The Unsettled German Discussions of Justification: Abiding Differences and Ecumenical Blessings (original) (raw)

Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

Encyclopedia of Christianity Online

The doctrine of justification was of central importance for the Lutheran Reformation of the sixteenth century. It was held to be the "first and chief article" 1 and at the same time the "ruler and judge over all other Christian doctrines." 2 The doctrine of justification was particularly asserted and defended in its Reformation shape and special valuation over against the Roman Catholic Church and theology of that time, which in turn asserted and defended a doctrine of justification of a different character. From the Reformation perspective, justification was the crux of all the disputes. Doctrinal condemnations were put forward both in the Lutheran Confessions 3 and by the Roman Catholic Church's Council of Trent. These condemnations are still valid today and thus have a church-dividing effect. 2.For the Lutheran tradition, the doctrine of justification has retained its special status. Consequently it has also from the beginning occupied an important place in the official Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue. 3.Special attention should be drawn to the following reports: "The Gospel and the Church" (1972) 4 and "Church and Justification" (1994) 5 by the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Joint Commission, "Justification by Faith" (1983) 6 of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue in the USA and "The Condemnations of the Reformation Era-Do They Still Divide?" (1986) 7 by the Ecumenical Working Group of Protestant and Catholic theologians in Germany. Some of these dialogue reports have been officially received by the churches. An important example of such reception is the binding response of the United Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Germany to the "Condemnations" study, made in 1994 at the highest possible level of ecclesiastical recognition together with the other churches of the Evangelical Church in Germany. 8 4.In their discussion of the doctrine of justification, all the dialogue reports as well as the responses show a high degree of agreement in their approaches and conclusions. The time has therefore come to take stock and to summarize the results of the dialogues on justification so 1 The Smalcald Articles, II,1; Book of Concord, 292. 2 "Rector et judex super omnia genera doctrinarum" Weimar Edition of Luther's Works (WA), 39,I,205. 3 It should be noted that some Lutheran churches include only the Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism among their binding confessions. These texts contain no condemnations about justification in relation to the Roman Catholic Church. 4

Eberhard Jüngel and Wolfhart Pannenberg as Interpreters of the Doctrine of Justification

The Lutheran-Roman Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), signed in 1999, remains one of the most significant ecumenical achievements. Furthermore, it paves the way towards the ecumenical celebration of 500 years of Reformation in 2017. However, the declaration awakened strong criticism, especially during the preparation and publication phase, and has to some extent continued to do so since that time. 1 Professor (em.) Eberhard Jüngel, a United Church (Reformed-Lutheran) theologian, started wide discussion among German university theologians which led to a critical statement, signed by 160 German professors. Surprisingly enough, Jüngel himself did not, in the end, sign the statement but pointed out that JDDJ gives an opportunity to move beyond doctrinal judgments to continue the work with these questions. 2 I would like to investigate Jüngel's (b. 1934) understanding of the doctrine of justification and to ask why he arrived at a critical position whereas another noteworthy German systematic theologian, internationally even more famous than Jüngel, the Lutheran Wolfhart Pannenberg (b. 1928) considered the criticism too sharp and saw in it echoes of the old controversy theology model of building Protestant identity in a negative way, through distancing itself from Rome. According to Pannenberg, the criticism did not do justice to the text of JDDJ. He asks: " How can anyone who has read the Joint Declaration make such ungrounded claims? " 3 In order to uncover the points of departure in the thought of these theologians, in addition to their confessional backgrounds, let us first analyze the arguments in their theologies of justification and compare their positions before drawing conclusions regarding the broader theological and ecumenical implications of their positions.

An Orthodox Perspective on the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

The Ecumenical Review, 2019

In 1999, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, one of the main points at issue at the time of the 16th-century Reformation. This article seeks to offer an Orthodox perspective on the Joint Declaration, through presenting an "Orthodox" approach to the doctrine of justification as the doctrine is set out in the text of the Joint Declaration. The article then discusses how this approach is reflected in the three international and regional dialogues between the Orthodox Church and the churches of the Reformation that took place almost simultaneously with the dialogue leading to the Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declaration.

21. Justification by Faith—or Justification by Baptism? Recent Lutheran–Roman Catholic dialogue

This article analyses statements concerning justification and statements concerning baptism in two Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogues at the close of the twentieth century: Justification: A Common Statement of the Australian Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue (1998) and Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: The Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church (1999). Notwithstanding the Lutheran assertion that Justification is by Faith alone, these statements present a view of Justification by Baptism in denominations in which the predominant mode of baptism is infant christening.

Justification and Sanctification: a Conversation Between Lutheranism and Orthodoxy

An enduring problem in Lutheran theology is the widely recognized gap between justification and sanctification, a divide that encourages spiritual passivity. In a study of the Lutheran-Orthodox dialogues, this article proposes that Orthodox theology has an important contribution to the overcoming of this artificial division. By comparing both Lutheran and Orthodox theology, the study finds that both traditions hold that the mediating term between justification and sanctification is "faith