A Point of No Return?

Ecumenical Review, The, April, 2000 by Peder Norgaard-Hojen

To be sure, this common statement does not exclude any present and future disagreement about the doctrine of justification, but it does raise the all-important question of whether the possibly remaining divergences can rightly be characterized as church-dividing. If it is true that we are one in the understanding of justification, then nothing precludes us from taking the necessary steps towards unity -- at least not from a Lutheran point of view, which has traditionally stressed the doctrine of justification as the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae. If these are not mere words, the only thing to do is to develop concrete modes of establishing visible unity through church fellowship. If it is the case -- as it seems to be on the basis of the official international and regional dialogues of the past three decades -- that Catholics and Lutherans are in agreement on the matter of justification, then an implementation of church fellowship as an implication of that agreement is due; indeed, from a Lutheran perspective it would be tantamount to disobedience not to conclude a declaration of church fellowship on the basis of a common understanding of justification.

This may sound provocative. But if Catholics and Lutherans really agree regarding justification, it is anything but a matter of indifference; rather, it makes the difference! Thus we must look very carefully at what it means to be agreed on this point; for if we are agreed, we cannot continue business as usual. Lutherans at least are obliged to draw far-reaching and very concrete conclusions for our relations with our Catholic dialogue partners. If a full and substantial agreement has been achieved on the point over which our ancestors in the 16th century were prepared to break the unity of the body of Christ and go their separate ways -- as the dialogue reports of various joint commissions since the Second Vatican Council persistently maintain -- this is an epochal event, compared to which other disagreements of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation period are mere trifles. Such an agreement would in fact be a point of no return.

Recent developments, however, would seem to indicate that any ecumenical enthusiasm along these lines is probably premature.

The Joint Declaration

As the doctrine of justification is quite certainly no longer to be regarded as an issue of church-dividing character (which is the unanimous conviction of numerous dialogue commissions), it may appear rational to lift the mutual condemnations of the Reformation era and declare them as no longer valid in terms of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. On the basis of the biblical message of justification and after the common confession that "by grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works"(no. 15), the Joint Declaration unfolds the Catholic-Lutheran understanding of justification: with regard to salvation the human person is totally thrown upon the grace of God (no. 19), who forgives his sins and bestows on him new life (no. 22). Both dialogue partners undoubtedly agree regarding the solus Christus but have slightly different understandings of the sola fides. Although no. 25 says that "sinners are justified by faith" and the following paragraph emphasizes as the specific Lutheran viewpoint that God justifies "in faith alone (sola fide)", no. 27 makes it abundantly clear that in Catholic perspective the justifying faith is the fides caritate formata, no matter how much renewal in faith, hope and love is rooted in and dependent on "God's unfathomable grace" and how little this entitles the human person to boast before God. Perhaps the Declaration is inconsistent -- and more clearly Lutheran -- when it states (no. 17) that "as sinners our new life is solely due to the forgiving and renewing mercy that God imparts as a gift and we receive in faith and never can merit in any way" (my italics). But here we encounter distinctions so subtle that it seems difficult, if not meaningless, to draw a clear border line between the confessions. The two interpretations should not be played off against each other for the simple reason that both can be found on each side of the line of demarcation between Catholic and Lutheran.