This Side of the Pulpit » Theology » Evangelical (Catholic)…Really!
Evangelical (Catholic)…Really!
Someone wrote an essay once–I wish I could remember who and credit him–which asked this question: “Pastors hear people complain that our worship at times is ‘too Catholic.’ Why do we never hear people complain that it is ‘too Protestant’ or ‘not Catholic enough’?”
We need to remember that the Lutheran Reformation is just that: a reformation, not a renovation or rebuild. The Lutherans sought to fix what was in error and keep the rest. Indeed, the Confessions argue at many times, Lutherans are not innovators and are truly of a piece with the Catholic Church–only without the medieval errors and such.
This is the foundational identity of the Lutheran Church, what our pastors are supposed to believe, teach and confess…and what our congregations are supposed to believe, teach and confess.
Yet that’s not how a majority of us see ourselves. I grew up thinking that Lutherans were Not-Catholics. Many of us did, even though back then we worshipped even more like the Catholics than we do today. There’s a long history of this in the Missouri Synod–fought by our first Synodical President in addresses and essays and sermons. It’s all there. And still there. Generations of pastors, especially from the late 1930s to the mid 60s emphasized our “Protestant Identity” when the Synod sought to be recognized and a good-ole mainline church body. And let’s face it, up until the Kennedy Administration anti-catholicism was a favorite American past time.
Our purely protestant identity becomes even more pointed in the rural congregations where many people have never been members of another congregation, where the only other Lutheran churches they’ve attended were in the next town and had folks with the same last names. There is much good in this–a community stronger than any suburban congregation. But it’s also idiosyncratic. True Lutheranism is how it’s practiced here, according to my experience.
Let’s face it. One of the greatest benefits in our “global community” is decreasing bigotry. When you see the diversity of God’s creation, it becomes much harder to hate the aliens and barbarians and their customs and broadens the mind to appreciate things that are foreign to us, things outside our tiny bedroom walls. To be sure, the same thing which broadens our minds and experience also has the demonic side of alienating us from our ourselves and killing our own tradition, but it’s not all bad. I’m a better person for living in the Midwest and Deep South and Northern Illinois and at the foot of the Taunus Mountains in Germany.
Recovery our Lutheran identity and practice is no small feat, and I’m not sure it can be done, frankly. But it’s worth the fight. It is who we are. If the Lutheran Confessions mean anything, it is worth the struggle.
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Filed under: Theology · Tags: Catholicism, culture, faith, Lutheranism, Theology, worship
9 Responses to "Evangelical (Catholic)…Really!"
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I think the essay you are thinking of is Is Your Church Catholic Enough? by Pastor James P. Winsor.
In response to “someone wrote an essay once–I wish I could remember who and credit him” perhaps you were thinking of this? http://risenchristlutheran.org/is_your_church_catholic_enough.php
I loved this article when I first found it several years ago.
I suppose if someone were brought up Lutheran and came from a long line of Lutherans this aspect of Lutheran identity and preserving the tradition has a strong appeal…but really the only thing worth preserving is the Truth. If Lutheranism is the Truth then it is worth fighting for. If it is just a tradition in a soup of other traditions each containing more or less Truth…meh.
But keep in mind I wasn’t brought up Lutheran so I have no Lutheran identity to defend and probably don’t fully appreciate the struggle.
Whoops, I see Chris Jones beat me to it while I was hem-hawing around trying to say something while not being offensive. And I probably didn’t even accomplish that!
“Meh?” And BTW, terribly offensive, Dixie!!
Well, that’s what it boils down to if you’re interested in that sort of thing. I think too many of us are not. Give us the comfort of home traditions, the warminess of familiar things and let others worry about things like truth and reality.
It’s probably a disease of America, with our innate pragmaticism and individualism. Applied science and technology doesn’t help these days either. Their search for truth is mostly just a functional by-product of making things easier and more efficient, it seems.
Thanks for the comment. And no, it wasn’t offensive
“But it’s worth the fight.”
Christopher, I love you but I have to disagree. I don’t see how fighting is worth it. Unlike Dixie, I did have a Lutheran identity I thought I had to fight for – and I had a fair amount of pride bound up in that, at least, being in The Struggle for the Truth, even if we never, ever made any progress. The struggle became almost more important than the manifestation of Truth among us (and maybe that’s because it was all we could get – if we couldn’t have the fullness of the Truth, in congregation or synod, we could at least have the Fight). And the fight tore us to shreds. I have come to see that we had been fighting for the truth as if it were some dead, inanimate thing, buried in books and concepts – if we could just force it into our reality…, but the Truth is alive and goes where it wills, bringing peace with it. It didn’t need me to fight it into being.
