Religion: Retracing the Reformation

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Catholic and Lutheran theologians agree on a key doctrinal issue

In the distant past, theological disputes between Protestants and Roman Catholics were, quite literally, matters of life and death. Tens of thousands of people died during the devastating religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. Sharp differences remain on some basic points of doctrine, but in recent years the churches have been working quietly to resolve these old dogmatic quarrels. Last week a panel of 20 Lutheran and Catholic theologians, meeting in Milwaukee, announced that they had reached essential agreement on the meaning of "justification," one of the key issues of the Protestant Reformation. The theologians said the remaining points of difference about this doctrine were no longer reason to keep their churches apart.

It is a central tenet of Christianity that sinful humans must be reconciled ("justified") with a righteous God to be saved. In traditional Catholic doctrine, the reception of the sacraments and the performance of good works can assist the process of salvation. Martin Luther, the German priest who broke with Rome and initiated the Reformation when he nailed his theses to a church door in Wittenberg, argued that people were saved by God's grace through faith alone. He cited St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans 5: 1: "Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God."

Summarizing the new agreement, the theologians said, "We can and do confess together that our hope for salvation rests entirely on God's merciful action in Christ." The remaining differences, as well as the agreements, will be spelled out in a 21,000-word joint statement to be issued this week.

Discussing the accord, theologians on the panel spoke of reaching a new tolerance for each other's views. H. George Anderson, co-chairman of the talks and president of lowa's Luther College, said that for Lutherans justification remains "the template, the pattern of how God and man relate. For Catholics, it is one doctrine among many." More basic, the Catholics on the panel assured the Lutherans that they believed that good works alone could not bring salvation, while the Lutherans declared that their emphasis upon faith and God's grace did not mean they rejected the importance of good works in the life of a Christian.

As a result of the negotiations, the Rev. Carl Peter, dean of the School of Religious Studies at Catholic University, believes that "when Lutherans teach and preach what Catholics hold, they will be more careful, and vice versa."

The conclusion of the talks provided a symbolically telling reminder of how deeply the two churches are still divided. After the discussions ended, the Lutherans and the Catholics filed into different chapels to celebrate their achievement with separate Eucharists. ·