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LUTHERANS

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 142 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LUTHERANS , the See also:

general See also:title given to those Christians who have adopted the principles of See also:Martin See also:Luther in his opposition to the See also:Roman See also:Church, to the followers of See also:Calvin, and to the sectaries of the times of the See also:Reformation. Their distinctive name is the Evangelical, as opposed to the Reformed church. Their dogmatic symbols are usually said to include nine See also:separate See also:creeds which together See also:form the See also:Book of See also:Concord (Liher Concordiae). Three belong to the See also:Early See also:Christian church—the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed (in its Western form, i.e. with the fclioque), and the so-called Athanasian Creed; six come from the 16th See also:century—the See also:Augsburg See also:Confession, the See also: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 See also:Short See also:Catechism may therefore be said to contain the distinctive principles which all Lutherans are See also:bound to maintain, but, as the See also: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 See also:acceptance is perhaps due to the fact that it exists in two forms (the variata and the invariata) which vary slightly in the way in which they See also:state the See also:doctrine of the See also:sacrament of the Supper. The variata edition was signed by Calvin, in the meaning, he said, of its author See also:Melanchthon. After Mther's See also:death the more rigid Lutherans declared it to be their See also:duty to preserve the status religions in Germania per Lutherum instauratus, and to See also:watch over the depositum Jesu Christi which he had committed to their See also:charge. As Luther was a much greater preacher than a systematic thinker, it was not easy to say exactly what this See also:deposit was, and controversies resulted among the Lutheran theologians of the 16th century. The Antinomian controversy was the earliest (1537-1560).

It arose from See also:

differences about the precise meaning of the word " See also:law " in Luther's distinction between law and See also:gospel. Luther limited the meaning of the word to mean a definite command accompanied by threats, which See also:counts on terror to produce obedience. He declared that See also:Christ was not under the dominion of the law in this sense of the word, and that believers enter the Christian See also:life only when they transcend a See also:rule of life which counts en selfish motives for obedience. But law may mean ethical rule, and the See also:Antinomians so understood it, and interpreted Luther's See also: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 See also:Catholic church, had their parallel in three separate disputes among the Lutherans lasting from 1550 to 1580. (1) See also:George See also:Major, discussing the relation of See also:good See also:works to See also:conversion, declared that such works were both useful and necessary to holiness. He was attacked by See also:Flacius and See also:Amsdorf, and after a See also:long controversy, full of ambiguities and lacking in the See also:exhibition of guiding principles, he was condemned because his statement savoured of Pelagian-ism. (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 See also:Holy Spirit the See also:work might be compared to reviving a See also: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 See also:

sin was See also:part of the substance of man in his fallen See also:condition. It was answered that sin had not totally destroyed man's ethical nature, and that See also:grace changed what was morally insensitive into what was morally sensitive, so that there could be a co-operation between See also:God's grace and man's will. The controversy raised by See also:Andrew See also:Osiander was more important. He See also:felt that Luther had omitted to make adequate See also:answer to an important See also:practical question, how Christ's death on the See also:cross could be brought into such actual connexion with every individual believer as to be the ground of his actual See also:justification. The See also:medieval church had spanned the centuries by supposing that Christ's death was continuous down through the See also:age in the See also:sacrifice of the See also:Mass; See also:Protestant See also:theology had nothing See also:equivalent. He proposed to See also: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 See also: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 See also:change the attitude of God towards the whole human See also:race, and that, in consequence, when men come into being and have faith, they can take See also:advantage of the change of attitude effected by the past historical work of Christ. The Reformed church, on the other See also:hand, constructed their See also:special doctrine of the limited reference in the See also:atonement. The other controversies concerned mainly the doctrine of the sacrament of the Supper, and Luther's theory of See also:Con-substantiation. This required a doctrine of Ubiquity, or the omnipresence of the See also: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 See also:

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 See also:defence of the See also:idea of ubiquity. The university of See also:Jena, led by See also:Matthias Flacius, was the headquarters of the stricter Lutherans, while See also:Wittenberg and See also: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 See also:Torgau Book (1576). In the end, the greater proportion adopted the Book of Concord (1597), drafted chiefly by See also:Jacob Andreae of See also:Tubingen, Martin See also:Chemnitz of See also:Brunswick and See also:Nicolas Selnecker of Leipzig. Its recognition was mainly due to the efforts of See also:Augustus, elector of See also:Saxony. This Book of Concord was accepted by the Lutheran churches of See also:Sweden and of See also:Hungary in 1593 and 1597; but it was rejected by the Lutheran churches of See also:Denmark, of See also:Hesse, of See also:Anhalt, of See also:Pomerania and of several of the imperial cities.

