The Contemplative Lutheran

A former Lutheran pastor once remarked to me that the Confessional Lutheran position is that only Lutherans are saved. The wrongness of this opinion is quite excessive. The present exposition of the Confessional Lutheran position aims to make it abundantly clear that our ecclesiology is not sectarian, but is properly catholic. To begin, Martin Chemnitz and Jakob Andreae, in the Preface to the Book of Concord , deny as false the reading that only Confessional Lutherans can be saved. The Lutheran Church believes, teaches, and confesses: "20 As to the condemnations, censures, and rejections of godless doctrines, and especially of that which has arisen concerning the Lord’s Supper, these indeed had to be expressly set forth in this our declaration and thorough explanation and decision of controverted articles, not only that all should guard against these condemned doctrines, but also for certain other reasons could in no way have been passed by. Thus, as it is in no way our design and...

An ongoing debate within Confessional Lutheran churches is the question of Contemporary Worship vs. historically rooted Liturgical Worship. This brief treatment intends to expose the heart of that which drives Contemporary Worship. Through this exposure, the implicit excellence of historically rooted Liturgical Worship, which is already the position advocated in our Lutheran Confessions, will be made all the more plain. To begin, the Contemporary Worship movement, frequently abbreviated as CoWo, is the actualization of a philosophy of conformance and capitulation to culture. It is culture-reactive and derivative, which is why it inspires neither respect nor reverence. It is more than just a preference about style, because style itself is philosophy in action. That's precisely how marketing and branding function to sell things. To say CoWo is merely about stylistic preference is thus to misunderstand the depth of the ideological motivation energizing CoWo, which is essentially pop m...

As a consequence of sola Scriptura , one of the things we as Lutherans identify with and stress is the Patristic tradition of theology. Being a “conservative Reformation” of the Western Catholic Church, our conception of catholicity includes the witness of the Fathers who have gone before us. For example, we can hardly read a page in the Book of Concord without encountering an affirmative reference to the Church Fathers. We read mention therein of Irenaeus, Basil, Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, and Cyril of Alexandria, to name only a few. The Fathers of the Lutheran Church, from Luther and Melanchthon, to Chemnitz and Andreae, and further on to Gerhard, Quenstedt, and Calov, we see persistent and typically positive reference to the Fathers. Thus our theology is both preeminently Scriptural and eminently Patristic.  As a corollary of Patristic Theology is Patristic piety. Now, this transformative piety centers on silence, stillness, and watchfulness, as standard or foundational to the...