SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 4 - N. 4 - 1998 - January - IV
From: CIOFS Bulletin, 1997, N. 4
Marianne Powell
part 3
Different modes of believing:
Though as we have seen, at the theological level the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches have reached an advanced stage of agreement regarding the content of faith, important points are still outstanding; further, the reception process on the part of the faithful in the two churches is a different issue altogether. There is much more to faith than theology.
While in unofficial dialogues between the two churches great importance was initially attached to establishing what was common ground, a lot of effort in ecumenical work these days goes into establishing what divides us. The reason for this is that those who take part in unofficial ecumenical dialogues have found that only people with a clear and conscious religious identity are fit partners in a dialogue, they alone are likely to have something meaningful to say to one another. And since the two churches have the same basis, the same sources and confess the same truths, it still makes sense to define themselves in relation to each other. The growing consensus at the theoretical theological level does not obscure the fact that in the two churches we are dealing with two very different modes of believing and two very different ways of thought.
Truth
Something as basic as the concept of truth is differently understood. While Catholics acknowledge an objective truth, which can be known and defined, and which is expressed in a formulation that is binding for our conscience through dogma, taught by the infallible Magisterium, the Lutheran position is less clear. Lutherans have a reluctance to accept dogma formulated once and for all.
While the Catholic Church sees itself as representing infallible dogmatic truths, the present day Lutheran position is more modest in its claims. As human beings and as Church, it says, we do not command an absolute infallible dogmatic truth. Holy Scripture doesn't offer it to us, and we cannot produce it ourselves. We must on this point respect the limits set for us as creatures. Many individual dogmatic truths, the Lutherans say, must in the nature of things remain controversial. When you realize the diversity of types of teaching in the New Testament you know that you cannot find univocal scriptural proof for all dogmatic questions.
The Lutheran position thus offers certain difficulties when it comes to establishing what is truth, and in fact the Lutheran Church does not accept the idea that one person can speak for the rest when it comes to stating what is Lutheran belief. Even within one country where the Church is established no one bishop can define the faith on behalf of the Church. The Lutheran understanding of truth is dynamic-existential. Luther himself saw the interpretation of Scripture as a combination of scholarly objective knowledge and personal internal appropriation of the message.
We can see that the two positions are vitally different, and though as Catholics we would naturally have to agree with Cardinal Newman's famous dictum that -"not in dialectics has it pleased our God to redeem his people"-, we must also admit that the Lutheran position is more open to a development in the understanding of faith.
God's option for the world
One of the principles for Catholic statements of faith is the principle of God's option for the world. God has in Jesus Christ chosen the incarnation, the cross and the resurrection. Thus God has -"uttered himself"- in the human. He chose this way and no other. With the help of the Spirit God chooses certain bearers of this decision, gives them authority and sends them out in an -"impersonal"- ministry. God's decision is present in history, and in this way we are to understand the Church with its office, sacraments and the Word.
The Lutherans also acknowledge God's decision, but the decision, his Word, remains more or less radically outside history and above it.
The Catholic position, which also involves the belief in the direct, unbroken line to the divine which it claims to represent, is an almost heathen thought to a Lutheran. The Lutheran protest in its most extreme form is expressed by the theologian Paul Tillich, who argues that what the Reformation brought to light was the prophetic principle, which was present in ancient Christianity, but got lost in the course of history. Protestantism, he says, claims God's absolute majesty and raises a prophetic protest against any human claim - ecclesial or profane - to absolute truth and authority. Protestantism affirms the divine sovereignty over the institutions and dogma of Christian churches and protests against all attempts to bind the Christian message to the form and ordinance of any historical church.
Many unfortunate aspects of the Roman Catholic Church, especially in its pre-Reformation state, are to be blamed for this extreme position. The sharp distinction between God himself and his presence in the Church which we find in Lutheranism, is by and large a reaction to the abuse which Luther found in the Church of his day. God's involvement with mankind according to a Lutheran way of thinking is limited to his word of proclamation, the -"viva vox evangelii"- (the living voice of the gospel), as Luther had it. Not through institutions, human beings or offices do we reach faith and salvation, but through the word alone. That was the Protestant position at the time of the Reformation.
Catholics on the other hand believe that God has taken the earth into his service in its historical forms, and that God himself has founded this reality. This is offensive to the Protestants because it seems to limit the majesty of God. As against this, Catholics feel that Tillich operates with anidea of the divine rather than the concrete God of the Bible, who has acted in the world through his incarnation. It is true that Tillich is more extreme in his views than the majority of Lutherans, but I have chosen to refer to his position because illustrating a view in its extreme form makes it easier to understand, and the basic difference in Catholic and Lutheran modes of thought becomes clearer. It is also important to remember that though throughout this article I have spoken of a -"Lutheran Church"-, there is really not one Lutheran Church, but a Lutheran Christianity representing variety and plurality. I have nevertheless chosen to speak of Lutheranism as a Church because it sees itself as such and is acknowledged by our Church as such. There are more ways of -"being church"- than the clearly circumscribed Catholic universal model.
Classical points of controversy
If we look at the classical questions that have produced controversy between the two churches, most of them have been resolved in the ecumenical dialogue. Nevertheless they remain - not as points over which we fight, but as differences in accentuation. In this context we must mention the question of salvation by faith or good deeds. This is no longer considered a church-dividing problem. Nevertheless, Lutherans would be more prone to talk of faith alone as the saving agent, while Catholics are happy to talk of cooperating with God in his work of salvation. Scripture and tradition are no longer considered as being in opposition with each other. Biblical studies have shown that Scripture itself represents tradition. Nevertheless, Protestants think that Catholics tend to place Scripture under the magisterium, while Catholics criticize the individualistic use of Scripture on the part of Protestants. Word and sacrament are no longer in opposition. Earlier the Protestant Church was often referred to as the -"Church of the Word"-, while the Catholic Church was called the -"Church of the Sacraments"-. This opposition is no longer accepted, but a difference in accentuation remains.
As indicated above, however, one big question remains: our different understanding of what it means to be church. The question has two aspects which belong to the classical controversy, and which are not yet resolved.