USCCB - (Office of Media Relations) Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists Mark Tenth Anniversary Of Historic Agreement

USCCB - (Office of Media Relations) Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists Mark Tenth Anniversary Of Historic Agreement

In this historic aggreement Catholics, Lutherans and Mothodists confess their common belief on justification reversing the misunderstandings of the Reformation.

The Finnish Lutheran school following Finnish theologian Tuomo Mannermaa (pictured above) have recently argued that we should distinguish between “Luther’s theology” and the “Theology of Lutheranism”. Many of our cartoons about Luther's beliefs are being overturned by more careful research.

Lutheran theolgian Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen notes;
"In contrast to the theology of the Lutheran Confessions, Luther does not make a distinction between forensic and effective justification but rather argues that justification includes both. In other words, in line with Catholic theology, justification means both declaring righteous and making righteous." [1]

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[1]Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, "Drinking from the Same Wells with Orthodox and Catholics": Insights from the Finnish Interpretation of Luther's Theology, Currents in Theology and Mission 34 no 2 Ap 2007, p 85-96.