Joint declaration on the doctrine of justification

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Commemorative plaque for the joint declaration at St. Anne's Church in Augsburg

The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification is a central document of the Ecumenical Movement that expresses a consensus on basic truths of justification “by grace alone” between the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Methodist Churches . On October 31, 1999 (i.e. Reformation Day ), Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy , President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity , and LWF President Christian Krause in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Anna in Augsburg signed the declaration that the Methodists joined on July 23, 2006, by the signature of the President, Bishop Sunday Mbang and General Secretary George Freeman.

On July 4, 2017, at an ecumenical ceremony in Wittenberg , the world community of Reformed churches also joined the declaration, which was signed by the general secretary of the world community, Chris Ferguson in the Wittenberg city church .

Content of the declaration

The declaration states, among other things:

“We confess together that man is completely dependent on the saving grace of God for his salvation. The freedom that he has towards people and the things of the world is not freedom for his salvation. That is, as a sinner he is under God's judgment and unable to turn to God for salvation on his own initiative. Justification comes from grace alone . "

meaning

With this Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification and the agreed additional documents (the Joint Official Declaration and the Annex), it was solemnly declared that there is a consensus between Lutherans and Catholics on the principles of the Doctrine of Justification. They connect with the statement that the mutual doctrinal condemnations from the 16th century on the teaching of the partner about the justification of the sinner before God no longer exist. The unity of the Western Church was broken during the Reformation because of the differences over justification and the practice of indulgences. For the first time since the Reformation, the Joint Declaration and the additional documents have succeeded in making the churches, which have since then been separated, common statements about the teaching that was once the starting point for the division of the Western Church. The doctrinal condemnations that relate to the doctrine of justification have thus lost their church-dividing effect. However, what has been achieved in this way does not yet mean the establishment of church fellowship, since, for example, there are still great differences between the Roman Catholic Church and Lutherans in the understanding of church office.

Public debate

In 1999, a theological debate about the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification was fought for weeks on the letter to the editor page of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which was sparked not least by the fact that the church editor Heike Schmoll was an opponent of the declaration. Participants in the debate included a. the Protestant theology professors Johannes Wallmann , Volker Drehsen , Thomas Kaufmann , Reinhard Schwarz, Ingolf U. Dalferth , Karl-Hermann Kandler , Albrecht Beutel , Ekkehard Mühlenberg and Wilfried Härle as well as the Protestant church historian Dietrich Blaufuß and the LWF General Secretary Ishmael Noko .

As early as 1998, 160 German Protestant theologians, including Eberhard Jüngel , spoke out against the Joint Declaration because it diluted Lutheran ideas. The dogmatic Jüngel controversially referred to the Joint Declaration as the subject of a dogmatic proseminar because it did not have any practical consequences for ecumenism . The Roman Catholic Church was also forced to clarify its position as a result. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, in an official response, pointed to divergent positions that continued to exist. These concern questions of concupiscence after baptism, the importance of the doctrine of justification in the overall system of faith, the ability of people to actively participate in the acceptance of grace in accordance with the doctrine of Tridentine, the importance of repentance and then to what extent the Lutheran World Federation represent a partner with binding authority.

literature

  • Eberhard Jüngel: The gospel of the justification of the wicked as the center of Christian faith. A theological study with ecumenical intent. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1999. ISBN 978-3-16-149176-4 .
  • Johannes Wallmann : Church history in Germany since the Reformation. 7th edition. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2012 (UTB; 1355), ISBN 978-3-8252-3731-8 , pp. 320-324.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.evangelisch.de/inhalte/144719/04-07-2017/weltgemeinschaft-reformierter-kirchen-wittenberg-gemeinsame-erklaerung-zur-rechtfertigungslehre
  2. ^ J. Wallmann: Across the individual Lutheran churches (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). In: FAZ , April 3, 1999; ders .: Obviously a reaction to Cardinal Ratzinger (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). In: FAZ, October 11, 1999.
  3. ↑ V. Drehsen: There is no question of withdrawing the Council's condemnations (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). In: FAZ, April 14, 1999.
  4. ↑ Th. Kaufmann: Only superficially approximated to a Lutheran position (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). In: FAZ, June 19, 1999
  5. ↑ R. Schwarz: disagreement issued as "magnus consensus" (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). In: FAZ, July 21, 1999.
  6. ↑ IU Dalferth: Too hasty when entering new ecumenical territory (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). In: FAZ, August 6, 1999.
  7. ↑ K.-H. Kandler: Cardinal Ratzinger's idiosyncratic interpretation (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). FAZ, August 6, 1999.
  8. ^ A. Beutel: Lutheranism has no central teaching post (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). In: FAZ, August 10, 1999.
  9. ^ E. Mühlenberg: Faith is not negotiable (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). In: FAZ, August 12, 1999.
  10. ↑ W. Härle: Ecumenical counter-drafts too little considered (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). In: FAZ, November 11, 1999.
  11. ↑ D. Blaufuß: Evangelical-Catholic secret diplomacy in continuation (letter to the editor on the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification). In: FAZ, June 28, 1999.
  12. ^ I. Noko: Everyone could read the Joint Official Statement (Letter to the Editor on the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification). In: FAZ, October 19, 1999.
  13. ↑ Review by the NZZ of Jüngel's book: The Gospel of the justification of the wicked as the center of Christian faith. A theological study with ecumenical intent. ( Memento from January 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ^ Official response of the Catholic Church to the "Joint Declaration" .