عنوان

Lutherans, Bishops, and the Divided Church

LA109339

انگلیسی

Lutherans, Bishops, and the Divided Church

[Article]

Bruce Marshall

Leiden

Brill

Lutheran teaching on ministry, as embodied in the Lutheran Confessions, includes a strong preference for the traditional episcopate and threefold ministry of the Western church, while granting that the church can, if necessary, live without them. This teaching permits Lutheran churches that do not have episcopal succession to adopt it from churches (whether or not Lutheran) that do. As the ongoing controversy over the Lutheran/Anglican agreement in the US exemplifies, however, Lutheran churches have been highly resistant to this step. The reasons for this are not peculiar to Lutheranism, but lie in the assumption of denominational self-sufficiency which affects virtually all modern ecumenism. Lutheran teaching on ministry, as embodied in the Lutheran Confessions, includes a strong preference for the traditional episcopate and threefold ministry of the Western church, while granting that the church can, if necessary, live without them. This teaching permits Lutheran churches that do not have episcopal succession to adopt it from churches (whether or not Lutheran) that do. As the ongoing controversy over the Lutheran/Anglican agreement in the US exemplifies, however, Lutheran churches have been highly resistant to this step. The reasons for this are not peculiar to Lutheranism, but lie in the assumption of denominational self-sufficiency which affects virtually all modern ecumenism.

2005

25-42

Ecclesiology

1/2

1745-5316

Bruce Marshall

10.1177/1744136605051885

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y