It was at first adopted and then rejected by Brunswick, the See also:

Palatinate and See also:Brandenburg. The churches within See also:Germany which refused the Book of Concord became for the most part Calvinistic or Reformed. They published, as was the See also:fashion among the Reformed churches, separate creeds for themselves, but .almost all accepted the See also:Heidelberg Catechism. These differences in the See also:German Protestant churches of the second See also:half of the 16th century are reflected in the See also:great See also:American Lutheran church. The church exists in three separate organizations. The General See also:Synod of the Evangelical Church of the See also:United States, organized in 1820, has no other creed than the Augsburg Confession, so liberally interpreted as not to exclude Calvinists. The Synodical See also:Conference of See also:North See also:America, organized in 1872, compels its pastors to subscribe to the whole of the nine creeds contained in the Book of Concord. The General See also:Council, a See also:secession from the General Synod, was organized in 1867, and accepts the " unaltered " (invariata) Augsburg Confession in its See also: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 See also:Thirty Years' See also:War, and various attempts were made to unite the two confessions. Conferences were held at Leipzig (1631), See also:Thorn (1645), See also:Cassel (1661); but without success. At length the See also:union of the two churches was effected by the force of the See also:civil authorities in See also:Prussia (1817), in See also:Nassau (1817), in Hesse (1823), in Anhalt-See also:Dessau (1827) and elsewhere. These unions for the most part aimed, not at incorporating the two churches in doctrine and in See also:worship, but at bringing churches or congregations professing different confessions under one See also:government and discipline.

They permitted each See also:

congregation to use at See also:pleasure the Augsburg Confession or the Heidelberg Catechism. The enforced union in Prussia was combined with the publication of a new See also:liturgy intended for See also:common use. This led to secessions from the state church. These seceders were at first treated with great harshness, but have won theirway to See also:toleration, and form the Lutheran See also: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 See also:nonconformist church (1845 being the date of its See also:complete recognition by the state). At the 1905 See also:census it numbered 51,600 members under 75 pastors. Its affairs are managed by an Oberkirchencollegium, with four ordained and two See also: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 See also:Liegnitz. The In-dependent Evangelical Lutheran church in the lands of Hesse arose partly on See also:account of the slumbering opposition to the union of 1823 and more particularly in consequence of an See also:attempt made at a stricter union in 1894. It has a membership of about 1800.

The renitente church of See also:

Lower Hesse has a membership of 2400. The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of See also:Hanover has a membership of 3050 under ro ordained pastors. The Hermannsburg Free Church has a membership of about 2000 under 2 pastors. The Evangelical Lutheran Community in See also:Baden has a membership of about rroo with 2 ordained pastors. The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Saxony has a member-See also:ship of about 3780 with r 5 ordained pastors. These free churches exist separate from the State Evangelical United Church (Evangelische unirte Landskirche). The general See also: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 See also:jus episco See also:pale 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. See also:Richter, in his Evangelische Kirchenordnungen See also:des z6ten Jahrhunderts (2 vols., 1846), has collected more than one See also: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 See also:

language understood by the See also:people, and that all ideas and actions which were superstitious and obscured the See also: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 See also:external features of the medieval churches were retained; but the See also:minor altars, the tabernacula to contain the See also:Host, and the See also:light permanently burning before the See also:altar, were done away with. The ecclesiastical See also:year with its fasts and festivals was retained in large measure. In 1526 Luther published the German Mass and See also:order of Divine Service, which, without being slavishly copied, served as a See also:model for Lutheran communities. It retained the altar, See also:vestments and See also: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 See also:uniform Lutheran liturgy. In his celebrated Codex Liturgicus Ecclesiae Lutheranae in epitomen redactus (Leipzig, 1848), See also:Daniel has used 98 different liturgies and given specimens to show the differences which they exhibit. The divergences in See also: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 See also:interpretation of their theological formulas.

A liberal and a conservative theology (rationalist and orthodox) exist See also:

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 See also:simple See also:standard as the Apostles' Creed. The extreme divergence in doctrinal position is fostered by the fact that the theology taught in the See also: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 See also:country cannot be held to See also:express the thoughts of the members of the churches. In each state the See also:sovereign is still held to be the summus episcopus. He appoints a See also: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 See also:property, patronage and all other ecclesiastical matters. But each See also: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 See also:councils form the Landessynode. In cases that See also:call for consultation together, the Consistorium and the Synod appoint committees to confer. In See also:Alsace-See also:Lorraine about half of those entitled to See also:vote appear at the polls; but in other districts of Germany very little See also:interest is shown in the elections to the parish councils. The income of the state churches is derived from four See also:sources. The state makes an See also:annual See also:provision for the stipends of the See also:clergy, for the See also: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 See also:foreign See also:missions, clerical See also: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 See also:

national churches and are administered by the supreme council. Each parish is legally entitled to See also: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 See also:local parish councils. The number of these benefices is always increasing; and in 1897 they amounted to 16,400, or 300 more than in 189o. The state appoints to 56 %, private and municipal patrons to 34%, and congregations to ro % of the whole. Customs vary in different states; thus in See also:Schleswig-See also:Holstein the state nominates but the parish elects; in Alsace-Lorraine the directorium or supreme See also:consistory appoints, but the See also:appointment must be confirmed by the See also: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 See also:Norway have retained the episcopate. In all of them the See also:king is recognized to be the summus episco pus or supreme authority in all ecclesiastical matters, but in Norway and Sweden his power is somewhat limited by that of See also:parliament: The king exercises his ecclesiastical authority through a minister who super-intends See also:religion and See also: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 See also:schools. In Sweden they preside over local consistories composed of clerical and lay members.

The episcopate in all three countries accommodates itself to some-thing 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 See also:

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, See also:Bavaria, Saxony and Wurttemburg; and the Evangelicals in the other districts of Germany, especially in the large cities. There is a growing tendency tomixed marriages, which are an important See also:factor in religious changes.

End of Article: LUTHERANS

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