Lutheran Church

Lutheran Church Definition

Martin Luther ushered in the Protestant Reformation, challenging the Catholic Church's centuries-old beliefs. Taking his name, the Lutheran Church was soon established.

Difference between the Lutheran Church and the Catholic Church

The Lutheran Church emerged as an alternative to the Catholic Church. In 1517, the priest Martin Luther pinned his 99 theses (points for debate) on the local church door. The Catholic Church rejected Luther's attempt at debate and excommunicated him.

What did Luther oppose about the Catholic Church, an opposition so strong that it led to his excommunication?

Lutheran Church Beliefs

Here are some of the key beliefs of the Lutheran Church, contrasted with Catholic beliefs.

In the Lutheran Church, sermons were given in German rather than the Latin of the Catholic Church. This was part of the Lutheran Church's belief in the priesthood of all believers; that it was not just priests and bishops who got to read and understand God's word.

Lutheran Church History

Luther's new ideas spread like wildfire throughout Europe and even beyond, reaching the shores of North America. However, just like the Catholic Church once faced criticism from Luther, so too did the Lutheran Church experience its own criticism.

Fig. 1 Photograph of the inside of Wittenburg's All Saints' Church, Luther's regular place of worship and the first Lutheran Church.

Conflicting views on the Bible split the Lutheran Church into two camps: the Philippists and the Gnesio-Lutherans. This conflict became even stronger after Martin Luther's death in 1546. It would only be in 1580, with the Book of Concord, that these camps would reconcile.

Lutheran Church Challenges

Throughout the sixteenth century, the Lutheran Church faced multiple challenges as it aimed to expand and spread its message.

Lutheran Church Challenges the Schmalkaldic League 1531

In the sixteenth century, Germany was comprised of different principalities ruled by various princes. The King of Germany was Charles V, who ruled over much of Europe at the time.

Charles V was a staunch Catholic and his other title, Holy Roman Emperor, made him the leading Catholic monarch of Europe. He abhorred Protestantism and gave the German princes a deadline to revert back to Catholicism, or else. This deadline was imposed in the Diet of Augsburg in 1530.

The Schmalkaldic League was an alliance between different German princes against the threat of Charles V and the Diet of Augsburg. These princes despised being ruled by a foreign king and were drawn to Lutheranism, partly because of its message, and partly because it offered them a chance t break away from the imposing authority of the Catholic Church. They formed the Schmalkaldic League to protect their own power and religious interests.

Charles V's multiple European territories meant he was spread thin. He could not immediately respond to the Schmalkaldic League as he was dealing with wars in France and the Ottoman Empire. When he reached peace in both those territories in 1544 and 1545 respectively, he waged war against the Schmalkaldic League. This was a major threat to the Lutheran Church, which relied heavily on the support of local rulers.

In 1546, war broke out. Charles V was determined to eradicate what he saw as Protestant heretics within his firmly Catholic empire. By the next year, Charles V had successfully defeated the Schmalkaldic League. That same year, Martin Luther himself died, weakening the Lutheran Church.

Lutheran Challenges the Augsburg and Leipzig Interims 1548

The defeat of the Schmalkaldic League led to the Augsburg and Leipzig Interims. Interims were agreements made by different religious parties in the interest of peace and only lasted a certain period of time.

The Interim agreements made at Augsburg and Leipzig in 1548 saw Melanchthon open to concessions proposed by the Catholic church. Charles V wanted a common religion in the Holy Roman Empire. Melanchthon agreed to compromise with some of Charles’ demands.

Fig. 2 A stained glass image of Philipp Melanchthon. He had a difficult job of maintaining the Lutheran Church after Martin Luther died in 1546.

However, Matthias Flacius disagreed with Melanchthon and saw the Interim as a betrayal of what Luther had stood for.

The Augsburg and Leipzig Interims spelt the divide within the Lutheran church into the two main denominations of Philipp Melanchthon’s Philippists and Matthias Flacius’ Gnesio-Lutherans.

Lutheran Church the Book of Concord 1580

The Book of Concord proved to be a seminal text for the Lutheran church. It brought together the previously divided factions within the Church.

The Formula of Concord was organised by Gnesio-Lutheran Jakob Andreae and Philippist Martin Chemnitz in 1577. Both Andreae and Chemnitz were centrist theologians who wanted to resolve the divide within the Lutheran Church.

Fig. 3 A bronze cast image of Martin Luther at All Saints' Church in Wittenburg

The Formula of Concord was circulated amongst Lutheran princes, pastors and theologians and revised accordingly. The Book of Concord was published in 1580. Approximately two-thirds of the German Lutheran community adopted it as their official doctrine.

Within the Concord, there were 6 key pieces of literature from Luther and Melanchthon that shaped Lutheran beliefs. The collection of these six pieces established the Lutheran Church’s beliefs. This allowed for the Lutheran church to establish a theological doctrine which combined religious, social and political factors to forge a Lutheran identity. It helped simplify and unify what the Lutheran Church stood for, enabling its expansion outside Germany.