|
| |
|
The
Reformation |
|
| For information about the
Reformation from the ELCA, please visit the ELCA
website and search on the topic "Reformation." |
|
| Martin Luther (1483-1546), an Augustinian monk
and priest, found errors in the church in his time. Despite Luther's
efforts to correct and reform the medieval church, the Reformation
established a separate Christian church having allegiance to God Alone,
the Word Alone, Grace Alone, and Faith Alone. |
|
|
| Martin Luther had been a monk for some years when he
attempted to start a debate on issues that were troubling the Church. He
posted 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church doors (an invitation to debate
the issues) and found that the 95 Theses were copied and distributed throughout the German-speaking regions of Europe. Over time, and
after much prayer and anguish, Luther separated from the medieval Roman
church. Luther was not the first to promote changes to medieval teachings
(a Czech reformer, Hus, had been executed before Luther's time for
teaching many of the same ideas) but Luther was ultimately the first
successful Reformer.
Among many of his reforms, Luther stepped away from the idea that
priests should not be married; eventually, Luther himself married and
became the father of several children. All Lutheran pastors today are free
to marry or not marry, although all branches of Lutheran Christianity
require celibacy for unmarried clergy.
Luther strongly opposed indulgences, the practice of giving
money in order to free the soul of a departed loved one from Purgatory,
asking that if the pope of Rome could free a soul from Purgatory for
money, why in the name of mercy did he not simply empty the place.
Lutheran theology rejected the concept of Purgatory completely.
Luther was asked to appear before the Diet (a parliamentary-style body
of German nobles) and the Emperor, and was asked to recant (take back) his writings.
After asking for extra time to consider, Luther defended his books, and
refused to recant, saying, "Here I stand. God help me.
Amen."
Luther's supporters kidnapped Luther after the Diet, fearing treachery
on the part of the Emperor, and he spent time in hiding, working on
translating the Bible among other occupations, before he returned to
public life and preaching. Eventually, the Lutheran church, growing from
Luther's writings and teachings, became a separate Christian church with
no affiliation with the church of Rome at all. |
|
| The Lutheran Church in the United States is not a single
organization but a number of groups of Lutheran churches, all adhering to the Holy Scriptures, with Lutheran teachings
explained, discussed, and illustrated in Luther's own works; see the Book
of Concord site. The Smalcald
Articles and the Augsburg
Confession also contain more information about Lutheran Christianity.
The great diversity of Lutheran churches in the US is due in part to the
fact that many separate church bodies were formed as immigrants to the US
established new churches with links to the churches of their countries of
origin. Many of these church bodies have consolidated, and the ELCA, the
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), and the Wisconsin Evangelical
Lutheran Synod (WELS) are the three largest Lutheran church bodies in the
US.
Although all of these forms of Lutheran Christianity trace their roots
to Luther and the documents linked above, modern divisions are not usually
ethnic but related to doctrine or practice. The ELCA, for example, ordains
women as pastors, while the LCMS and WELS do not. The WELS is more strict
in some practices than the LCMS; generally, the smaller Lutheran bodies,
such as the ELS (Evangelical Lutheran Synod), are more conservative
theologically than the larger bodies.
|
|
| For more information about Martin Luther, you may wish to
read a biography of Luther, several of which are available in the CTK
library. |
|
| Would you like to read more of Luther's writings?
Visit Project
Wittenberg, a website (with connections to the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod) that serves as an online archive of many of
Luther's writings. Luther wrote many books, essays, treatises, letters,
sermons, and other thoughts. Luther was also the first to translate the
Bible into German. When you read Luther's works, remember that he wrote in
an age before computers, when writing meant obtaining paper (not cheap!)
and ink, taking a feather (usually from a goose), carving the feather's
end to a point, and dipping the point, every few letters, into an
inkwell. Think about writing the entire Bible by hand using that method!
Yet Luther's translation of the Bible represents only a fraction of the
total pages of materials that Luther wrote.
|
|
|
The
Lutheran Churches in America |
|
| Martin Luther established the practice that the Sunday worship service
should be conducted in the language of the people, not in Latin as was the
practice of the Roman church in those days. As Lutheran Churches in Europe
were established, the churches took on the local customs and languages.
When people immigrated to the United States from various European
countries, they established churches with ties to the customs and
languages of their homelands.
Thus, from early days, Lutherans in the US were fragmented, mostly
along the lines of national origin. Over the course of years, especially
as the English-speaking children of the immigrants became larger in
number, the custom of holding services in other languages dwindled.
Gradually, the various national churches merged into larger bodies. In
1958, several predecessor bodies formed The American Lutheran Church, and
another merger created the Lutheran Church in America.
One of the largest Lutheran organizations in the US was the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), whose members originally were generally of
German descent. In the 1970s and 1980s some congregations of the LCMS,
unable to find common ground with the leadership of the LCMS, left that
group and founded the American Evangelical Lutheran Church (AELC.)
In 1988, the ALC, AELC, and LCA voted to become a new organization, the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
There are other Lutheran church organizations, some created by
immigration, some by doctrinal stands, that exist today. In size, after
the ELCA and the LCMS, there is the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS),
which is very conservative in its doctrine, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod
(also very conservative), the Church of the Lutheran Confession, and other
small organizations of congregations.
|
|
Differences between various Lutheran groups |
|
| All major Lutheran churches follow the Scriptures and the
Apostles and Nicene Creeds, and the Athanasian creed, and generally accept
the Augsburg Confession and related works, such as the Smalcald Articles
and the Book of Concord.
Differences between Lutheran groups today consists of differences of
geographic or ethnic origin, emphasis on certain items of doctrine, and,
to some extent, worship practices.
Almost all Lutheran churches worship in the language of the people
where they are located; some Lutheran churches retained for many years at
least one service in the language of the immigrants who founded the
church; many churches still have occasional services in those languages to
remember and honor their founders.
Some Lutheran churches, like CTK, practice open Communion, wherein all
who believe that they receive, in the elements of bread and wine, the true
body and blood of Christ, are welcome. Other Lutheran denominations
practice a more restricted form of Communion, allowing only members to
commune, not visitors, unless the visitor affirms a commonality of belief
by speaking with the pastor before Communion. |
|
|
|
|
