From
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church In America
Volume 3, Number 2
Pentecost 1998
Confessional Renewal Movements
Wayne
R. Cowell and Frank C. Senn
The well-known church historian, Winthrop Hudson,
ended his 1961 book, American Protestantism, by looking to Lutheranism
as the source of American Protestant renewal. He wrote: “The final prospect for
a vigorous renewal of Protestant life and witness rests with the Lutheran
churches.... Among the assets immediately at hand among the Lutherans are a
confessional tradition, a surviving liturgical structure, and a sense of
community.” In the generation or two since Hudson wrote those words, we wonder
if the Lutheran patrimony has been worn away by successive waves of therapeutic
religion, liberationist crusades, multiculturalist ideology, inclusivity
quotas, radical post-Christian feminism, new age spirituality, entertainment
evangelism, lowest common denominator ecumenism, pantheistic eco-mysticism, and
a plethora of other politically correct concerns.
Where
would one search for even a vigorous dialogue with, much less a challenge to,
these cultural forces from the standpoint of the confessional tradition? The
seminaries? The teaching role of bishops? The educational materials produced by
the Church’s publishing house?
The
perceived absence of an institutional defense against these challenges, and the
steady assault on doctrinal, liturgical, and moral traditions, have generated
confessional movements within all the mainline American Protestant traditions
today. One of the largest is the Confessing Christ movement within the United
Church of Christ. As an illustration of one of these movements, we have asked
Dr. W. Richard Stegner, retired New Testament professor at Garrett-Evangelical
Theological Seminary in Evanston, a United Methodist minister, and a regular
worshiper at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Evanston, to write about the Good News
Society in the United Methodist Church.
Since
some of the very basics of the Christian tradition are being challenged today,
there can be a theological alliance among these various confessing movements.
The Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology in Northfield, Minnesota, Carl
E. Braaten, director, Robert W. Jenson, associate director, has successfully
held conferences and published the journal Pro Ecclesia which brings
together Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant
speakers, participants, and writers around common doctrinal concerns.
Since the
Center is ecumenical, it cannot be regarded as being a part of the Lutheran
confessional renewal movement, in spite of the well-known Lutheran credentials
of its directors. Within American Lutheranism there has not been one single
confessional movement, but several. Perhaps their roots can be traced to the
Free Theological “Call to Faithfulness” Conferences held at St. Olaf College in
1990 and 1992. These two conferences, which drew approximately 900 and 800
participants respectively, were co-sponsored by three independent Lutheran
theological journals: dialog, Lutheran Forum, and Lutheran
Quarterly. They were really inter-Lutheran events, since the three
sponsoring journals are inter-Lutheran, and they brought together various kinds
of confessional Lutherans. At the second St. Olaf Conference in 1992 George
Lindbeck identified and distinguished between “denominational Lutherans” and
“evangelical catholics,” raising questions about incompatible goals of these
two groups.
While some people found these differentiations to be
caricatures, they nevertheless have proven useful in identifying different
kinds of Lutheran confessional movements. The Fellowship of Confessional
Lutherans (F.O.C.L.), for example, represents a denominational or radical
Lutheran movement which aims to strengthen Lutheran identity but requires the
old anti-Catholic polemics to do so, only now focused on creeping Catholicism
within Lutheranism such as the issue of the historic episcopate. This also
means that F.O.C.L. has a political agenda within the ELCA.
The
Society of the Holy Trinity (S.T.S. = Societas Trinitatis Sanctae), on the
other hand, aims to strengthen Lutheran pastoral ministry from an evangelical
catholic perspective and sees reconciliation with Rome as Lutheranism’s ecumenical
destiny. S.T.S. has no political agenda within the ELCA since it is
intentionally inter-Lutheran and international. The Society fosters the
personal renewal of and support for pastors, and functions like a religious
order with its Rule, leadership structure, and retreats.
A document which had some potential to bring
together radical Lutherans and evangelical catholics is the 9.5 Theses, which
seeks to address the “crisis of faith” in the ELCA. Although the Theses were
subscribed to by more than 700 pastors and 300 lay people, the document has not
yet served as the basis for the widespread conversation that might enable its
potential to be realized. The 9.5 Theses are a major focus of this issue of Let’s
Talk. We have included the brief text of the Theses. Wayne Cowell has
written to and received a response from one of the drafters of the Theses,
Pastor Louis Smith of Virginia, in terms of the “reception” of the 9.5 Theses
in the ELCA. Pastor Frank Senn has written a personal statement about his
subscription to the Theses and his concomitant commitment to confessionalism
and ecumenism. Against the examples of the 9.5 Theses, and the Athanasian Creed
which serves as a kind of model for the Theses, Pastor John Seraphine has
argued for a “fallibilist” confessionalism that exemplifies the humility of
living by “grace alone.” In a different mode, Pastor Jane Kunzie-Brunner offers
some “gut reactions and prayerful pleas” to modulate discourse about
confessional renewal.
As our
name implies, every issue of Let’s Talk is an attempt to get the people
of our synod talking. The theme of this issue brings us particularly close to
Lutheran pith and marrow, to things we need to talk about. We had hoped to
include a broader range of opinion about our current confessional situation
(e.g. is it intact? Is it eroding? Does confessionalism need to be transcended
anyway?) But not everybody who was invited to respond to the question of the
contemporary state of Lutheran confessionalism was willing or able to do so. We
thank those who did. We are particularly sorry that top leaders of the ELCA
were unable to accept our invitation to write. The invitation remains open and
we remind all our readers that Let’s Talk encourages letters and even
longer responses. Let the conversation begin!
Wayne R. Cowell
Member, Gloria Dei, Downers Grove
Frank C. Senn
Pastor, Immanuel, Evanston