lay delegates of synodical conventions of different denominations.

In contrast, Confessional Lutheranism may consider the Lutheran Confessions of the sixteenth century to be the foundation charter of the Lutheran churches, albeit as historical documents only. In the light of, for example, new exegetical insights, these confessions are regarded as binding merely insofar (quatenus) as they are in agreement with the scriptures. Nonetheless, they function as a referential framework to articulate the Lutheran ‘tradition’.

Confessional Lutheranism holds the following convictions: a truly confessional stance does not amount to a retreat to distant historical documents; it derives its positions from scripture and is thus a guideline for the confession of faith. It can be shown that such a guideline is preserved in the Lutheran Confessions themselves, e.g. in Luther’s catechisms (Slenczka 2003: 31). Confessional statements and documents constitute both a scriptural and contemporary guideline for articulating an understanding of Christian existence and Church life (Arand, Nestingen, and Kolb 2012: 1–12, 281f.).

In addition, Confessional Lutheranism nourishes certitudes, such as the gospel and the sacraments which, according to AC VII, create and mark the church’s existence and unity, are not arbitrary in content; rather, their content is defined and quantifiable, and as such can be used to formulate consensus. On this basis, then, doctrinal decisions are possible, even necessary – and such decisions are carried out already in the Confessio Augustana (and the other confessions) in the form of doctrinal condemnations of theological positions or ecclesial practices. It is presupposed that there are clear, plausible, and comprehensible criteria within Holy Scripture for differentiating true from false doctrine; that is, if one follows the convictions of the Lutheran confessions (and, by the way, also the basic assumptions of their opponents!).

It should be noted, at least from a confessional Lutheran point of view (Klän 2011), that, where the authors of the Lutheran Confessions are concerned, Luther is regarded as being the authoritative, hermeneutic frame of reference for the proper understanding of, especially, the Confessio Augustana (FC SD VII 41; Kolb and Wengert 2000: 601). They explicitly follow Luther in determining the relation between the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures and the subordinate Confessions of the early Church as well as the Lutheran Reformation, such that Holy Scripture alone is the ‘one true guiding principle, according to which all teachers and teaching are to be judged and evaluated’ (FC SD, Binding Summary 3; Kolb and Wengert 2000: 527).

However, Holy Scripture remains exclusively canon, whereas the Confessions assume the function of a witness (FC SD, Binding Summary 12; Kolb and Wengert 2000: 529), admittedly with the claim to truth (FC SD, Binding Summary 12; Kolb and Wengert 2000: 529). By contrast, the theologians of one’s own camp are at least on principle not denied the capability of erring (FC SD, Antitheses 19; Kolb and Wengert 2000: 529–531). During the second half of the sixteenth century and with this ‘canonisation’ of Luther, Melanchthon’s scholars, who understood themselves to be Luther’s heirs, attempted to reconstitute and safeguard the tension-filled unity and harmony of Lutheran theology and church.

Right from the outset, the Lutherans claimed that they did ‘not understand the church to be an external government of certain nations’; rather the true Christians were regarded as ‘people scattered throughout the entire world who agree on the gospel and have the same Christ, the same Holy Spirit, and the same sacraments’ (ApolCA VII/VIII, 10; Kolb and Wengert 2000: 175).

In the Lutheran Confessions (Schulz 2009), the Church is defined, according to its Magna Charta in Article VII of the Augsburg Confession, as the 'assembly of saints', commissioned to ‘purely preach and teach the Gospel and to rightly administer the sacraments’, and this Church does not strive for a totalitarian domination of the world: ‘For the Gospel teaches an internal, eternal reality and righteousness of the heart, not an external, temporal one’, but ‘does not overthrow secular government, public order, and marriage’ (AC XVI, 4f., Kolb and Wengert 2000: 48f.).

The Lutheran Confessions as included in the Book of Concord of 1580 are not intended to be anything other than a rendering of the scriptural truth, concentrated on the gospel. The actual meaning and significance of the gospel must therefore conform with both the scriptures and the confession of faith of the Lutheran Reformation (Gassmann and Hendrix 1999: 48–84; Bayer 2008: 68–94).

