Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Attemptio: the marks of the church listed in Article 7 of the CA state that the "Et ad veram unitatem eccesiae satis est consentire de doctrina evangelii et de administratione saramentorum. Nec necesse est ubique similes esse traditiones humanas ..." and in German: "Dann dies ist gnug zu wahrer Einigkeit der christlichen Kirchen, dass da entraechtigkeitlich nach reinem Verstand das Evangelium gepredigt und die Sakrament den gottlichen Wort gemaess gereicht werden." Both of these versions do not just say: 'wherever the sacraments are rightly administered and the gospel proclaimed." It says that the there is harmony and mutual agreement (eintraechtigkeit; consentire) among the churches. I want to explore the following:

1. The church of the Augsburg Confession is bound to seek out and mutually join other churches that qualify.
2. CA & does not address all of the issues usually listed under apostolicity, catholicity, and the holiness of the church. So does this only concern unity and not the rest? Or is this CA's proposal for all the four notes of the church. The answers here will of course go a long way towards answering the substance of ecclesiology intended by the Augsburg Confession. It must be read in harmony with the total eccesiology of the confession.
3. Does CA 7 speak of doctrine? It speaks of two activities: gospel preaching and the administration of the sacraments. In its view you need to understand the preaching task rightly and those sacraments properly 'done.' These two activites require some understanding but to preach the gospel doctrine must take another form than a body of propositions that must be believed. That is modernistic and rests on modern views of the human subject that don't correspond to the role doctrine plays in the Reformation as well as the church generally. I am opposing the illegitimate developments that took place in the period of Lutheran orthodoxy and the neo-conservative reactionaries that emerged in the 19th century. That is what I mean by the last sentance. Does that help Clint?

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