In 1523 Martin Luther wrote Von weltlicher Obrigkeit (On Secular Authority). In it he separated what a Christian does for himself from what he does for others. An dir und an dem Deinen hältst du dich nach dem Evangelium und leidest Unrecht für deinen Nächsten. In your own affairs, you keep to the Gospel and suffer injustice. An dem andern und an dem Seinen hältst du dich nach der Liebe und leidest kein Unrecht für deinen Nächsten. In the affairs of others, you keep to love and do not let injustice be done to your neighbor. This became known as the Lutheran distinction between the Christ-person and the world- or office-person, the Amtsperson.
theology
Days of Rest and Spiritual Uplift
Article 139 of the Weimar Constitution of 11 August 1919 says: Der Sonntag und die staatlich anerkannten Feiertage bleiben als Tage der Arbeitsruhe und der seelischen Erhebung gesetzlich geschützt. Sundays and the public holidays recognized by the state remain protected by law as days of rest from work and of spiritual uplift. Through its Article 140, the Basic Law made this article part of today’s constitution.
The Luther Bible, Checked Verse by Verse
In 2006 the German Bible Society asked the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany to review the Luther Bible of 1984. About 70 theologians worked on the revision. They changed many more passages than had been expected. In the New Testament, almost half of all verses were changed. In some places, such as Psalm 42, they restored wording that the 1984 revision had changed, bringing the text closer to Luther’s language. The new edition went on sale on 19 October 2016, the first day of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The Leipzig Disputation
From 27 June to 16 July 1519, the theologian Johann Eck of Ingolstadt debated Andreas Karlstadt and Martin Luther of Wittenberg in the ducal palace in Leipzig. The question was the authority of the pope and the church. Every word, spoken in Latin, was taken down by recorders. Eck had himself celebrated as the winner. The church historian Armin Kohnle sees no clear winner. In the debate, Luther conceded that not all the teachings of Jan Hus, who had been burned as a heretic, were heretical.
The Book of Concord
After Luther’s death, his followers fell into theological disputes. On 25 June 1580, the fiftieth anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, the Konkordienbuch, the Book of Concord, appeared in Dresden in German. It already carried many signatures. As a body of doctrine, it was to give the Lutheran church a binding basis of faith. An earlier collection by Melanchthon from 1558 had not won general acceptance. Today, some Lutheran churches in Germany still name these writings as binding, and their pastors must commit to them at their ordination.
Bishops and Laity at One Table
In 2018, a study on sexual abuse in the German Catholic Church was published. In March 2019, the bishops responded with a unanimous decision for a verbindlichen Synodalen Weg, a binding synodal path. The bishops’ conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics, the lay organization, shared responsibility for it. In its assembly of more than 200 members, lay members voted with full rights alongside the bishops. A decision also needed a two-thirds majority of the bishops. It met five times in Frankfurt between 2020 and 2023. Rome objected. In July 2022, the Holy See declared that the Synodal Path was nicht befugt, not authorized, to oblige bishops and the faithful to accept new forms of church government.
We Reject the False Doctrine
On 31 May 1934, the Confessing Synod of the Protestant Church met in Wuppertal-Barmen and adopted a declaration written mainly by the theologian Karl Barth. It rejected the attempt by the pro-Nazi Deutsche Christen to subordinate the church to Nazi ideology and to build a centralized Reich Church. It has six theses. Each states a teaching and then names what it rejects, beginning with the words Wir verwerfen die falsche Lehre, we reject the false doctrine. Today the Barmen Declaration is printed in the Protestant hymnal. In many Reformed and United churches, pastors commit to it at their ordination.
The Bucket Testament
In 1975, the Protestant Church in Germany presented a revised New Testament in modern German. The reactions were extremely critical. People called it the Eimertestament, the bucket testament, because Luther’s Scheffel, the bushel under which no one hides a light, had become an Eimer, a bucket. The church reworked it within a year, and the 1984 revision went back partly to Luther’s language. The revision for the Reformation anniversary in 2017 moved closer to Luther again. Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer kept their familiar wording. The church said the text should stay easy to read, to hear and to learn by heart.
A Table of Duties for Every Station
In 1529, Luther compiled the Haustafel, the household table of duties, and attached it to his Small Catechism. It is a set of Bible verses for eleven stations in life: preachers and bishops, the authorities, husbands, wives, parents, children, masters of the house, servants, young people, widows, and all Christians together. Each station has its own duties. Luther also used the word Beruf, from rufen, to call, for a person’s station, office and work in the world. In Max Weber’s account, Luther taught that the individual should in principle stay in the calling and station where God had placed him.
Without Regard to the Person
Every German judge swears an oath under § 38 of the German Judiciary Act. The judge promises to judge nach bestem Wissen und Gewissen ohne Ansehen der Person, to the best of knowledge and conscience, without regard to the person. The judge also promises to serve only truth and justice. The phrase is much older than the law. It is found in the Luther Bible. Romans 2:11 reads Denn es ist kein Ansehen der Person vor Gott, for there is no respect of persons with God. The First Letter of Peter speaks of a Father who judges each one nach seinem Werk, by his work.