In this regard, one may speak of a ‘hermeneutic circle’: the confession of faith arises from the Word of God in Holy Scripture and the confession of faith, in turn, affects our understanding of the Word of God in Holy Scripture. It is, however, necessary to ensure that the Word of scripture is and remains prior to the Word of the confession. And to this extent one can even say that the confession of faith is constitutive for the Church, albeit only in this derivative sense. But then it must be ensured that the confession of the Church is and remains subject to the judgment of scripture, as has been formulated in a lastingly valid manner by the Binding Summary of the Formula of Concord (Kolb and Wengert 2000: 527). All in all, the confession focuses on the scriptures and within the scriptures on the focal point of the gospel (Kolb 1991: 20–24).

The confessional documents found in the Book of Concord can be and are intended to be an instruction for understanding what Christian faith is, and what Christian life is. Accordingly, the Lutheran confessions of faith are not simply a collection of propositions and theories, but they form a rule for the practical application of the gospel. In this way, the confessional texts constitute a directive even for pastoral care. Thus, the confessions of faith circumscribe and define a sphere, a framework, in which proclamation and worship are ecclesiastically legitimate (Kolb 1991: 38–41). Unlike the Roman Catholic Church (even after the Second Vatican Council), the Lutheran Church does not possess something like a papal magisterium. This means that there are no single authorities that as such have monopolies of interpretation (Bayer 2008: 68–74).

The confession of a Christian is first to give answer to God’s self-revelation, second to give witness to it; all the while, however, this faith is invested in the life-giving power of the Word of God itself, who desires to reach all people (Kolb 2012: 132). Such a confession is meant to be inviting, since it establishes the bridge between God’s Word in the Holy Scriptures and the different situations and cultures, in which God is awaiting our witness (Kolb 1993: 272, 298).

Confessing, in this understanding, is an act of (Christian) faith, which is created by the very Word of God to which faith is related. (Kolb 1991: 22f.). Conversely, this confession is ‘dependent on’ and ‘initiated by [...] the Word of God’ (Kolb 1991: 17). Nonetheless, it is always contemporary and contextual.

2 Confession – specifying Lutheran identity

Lutheran identity is not first and foremost a special identity; it instead lays claim to catholicity (Johnson and Maxfield 2012). According to the Wittenberg Reformation, to renew the Church meant to remain faithful to the one, holy, catholic church. Notably, it was Nikolaus Selnecker who, in the first edition of the Book of Concord, labelled the early Christian creeds included in it: ‘Tria Symbola Oecumenica – The Three Ecumenical Creeds’ (Kolb and Wengert 2000: 19). For this reason, the renewal of the Church during and after the Reformation has repeatedly been accompanied by the recourse to the scriptures.

According to AC VII, the existence and the unity of the Church depend upon the gospel in the form of the proclamation of the Word in accordance with the scripture, as well as the sacraments in the form of administration in conformity with their institution. Herein consists the identity of the Lutheran Church (Klän 2007: 15–28).

Thus, the confessional attitude is a determinative feature of Lutheran faith, theology, and church, and thus an unmistakeable mark of Lutheran identity. This is due to the fact that ‘confession’, in the Lutheran sense of the term, signifies a responsible reaction to God’s faith-creating action through his word, expressing not only a person’s ‘private’ convictions on religious matters, but formulating an agreement on the obligatory features of Christian faith, revealing the accordance of a person’s belief with the scriptures, and thus, with doctrine of the church.

Therefore, the confessions focus on the centre of scripture, namely the gospel, of which Jesus Christ is the quintessence and the living reality.

Given that the confessional documents of the Lutheran Church both embrace and seek to advance the impact of Luther’s reformational insights, it is of great import to reach an understanding, or establish a ‘consensus’, about what the gospel is:

It is enough for the true unity of the Christian Church [singular, cf. the plural in the Latin text: ad veram unitatem ecclesiae] that the Gospel is preached harmoniously according to a pure understanding and that the sacraments are administered in conformity with the divine Word. (AC VII)

Such ‘consensus’ is therefore to be achieved, or reiterated, consistently. It is obligatory as a permanent task in Lutheran theology and church. In addition, we may observe that the authors of the Lutheran confessions always envision the pastoral dimension of Lutheran identity. In general:

[C]onfessions of a church describe theological aspects which define the identity of a church. They are marked by the historical context in which they were conceived (particularism) and their claim that they address the nature of Christian faith and of the church (universalism). (Brunn 2014)

