Lutheran Catholicity Today NE District Pastors’ Institute April 2013 Catholicity.

Lutheran Catholicity Today

NE District Pastors’ InstituteApril 2013

Catholicity


What does “catholicity” imply for our modern WELS churches?

“Luther had to locate where the constancy and permanence of the church resides and where the inconstancy and impermanence of the church resides.” - W. Weinrich

Meaning? …


The Church Catholic in Our American World:

1. The “Nones”


http://rap.wustl.edu/event/2012-fall-keynote-george-will/

George F. Will – Religion and Politics in the First Modern Nation

Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 • 7 PMGraham Chapel, Washington University in St. Louis

I also recommend for individual / circuit study:

Robert N. Bellah, "Civil Religion in America," Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 96, 1 (1967). Also available at http://www.robertbellah.com/articles.html


http://www.robertbellah.com/articles.html

http://www.robertbellah.com/articles.html



“This expressed the logic of [Luther’s] theological radicalism, his determination to found Christian faith on the unmediated relation of the faithful person to God. Without fully intending to do so, he celebrated individualism at the expense of tradition and hierarchy. Because Luther was in humanity’s past, democracy was in humanity’s future.”



NPR Story on "The Nones"

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/01/14/169164840/losing-our-religion-the-growth-of-the-nones




NPR Story on "The Nones"Nones on the Rise: Pew Forum Report (Oct 2012)




http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise.aspx

http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise.aspx


Q 1:• Does the concept of “catholicity”

resonate at all with highly individualistic Americans? Is it something we should even emphasize?

• How do we reach these people who are so highly disillusioned with organized religion? (Think of what the word ‘catholic’ means to people these days, in light of all the clerical problems in the RCC)



2. The WELS: Synod or Sect?


“ The doctrine [of Unionism] was transplanted to America, given fuller and more rigorous definition by the Missourians. Eventually it was passed on to the Wisconsin Synod. Unless very carefully disciplined and seen in relationship to other spiritual issues, Unionism as a doctrine carries with it all the seeds for a full blown sectarianism.”

- L. Jordahl


P. Schaff noted:

… that the Old Lutheran branch of Lutheranism forfeits the designation ‘catholic’ due to its harsh stance against the rest of Christianity.

- L. Rast, Jr.“Catholicity in Missourian Orthodoxy”


Q2:

• How do we “carefully discipline” the doctrine of “Unionism” (fellowship)?

• What “other spiritual issues” do you think he is talking about?

• What does “sectarianism” look like? (non-catholicity!)



3. “Catholic” Worship


“There are two basic ways to approach Sunday morning. Either we can submit ourselves to the accumulated wisdom of the ages and allow it to form and shape us, or we can cast it aside and create a liturgy of our own making, one that reflects our predilections, interests, and supposed needs.”

- P. Grime


“First of all, there is no golden age. If you think things were perfect and fine at the time of Luther, think again….

“The truth is that God graces His church in every age with poets and composers who enliven the Word of God in verse and song.”

- P. Grime


“To be catholic in our worship means, finally that we do not turn our backs on the gifts that God has given to his church in every age. Of course, catholicity doesn’t mean that we simply take everything from everybody. It is here that the qualitative dimension of catholicity…must come into play.”

- P. Grime


Q3:

• But what is “the qualitative dimension of catholicity” in worship?

• What does a “catholic” worship service look like? A “catholic” worship facility?



4. Missions


C. Lawrenz

“A Definitive Study of Proselytizing”

Feb. 4, 1975

Here: http://www.wlsessays.net/node/1319

http://www.wlsessays.net/node/1319

http://www.wlsessays.net/node/1319


1872: First Synodical Conf. Convention“What is our mission over against the English population of our country?”

Thesis 1: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church indisputably has the mission to proclaim the great deeds of God here in this country;



Thesis 2: “The Synodical Conf. is not excused from this obligation for the reason:

a) That it must provide for the German and Scandinavian brethren without neglect; (don’t have time for the English)




b) That other church organizations provide sufficiently for the English speaking population;




c) That heterodox have already occupied the field and that with its activity in English it would therefore become a busybody in the field of others;




d) That we dare not leave the English work to the heterodox because they in part bring false doctrine among the people, and in part treat pure doctrine lightly, and in part carry on the work very half-heartedly


“These neglected and dispersed sheep need to be contacted, and become our concern, since they are like sheep who have no shepherd.

“Still our task is not the one facing the church among heathen, but rather that of bringing the full saving truth to a people which indeed still knows portions of divine truth, but at the same time clings to great and dangerous errors.”


Q4:

• How does ‘catholicity’ play into our relationship with those in our schools who belong to other church bodies? Does it at all?

• How does a proper understanding of ‘catholicity’ help in questions of proselytizing?



5. Dialoguing, Conferencing, Blogging


“The level of societal, cultural, and ecclesial upheaval on moral issues and changes of long-standing church practices at the present time compel us to consider the importance of a united Christian voice on specific issues, wherever that is possible without compromise in other areas of doctrine and life. Where Christians from varying traditions share a common truth, the strength of their voice is clearer and stronger if they speak together.”


Q5: • What could possibly be some forums in

which we (WELS) could, as ‘catholics’, participate with other church bodies?

• What might be some long-standing ‘catholic’ terms that have been completely emptied of meaning by various denominations … rendering “a common voice” a virtual impossibility?


finis

Lutheran Catholicity Today NE District Pastors’ Institute April 2013 Catholicity.

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