Neo-Lutheranism

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Neo-Lutheranism was a 19th century revival movement within Lutheranism, which began as a reaction against Pietism. This movement focused on a reassertion of the identity of Lutherans as a distinct group within the broader community of Christians, with a renewed focus on the Lutheran Confessions as a key source of Lutheran doctrine. Associated with these changes was a renewed focus on traditional doctrine and liturgy, which paralleled the growth of Anglo-Catholicism in England This is an extract from Scherer's 1968 Ph.D. thesis, "Mission and Unity in Lutheranism". Scherer was Professor of World Mission and Church History at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago until his retirement.. Lutheran churches whose doctrine and liturgy are more similar to that of Roman Catholic, Anglo-Catholic, and Orthodox churches are sometimes described as High Church Lutheran and occasionally as Evangelical-Catholic (although the term Evangelical-Catholicism is largely used by Roman Catholics who have adopted positions and pieties of Protestant Evangelicalism). High Church Lutheranism is one example of a high church movement.

Martin Luther never intended to establish a separate denomination within Western Christianity. Contrasting with Zwingli and Calvin, Luther did not willingly leave the Roman Catholic Church, but was excommunicated. The Confessional documents in the Lutheran Book of Concord make this position clear. Consequently, a key distinction between the beliefs of the neo-Lutherans and many other Protestant groups is that the former hold that Lutheran Churches are merely a reformed version of the Roman Catholic Church.

As the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada states it: "We derive our teachings from the Holy Scriptures and confess the three ecumenical creeds of the Christian church. We hold to orthodox catholic theology as enunciated in the ecumenical councils of the first five centuries of Christianity."[link]

While most Lutheran traditions have continued with liturgical practice and episcopal structure, High Church Lutheranism stresses these aspects. High Church Lutheranism is characteristic of the Church of Sweden.

Several national Lutheran institutions have their historic roots within the greater Catholic Church. For instance, the Church of Norway, which is the state Lutheran church of that country, was established well over five hundred years before the Reformation by St. Olaf, a Catholic. When Scandinavia chose the side of Lutheranism during the Reformation, the Church of Norway underwent an internal reorganisation, ending its affiliation with Rome.

See also

• Anglo-Catholicism
• Pietism
• Confessional Lutheran
• Evangelical catholic
• High church
• High Church Lutheranism
• Lutheranism
• Lutheran World Federation
• Porvoo Communion

Neo-Lutherans

• Karl Friedrich August Kahnis
• Claus Harms
• Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg
• Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe
• Gottlieb Christoph Adolf von Harless
• Johann Christian Konrad von Hofmann
• Friedrich Julius Stahl
• Theodosius Harnack
• C.F.W. Walther

References