Those who adhere to Confessional Lutheranism share the opinion that the sixteenth-century confessional documents as collected in the Book of Concord indeed express the Christian doctrine in a binding way. This means that the Confessions are seen as norma normata, ‘the ruled rule’, i.e. expositions of the doctrine found in the Bible and, as such, authoritative due to their source – Holy Scripture itself, which is norma normans, the ‘ruling rule’. For this reason, pastors of the Confessional Lutheran churches, on the day of their ordination to the office of the ministry, subscribe to the confessions ‘because’ (quia) they are regarded to be a true exposition of the scriptural doctrine, not merely quatenus (‘in so far as’) these confessions are viewed to be scriptural. In this way the representatives of Confessional Lutheranism seek to ‘avoid false concepts of ecclesial unity’ and secure and ‘protect the church’s integrity’ (Wenz 2013).

3 The Lutheran confessions from the sixteenth century

The Lutheran ‘confessions’ (Dingel 2014) are written documents presented to a certain audience in order to explain theological positions held by the Wittenberg reformers in the sixteenth century. For the most part, these confessional documents were produced as ‘apologies’ or clarifications of the Wittenberg reformers and their second-generation successors had been asked, or had seen themselves urged to submit. These documents include, in the classical compilation in the Book of Concord (1580), Melanchthon’s Augsburg Confession (1530) and his Apology to the Augsburg Confession (1531), Luther’s Smalcald Articles (1537), Melanchthon’s Treatise on the Power and the Primacy of the Pope (1537), and finally the Formula of Concord (1577). An exception to this rule are Martin Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms (both 1529), which were written for the purpose of elementary Christian instruction after the Saxon visitations in 1527/1528 had brought to light a disastrous ignorance of basic Christian truths even among the clergy (Arand, Nestingen, and Kolb 2012: 1–11).

The term ‘Confession’ was first used in a doctrinal statement by Philipp Melanchthon (Arand, Nestingen, and Kolb 2012: 3). His Confessio Augustana (Augsburg Confession) was submitted by the Protestant estates to Emperor Charles V on the occasion of the Diet of Augsburg and was read out to the estates of the Holy Empire of the German Nation on 25 June 1530. In its first part, Melanchthon listed twenty-one articles of Christian faith. He thereby follows largely the pattern of the Apostles’ Creed beginning with the doctrine of God (AC I; Kolb and Wengert 2000: 36f.) and spanning it to Christ’s second coming (AC XVII; Kolb and Wengert 2000: 50f.).

This document consists of two parts, with articles I to XXI expressing the Wittenberg positions on basic articles of faith, such as God, Christ, sin, justification by faith, the means of grace (the Word of God, the sacraments), the office of the ministry, church order, civic affairs, Christ’s second coming, free will, the cause of sin, faith and good works, and the cult of saints. The second part deals with what was regarded as abuses, customs and practices like celibacy, the Lord’s Supper in two kinds, the Mass, confession, distinction of foods, monastic vows, and the power of bishops.

As a response to the Augsburg Confession, Roman Catholic opponents wrote a ‘Confutation’ (Confutatio Augustana) in order to defend the positions of the papal church (Iserloh 1980; Immenkötter 1981). Melanchthon responded to this by drafting the Apology to the Augsburg Confession which the Emperor refused to accept. Both the Confutation and Melanchthon’s Apology were formed upon the pattern of the Augsburg Confession. Melanchthon continued to work on this Apology. A first version was published together with the final copy of the Augsburg Confession in spring 1531 (‘editio princeps’ [first edition]), with an enlarged version in autumn 1531. The latter found widespread reception in the sixteenth century and thus served as the chief reference text of the Apology in the controversies to follow (Peters 1997).

In 1536, Pope Paul III convened the council the Protestants had been asking for since 1518, including Luther himself. They now were urged to submit their propositions. Elector John the Steadfast of Saxony commissioned Martin Luther to draft a proposal explaining the Saxon positions. Together with Wittenberg colleagues, Luther produced what was later labelled the Smalcald Articles (Bente 1965; Russell 1995; Führer 2009). These covered issues like justification by faith – the ‘chief article’ – Law and Gospel, the means of grace, and others. Remarkably, Luther identified commonalities with those who agreed to the trinitarian and christological dogmas as confessed in the early Christian creeds. At the same time, he regarded the split between the reformational camp and the papal church to be irreversible. With this ‘dialectical approach’, he provided a pattern of distinguishing between, but also evaluating, those matters of fundamental consensus and fundamental dissensus that occur at any one time – and specifically during an ecumenical age.

