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The Doctrine of Justification in the Book of Concord—Harmony or Contradiction?
Author(s) -
Vainio OlliPekka
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
dialog
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.114
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1540-6385
pISSN - 0012-2033
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6385.2009.00487.x
Subject(s) - harmony (color) , doctrine , contradiction , philosophy , order (exchange) , identity (music) , epistemology , national unity , sociology , law , theology , political science , aesthetics , art , economics , finance , politics , visual arts
: The unity of the description of the doctrine of justification in the Book of Concord (BC) has been one of the challenges of ecumenical dialogue. Traditionally, scholars have underlined the unity in order to strengthen the Lutheran identity against external pressures. However, some have tried to attain the same goal by emphasizing some part of the BC over another. Interestingly, some have juxtaposed Luther and the BC because they believe the BC betrays Luther's original ideas. This article argues that there is no need to set different documents of the BC against each other, but to accomplish this one needs a little help from Luther and his particular understanding of justification as effective reality in the believer. Thus, one can argue both for the unity of the BC and for the organic unity between the reformer and later Lutheranism.