Surely, as a convert, I ought to be keeping my mouth shut! Christopher, forgive me a torn and wretched sinner if I caused you any offense. But I know how hard it is to fight for something you are not even sure can be done, as you yourself wrote. May God preserve you and give you His peace and Truth.
Emily–no offense from you either! And your words make perfect sense considering your choice.
I’m writing as a Lutheran, of course, and this post is directed to Lutherans. I am humbled and joyed at your friendship, along with that of all others who are not Lutheran who visit here, so I say this not to discourage anyone from reading or posting. I don’t have a policy of moderating comments unless they are crude or hostile, unlike some other blogs. I enjoy the free and open discussion, and welcome everyone to comment.
Having said all that, I believe that the attitudes I write about are found everywhere. I didn’t use the term, but it’s really parochialism that I was arguing against. I’m sure the same phenomena is found in Orthodox Churches–a mix of ethnic familiarity, a stiff-necked resistance to change and so forth. And by that I mean change in the sense of a priest or Bishop calling for more services offered on feast days, for instance, yet the parish resisting that development because of their intractable history and comfort. I think the Orthodox experience the same stuggle viz a viz “traditionalists” and Old-Calendarists, the calls for an authentic Orthodoxy, fleeing from ethnicism, and so forth. In your case, if Orthodoxy is True, then it is worth putting up and struggling against those who deny its power. No?
I guess what I’m saying is that, whereever we are, wherever God has deigned to place us for the time, we are fighting against the forces of darkness which tempt us into making idols and replacing truth with our own spin.
What do you think?
I’m glad you’re not offended – maybe I should try harder!
But seriously, yes, parochialism can be found everywhere. It can be tolerated if you believe the Truth exists there also.
I’m just tired of fighting over theological issues with other people. I’m probably overly sensitive to it. People having problems with more feast days, ethnicity, ect. don’t bother me as much. We are all at different stages in our salvation, of which I am the least. It is more like a family that may not always get along but all share the same vision of where we’re going. And I think you correctly place the fight within ourselves against our own demons and the powers of darkness. It’s pointless to fight our brothers and sister.
I’m also glad and humbled by your friendship. I’m deeply touched that you befriended me for my person and not for my affiliation.
“Our purely protestant identity becomes even more pointed in the rural congregations…” We can certainly identify with that. It’s hard to be the pastor of a rural congregation that doesn’t want communion every week or whatever else because it’s too Catholic. And it’s hard, too, to be the pastor of a congregation where the members “have never been members of another congregation, where the only other Lutheran churches they’ve attended were in the next town and had folks with the same last names”, who’ve been worshiping this way for so long and don’t want to change to a more catholic practice. It’s good work that you do to bring your people along to greater faith and practice.
Emily brings up a good point:
but the Truth is alive and goes where it wills, bringing peace with it. It didn’t need me to fight it into being.
And Pastor Hall, I think you established where the fight really is…
we are fighting against the forces of darkness which tempt us into making idols and replacing truth with our own spin.
…the fight is within us. Truth doesn’t need us to defend it but we are at risk of losing sight of the Truth and that is the battleground–in us. It is much easier if we move the battleground elsewhere. We’re right, they’re wrong…
I forget where I read it but some saint somewhere said if we want things to change, we start with ourselves.
I was talking to my priest last night after confession and we both agreed…the Church is the perfect place to work out one’s salvation…especially true where there are a lot of highly opinionated people!
The comments have me thinking. . . I think too often in Lutheranism we view things in terms of a fight – in terms of some sort of mythical “win”. But that isn’t what Lutheran identity was – it was centered in confessing the truth. And maybe this is why I’m just not as interested in the squabbles of the day – why I get frustrated when people try to prove another foolish than teaching them. It’s why I don’t lament the poor practice I see. . . as though my mere appearance would suddenly make things ideal. My job is to teach Christ, to point, to guide, and then let things happen (or to my sinful, impatient eyes not happen) according to God’s will and timing. I cannot expect perfection anywhere in this sinful world – rather, repentance and the confession of Christ is what I crave. God grant me growth therein!
Oh, and if you see this Emily, give your husband my regards.