These articles drafted by Luther, however, were not adopted by the Smalcald League – an alliance of Protestant princes and territories – in its 1537 gathering, although a number of theologians present at the meeting signed them. Instead, Melanchthon composed a statement on the rights and role of the papacy entitled ‘Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope’. This document may be seen as an appendix to the Augsburg Confession, in which the issue of the papacy had not been treated due to diplomatic considerations. Melanchthon denied any ‘divine right’ to be ascribed to the papacy and its Roman hierarchy. He was willing, however, to accept the papacy as a representative of Christian unity, given that the pope would agree to an unhindered proclamation of the gospel as rediscovered by the Reformation. This document, then, became the official proposition of the Smalcald League. The aforesaid council came into existence in 1545 with only a handful of Protestant representatives attending the Council of Trent (‘Tridentinum’; Jedin 1957; 1961; 1970; 1976; O’Malley 2013).

After the Smalcald League had been defeated by imperial troops in the Smalcald War of 1547, Emperor Charles V imposed rules and regulations of church affairs effective during an intermediary period labelled the ‘Augsburg Interim’ (1548). The measures laid down in this resolution were severely enforced in the southern parts of Germany. They displayed a cancellation of most of the reformational achievements, with the exception of the marriage of (Lutheran) priests and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in both kinds. Those Lutheran pastors who adhered to their positions were suspended from their parishes and oftentimes forcefully exiled (Schorn-Schütte 2005).

In the northern parts of Germany, however, the ‘Interim’ could not be executed due to political and religious resistance on the side of Protestant estates and princes. In the newly formed electorate of Saxony, Elector Moritz urged Melanchthon to make suggestions on how to deal with the ‘Interim’. Melanchthon’s Leipzig Proposal – often falsely named ‘Leipzig Interim’ (Kolb and Nestingen 2001: 183–196) – sought to secure the Lutheran doctrine while, at the same time, making concessions in matters that he regarded to be adiaphora; that is, insignificant matters that might be reverted to former usages without violating the centre of the gospel (Peterson 1974). This proposal was never put into effect. Nonetheless it triggered a great many of controversies that occupied the Lutheran camp for the next two and a half decades, and even caused divisions (Wartenberg 2006).

These controversies revolved around issues that needed further clarification within the Wittenberg camp, but also over against the papal church and Calvinist Reformation.

Several attempts to settle the tensions among the heirs of Luther and Melanchthon failed. It was only in the early 1570s that an initiative taken by the Duke of Württemberg, supported by princes and imperial cities particularly in northern Germany and finally joined by the Saxon electorate, succeeded in re-establishing doctrinal unity among most of the Lutheran estates. The means by which this unity was achieved has become known as the Formula of Concord (Wengert 2006). This document consists of two parts, the ‘Epitome’ and the ‘Solid Declaration’, each of them comprising twelve articles. Those dealt with original sin, free will, righteousness of faith, good works, law and gospel, the Lord’s Supper, the person of Christ, Christ’s descent into hell, ecclesiastical practices, eternal predestination and election of God, and finally, other factions alien to the Augsburg Confession. Additionally in this context, decisions taken by the Council of Trent or doctrines held in the Reformed camp were criticized and rejected by doctrinal condemnations. Notable exceptions to this rule are Martin Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms of 1529.

All these documents were included in the Book of Concord published on 25 June 1580, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Augsburg Confession. In addition, the early Christian creeds – explicitly labelled ‘Ecumenical Creeds’ – were included in the Book of Concord and claimed catholicity for the truths confessed in it.

4 The era of confessionalization (1555–1648)

This period is commonly defined as between the ‘Religious Peace of Augsburg’ (1555) and the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1648; see Schilling 1985; Rublack 1992; Reinhard and Schilling 1995; Headley and Hillerbrand 2004). The authors of the Lutheran Confessions were, of course, conscious of the contemporary character of the confessional writings of the sixteenth century, but at the same time deeply committed to confessing the eternal truth of God’s word (Kolb 1999: 449–466). It is noteworthy, however, that nearly all of the Lutheran Confessions found adherence among princes and other ‘secular, or civic’ authorities. They were acting on behalf of their territories in defending the evangelical faith, and at the same time, justifying the ongoing reformation process over against the Pope and the German Emperor (Kolb 1991; Estes 2009: 355–380).

