III.

History and Influence

The early development of Lutheranism was greatly influenced by political events. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was unable to undertake the forceful suppression of Lutheranism because the Holy Roman Empire was being threatened by the Ottoman Empire. Despite the Edict of Worms (1521), which placed the Lutherans under imperial ban, the movement continued to spread. Intermittent religious wars followed, ending in the Peace of Augsburg (1555), which stipulated that the religion of the ruler of each territory within the Holy Roman Empire was to be the religion of his subjects, thus in effect sanctioning the Lutheran churches and also establishing the territorial princes as primates of their churches. The Formula of Concord (1577), prepared by theologians to resolve disputes among Lutherans, was signed by political leaders to ensure Lutheran unity at a time when renewed religious warfare threatened. The survival of Lutheranism after the Thirty Years' War was the result of the intervention of the Lutheran Swedish king Gustav II Adolph and of Roman Catholic France on the side of the Protestants. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) brought an end to the religious wars in Europe.

Beginning in the late 17th century, the reform movement called Pietism, which stressed individual conversion and a devout way of life, revitalized Lutheranism in Germany and spread to other countries. Lutheran theology, during the 18th century, reflected the rationalism of the Enlightenment. During the 19th century, the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, who emphasized universal religious experience, exercised a major influence on liberal Lutheran theologians. At the same time, idealism, the dominant movement of modern German philosophy, had a profound effect on Lutheran theological thought. In the 20th century, the neoorthodoxy of the Swiss theologian Karl Barth and existentialism have been the most prominent theological developments.

The political ascendancy of Prussia among the German states by the early 19th century led to the establishment (1817) of the Church of the Prussian Union, which united Calvinists and millions of German Lutherans into one church. This development was bitterly opposed by a large number of Lutherans, some of whom broke away to establish a separate church. The crisis of German politics in the 20th century gravely affected German Lutheranism. Adolf Hitler’s attempt to control German churches led to the split of the German Lutheran Church and to the internment of some Lutherans (such as Martin Niemöller) in concentration camps and the execution of others (notably the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer). Lutheran leaders in Norway and Denmark took major roles in the resistance to Nazi occupation of their countries, and the German Confessing Church, which had resisted Hitler, made an important contribution to the reconstruction of West Germany (now part of the united Federal Republic of Germany) after World War II.

A.

Lutheranism in America

Lutheranism arrived in America with the early European settlers. In 1625 some Dutch, German, and Scandinavian Lutherans settled in New Amsterdam (now New York City). In 1638 another early Lutheran settlement was founded by Swedes in what is now Delaware. At the beginning of the 18th century German Lutherans settled in large numbers in Pennsylvania. In 1742 Pastor Henry Melchior Muhlenberg arrived from Germany and soon founded (1748) the first Lutheran synod in North America. After the American Revolution (1775-1783), each successive group of Lutheran immigrants founded its own churches and synods and conducted its services in the language of its country of origin. Because of the large numbers of immigrants to the United States and Canada in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the integration of Lutherans into North American society went slowly, and Lutheranism was divided into numerous German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, and Slovak groups.

Following World War I (1914-1918), however, unification and integration proceeded rapidly. The process accelerated after World War II (1939-1945), and by the early 1980s mergers had consolidated most Lutherans in the United States and Canada into five major bodies: the Lutheran Church in America (LCA), Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), the American Lutheran Church (ALC), the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC). In 1988 the LCA, ALC, and AELC merged after five years of preparatory work, forming the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). In the late 1990s the ELCA reported a membership of 5.2 million in 11,000 churches. Membership in the LCMS was 2.6 million, and in the WELS, 411,000. Lutheranism is the third largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

In 1997 the ELCA agreed to share full communion with three other Protestant denominations—the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ, and the Reformed Church in America. The agreement meant that the churches could exchange clergy and that members could worship and receive sacraments at the other churches. The ELCA entered a similar alliance with the Episcopal Church in 2001, following years of debate.

B.

Canadian Churches

The Lutheran churches in the United States have Canadian counterparts. The newly formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, composed of wings of the former LCA and ALC churches, reported membership of 199,000 in the mid-1990s. The Lutheran Church-Canada was originally a member of the LCMS but became autonomous in 1988. Reported membership is about 80,000.

C.

World Lutheranism

Although a majority of the world’s Lutherans still live in the traditionally Lutheran countries of central and northern Europe, Lutheranism has been growing most rapidly in Africa and Asia. Indeed, the only country outside of Europe where a majority of the population is Lutheran is Namibia in southern Africa. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, coordinates the activities of almost all Lutheran churches in the world. It oversees ecumenical relations, theological studies, and world service and is guided by an international executive committee. Most Lutheran churches are also members of the World Council of Churches.

In 1998 the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation issued a joint declaration that ended a split on the doctrine of justification—how a human being achieves absolution from sin—that had begun in Luther’s time. Although many differences remained between the two bodies, Lutherans and Catholics agreed that divine forgiveness and salvation come only through God’s grace and that good works follow from that.

D.

Cultural Influence

Lutheranism has always been concerned with the cultural and intellectual aspects of the Christian faith. Its influence on music through such composers as Johann Sebastian Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, Michael Praetorius, and Heinrich Schütz has been as profound as it was on philosophy. Thinkers of Lutheran background, such as Immanuel Kant, J. G. Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Søren Kierkegaard, articulated their ideas in dialogue with and often in opposition to the Lutheran tradition. Lutheranism has also produced a number of notable biblical scholars, such as D. F. Strauss and Albert Schweitzer, and theologians, such as Albrecht Ritschl, Adolf von Harnack, Rudolf Otto, Rudolf Bultmann, and Paul Tillich.