Catholic Word of the Day: LUTHERANS, 10-26-12

CatholicReference.net ^ | 10-26-12 | Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary

[Salvation]

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LUTHERANS

Those Protestants who follow the teaching of Martin Luther (1483-1546), as expressed in distinctive confessions of faith that are contained in the Book of Concord, published at Dresden in 1580. In the confessions the Bible is declared to be the only norm of belief, to which even the historic creeds and other traditional statements of faith are to be subordinated. Yet the Bible itself is subordinated to the single basic principle of justification by faith without good works. Since human beings lost their original innocence, which at creation was an essential part of their nature, they are no longer free to do spiritual good but are under the slavery of sin. Redemption means being justified by faith (trust) in Christ, whereby the sinner is considered pleasing to God without any co-operation on a human being's part. Lutherans have remained loyal to this belief, namely confidence that the believer has in fact been saved by the blood of Christ with no merits on a human being's part. To this day it typifies their particular form of Protestantism, which has also been remarkably constant in its allegiance to the person of Luther and to the confessions of personal faith which he inspired.

Besides Germany, where Lutheranism originated, it is the official religion in the Scandinavian countries and has numerous adherents in North America. It is most flourishing where the head of the state is, in effect, also the chief authority in the Church. As such it has contributed substantially to the development of nationalism in the modern world.

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

[Salvation]

A bit of history

[Salvation]

Catholic Word of the Day Ping!

 

Alumbrados	Motive	Light
Arca	Altotting (shrine)	Agony in the Garden
Canterbury Cathedral	Spiritual Father	Nihil ex Nihilo
Abbess	Daydreams	Lutherans

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[Moonmad27]

Thanks for the good reminder of how refreshed I felt when I first became a Lutheran (as an ex-Catholic), right after a trip to Rome. It really was liberating.

[Moonmad27]

Thanks for the good reminder of how refreshed I felt when I first became a Lutheran (as an ex-Catholic), right after a trip to Rome. It really was liberating.

[InvisibleChurch]

Lutherans are Lutherans. Everyone else is a Protestant.

[RayBob]

Lutherans. We’re more Catholic than the Catholics!

[vladimir998]

Lutherans are Protestants.

[redgolum]

True story.

When my bride and I first were engaged, nine years ago, she went to her priest in Lincoln, Nebraska to talk about the challanges of being married to a LCMS Lutheran.

He said “Well, he will be much conservative in religion than most Catholics”. We did marriage prep in both my LCMS and her Catholic parish. The priest joked that he wished most of his Catholic couples were as well versed on things as we were.

In effect, I was more Catholic than many Catholic’s he saw.

[InvisibleChurch]

it's not really a big deal

http://xrysostom.blogspot.com/2005/08/lutheran-or-protestant.html

[vladimir998]

Lutherans are Protestants. That’s just the truth.

[zeugma]

For those who might be interested, I've been reading a book called "True Christianity" for a while now. It was written by Johann Arndt in the early 1600s. It is basically Lutheran apologetics. I've found it to be a great read, though the writing style of the translator is a little bit more flowery, and King Jamesish, which makes it a slow read (for me at least).

If you'd like a copy you can pick it up here in many different formats from Project Gutenberg.