Before the Book of Concord was published, various authorities in the territories adhering to the Lutheran Reformations had already promulgated secondary norms labelled corpora doctrinae (‘body of doctrine’) in order to standardize public proclamation and worship in their churches. Thus, wherever the Book of Concord was installed as corpus doctrinae, it was meant to function, next to the scriptures, as a secondary norm, or standard for preaching, teaching, worship, and ecclesial practices. In this way, the Lutheran confessions moulded the profile of beliefs, worship, piety, and conduct, at least officially (Preus 1972).

But the Book of Concord was not received everywhere in the estates that supported the impulses arising from the Wittenberg reformation, not even within the realm of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Approximately eighty percent of the Lutheran pastors in Germany subscribed to the Book of Concord, sometimes driven by fear of losing their position. Beyond the boundaries of the Empire, the reception process took varied routes. The king of Denmark, Frederick II, for example, bluntly refused to accept the Book of Concord that his sister Anna, the wife of elector August of Saxony, had sent to him (Lockhart 2004). In Sweden, the Book of Concord was accepted only in 1686. In Hungary, for instance, the synod of Žilina (Sillein) accepted it as doctrinal norm in 1610, thus establishing the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession as a separate church body (Batka 2021).

5 The ‘Second Confessionalization’ (nineteenth century)

In turning away from enlightenment and rationalism, various church representatives and theologians identified the Lutheran confessions as relevant reference texts for establishing a personal piety and ecclesial identity. This includes Claus Harms who published 95 theses in Kiel in 1817. With Wilhelm Löhe, Saxony with the theological faculty of Leipzig, Theodor Kliefoth in Mecklenburg, and Friedrich Adolf Philippi in Hanover, territorial churches in Bavaria saw a new confessional awakening (Kantzenbach 1968; Hein 1984). In this context, the formation of confessional Lutheran churches must be positioned historically.

6 The formation of (neo-)confessional Lutheran church bodies in Germany

7 Conflicts on core issues of Confessional Lutheran theology

8 Confessional Lutheran churches in the twentieth century

The independent Lutherans gradually learned to correctly assess the significance of the problems where their paths had diverged. They had to recognize that while interpretation and application of individual articles formed a common basis of the Lutheran Confessions, they were formed under different local, temporal, theological, and non-theological conditions, but this did not significantly affect this common confessional ground

9 New profiles in the twenty-first century

10 World-wide associations of confessional Lutheran churches

11 Confession – determining doctrine and liturgy

12 Conclusion: confession – serving the Una Sancta

The confessional documents of the sixteenth century can be (and are intended to be) a guideline for understanding what Christian faith is, what Christian life is; in other words: how we can exist and lead our lives in the sight of God. Since the answers that can be found in the condensed form of the confessional documents of the sixteenth century (can) have a high degree of plausibility even for today’s contemporaries, they offer at the very least guidance for communicating faith today – the significance of Christian faith for our contemporaries.

The Church’s duty to proclaim Law and Gospel to this time and world has already been fulfilled, and was prescribed in the confessional documents in an exemplary manner. But precisely in this manner, confessional statements or documents constitute a guideline for actual confessing, statements that articulate and make possible an understanding of Christian existence and church life that is simultaneously scriptural and contemporary – purely and simply by proclaiming the will of God and by communicating the gospel.

Hence, the spirit and the contents of the theological documents of past times apply to today, particularly the early Christian creeds and those of the sixteenth century (Klän 2015). Indeed, what is necessary is the transfer of the important heritage of the history of Christianity in general, and the heritage of the Lutheran Reformation in particular. This approach includes an ecumenical dimension as well. Lutherans understand themselves as being at once evangelical, catholic, orthodox, and ecumenical in the best sense of the word by professing a church which shall last forever. ‘It is also taught that at all times there must be and remain one holy, Christian church’ (AC VII; Kolb and Wengert 2000: 42f.)

In a twenty-first-century context, it is necessary to thoroughly analyse what has rightly been labelled ‘a secular age’ (Taylor 2007). This concept of ‘a secular age’ relates to – just to list some examples from a recently published book on ‘Church Theory’ – to what is called the ‘risk society’, ‘individualization’, ‘thrill-seeking society’, ‘media society’, ‘data religion’, theories on ‘world relation’, ‘generations’, and ‘metamorphosis’ (Grethlein 2018: 210). All these phenomena in the so-called ‘developed’ countries, and to some extent beyond, are characterized by ambivalence: increasing welfare is endangered by technical risks, individualization bears the risk of social isolation, internet technologies threaten human beings to be subdued by algorithms (Grethlein 2018: 227). This approach certainly includes empirical, sociological tools in order to describe the ‘reality’ of the church(es) in Germany.

The implications of the global changes for Lutheran identity must be reconsidered within our own ranks. At the same time, we need to emphasise that the roots and aspirations of the Lutheran Church are basically ecumenical. The preface and articles I and VII of the Augsburg Confession in articles I and VII, Luther’s explanation of the third article of the creed, the first part of the Smalcald Articles, and the Binding Summary of the Formula of Concord, just to name a few of the relevant basic texts, are a fundamental witness to this. According to this self-understanding, the Lutheran Confessions function as ‘ecumenical witness’ (Arand, Nestingen, and Kolb 2012: 8).

This ecumenical responsibility was evident among the church fathers during the formation of the German Lutheran churches in the first half of the nineteenth century. In this sense, it was quite logical for Wilhelm Löhe to describe the Lutheran church as the ‘center which unites the confessions’ (Löhe 1969: 155–167).

Living in a post-Christian environment – such as in Europe, but also North America and Australia, with South America and Africa being increasingly secularized – it will be most necessary for the mission of the confessional Lutheran churches to cling faithfully to their biblical and confessional roots, to dedicate themselves to the task of translating and transferring the biblical-Lutheran heritage into a language understood by contemporary people, supported by authentic ways of living and working together. At least this is the historical experience of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK): God can use small circles of true believers and employ minor groups of determined Christians witnessing faithfully to the gospel, as blessed bases for his mission. Forming the self-identity of Lutherans, confessing the Confession is absolutely necessary. Therefore, ‘each generation [sc. Must] make the Confessions its own’ (Winger 1998: 123–154).

Attributions

Copyright Werner Klän (CC BY-NC)

Bibliography

• Further reading

  • Arand, Charles P., James A. Nestingen, and Robert Kolb. 2012. The Lutheran Confessions: History and Theology of the Book of Concord. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress.
  • Bayer, Oswald. 2008. Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation. Translated by Thomas H. Trapp. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  • Bustamante, Roberto. 2020. Contemporary Confessional Commitment: A Models-Based Approach with a Particular Focus on Global South Lutheranism. PhD Dissertation, Concordia Seminary. https://scholar.csl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1078&context=phd
  • Harrison, Matthew T., and John T. Pless. 2012. Women Pastors? The Ordination of Women in Biblical and Lutheran Perspective: A Collection of Essays. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 3rd edition.
  • Harrison, Matthew T., and John T. Pless. 2017. Closed Communion? Admission to the Lord’s Supper in Biblical and Lutheran Perspective. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
  • Johnson, Anna Marie, and John Maxfield (eds). 2012. The Reformation as Christianization: Essays on Scott Hendrix’s Christianization Thesis. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
  • Kampmann, Jürgen, and Werner Klän (eds). 2014. Preußische Union, lutherisches Bekenntnis und kirchliche Prägungen: Theologische Ortsbestimmungen im Ringen um Anspruch und Reichweite konfessioneller Bestimmtheit der Kirche. Oberurseler Hefte 14. Göttingen: Ruprecht.
  • Klän, Werner, and Gilberto da Silva (eds). 2010. Quellen zur Geschichte selbstständiger evangelisch-lutherischer Kirchen in Deutschland: Dokumente aus dem Bereich konkordienlutherischer Kirchen. Oberurseler Hefte 6. Göttingen: Ruprecht. 2nd edition.
  • Kolb, Robert. 1996. Luther’s Heirs Define His Legacy: Studies on Lutheran Confessionalization. Aldershot: Variorum.
  • Klän, Werner. 2019b. ‘Lutheran Identity in a Post-Christian Context: A European Case Study’, Lutheran Theological Review 31: 46–67.
  • Nischan, Bodo. 1999. Lutherans and Calvinists in the Age of Confessionalism. Variorum Collected Studies Series 643. London: Routledge.
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  Klän, Werner. 2023. 'Lutheran Confessionalism', St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. Edited by Brendan N. Wolfe et al. https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/LutheranConfessionalism

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