Firmly ensconced within the genre indicative of the "Complete Idiot's Guide" series, Lutheranism 101 is the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's version of a quick, usable, comprehensive, and concise primer. With contributions from nearly forty different LCMS theologians, pastors, and authors, the range of this succinct guide spans the full scope of Lutheran theological convictions, liturgical commitments, history, and practice.
This type of publication fills an important need for confessional Lutherans’namely, accessibility for persons on the periphery of Lutheranism or, alternatively, neophytes to the conservative Reformation tradition of Augsburg. The mere fact that it bears the Concordia Publishing House imprint is an implicit recognition that the future of the Missouri Synod in particular and North American Lutheranism as a whole lies not in hereditary transmission of "the faith of our fathers," as it had from the 1800s through the 1960s. Rather, the future of the LCMS is to be found in evangelized converts and transdenominational movement, especially among exhausted evangelicals and disaffected Roman Catholics, mostly because the last two generations of Lutherans have not proliferated as they allowed their liturgical and theological distinctives to be muted or jettisoned to the point where parishioners feel comfortable leaving for sacramentarian churches and non-Western rite contemporary services. Lutheranism 101 is sure to help all such sojourners better understand the enclave of Wittenbergers and, for some, acclimate to their new surroundings.
The primer opens with an obliging "Quick Start Guide" containing the primary catechetical sources for the fundamental teachings of Lutheranism: a summary of the Christian faith from the six chief parts of Luther's Small Catechism, the ecumenical creeds, the solas of the Reformation, and common prayers. Following the guide are six main divisions. Part one rehearses the redemptive historical storyline of Scripture beginning with God, moving to the Fall and the nature of sin, the person and work of Jesus, and concludes with an amillennial understanding of the eschaton. Part two pertains to how God's power and grace are administered in the world through two kingdoms’civil government and the church. Laudable is the attempt to not shy away from addressing issues such as the Office of Holy Ministry, denominational fragmentation, and female ordination. Subsequent divisions include "Part Three: The Means of Grace," "Part Four: Lutherans at a Glance," "Part Five: Worship: The Blessings of God," and "Part Six: Living as Lutherans." All six parts incorporate related quotes from the Bible, the Book of Concord, and Luther's works.
The product itself possesses a studious yet welcoming presentation, bearing all the marks of attentive structural consideration without any of this genre's typical obnoxiousness. Let's face it, publications of this type are frequently devoid of seriousness, contrived, and usually lack coherence in their arrangement of content and chapters. But not this one. Replete with appropriate iconography, call-outs, and excursuses, its tempered format lends itself easily to navigation, logical progression, and readability. In short, it is a good primer precisely because it does not try to do too much. There is, however, this drawback: though glutted with forty-five pages of appendices, it possesses no index’an egregious blunder for a ready resource of this type. Moreover, there are several typesetting errors and a small number of compositional infelicities that somewhat detract from what otherwise is a very obliging publication.
There are other more serious disconcerting features of this production; for instance, the conspicuous downgrading of confessional nomenclature. One wonders if a specter of political correctness sometimes haunts the presses of CPH or if confessional Lutheranism on the whole has capitulated to prevailing evangelical phraseology with its antipathy to all things "Catholic." Confessional terms such as "Mass," "priest," "Eucharist," and the like are fastidiously avoided.
Worse is the perennial pessimism or amnesia that prevails among CPH authors and editors concerning Luther's frequent articulation of what he calls, "the third sacrament" of penance or absolution (sometimes also denominated "repentance" or "confession"). Thanks to Concordia Publishing House's insistence that Lutherans parrot but two bona fide sacraments in publications like this one, as well as the "Explanatory Notes" to Luther's Small Catechism, Luther is pitted against Luther and the Confessions, resulting in generations of Lutherans turning a blind eye to Apology Articles XII and XIII, with the upshot being a ministerium that has relinquished absolution's sacramental status and therefore potency in pastoral application. In the nonconfessional "Explanatory Notes" to the Small Catechism, repeated in Lutheranism 101 on pages 147 and 208, the editors permit a tripartite definition of a sacrament different from Apology XII.4 on "The Number and Use of the Sacraments," which says: "If we define the sacraments as rites, which have the command of God and to which the promise of grace has been added, it is easy to determine what the sacraments are, properly speaking."
A sacrament consists of three things: 1) a rite that 2) was instituted by the Lord Jesus and 3) offers and delivers the promise of God's grace to be received by faith alone. Note that it does not say that there must be some physical element, some material (differing from the definition espoused by CPH and, strangely enough, the LCMS website), but ritus‘an act, rite, or ceremony. This is the confessional Lutheran definition of a sacrament. In this light, Article XII.4 continues by saying, "Therefore, the sacraments are actually baptism, the Lord's Supper, and absolution (the sacrament of penance). For these rites have the command of God and the promise of grace, which is the essence of the New Testament."
Thus the pertinent sections of Lutheranism 101 on "Confession and Absolution," as well as on the "Church and the Keys," do not service the confessions well on this matter. In one place, the authors admit that the practice of confession and absolution (especially private) has fallen on hard times. What the authors fail to mention is that this is completely contrary to Luther's wishes and in tension with the Book of Concord. Sadly and no doubt unintentionally, publications like this one are themselves responsible for fostering conflict, confusion, and contradictions within LCMS congregations over the use and number of the sacraments. Instead of marching lockstep to nonconfessional rhetoric, the authors and editors of this project could have helped to reset the trajectory of Lutheran thought and practice. Simply put, a stronger statement is needed regarding all the sacraments.
Notwithstanding these infractions, Lutheranism 101 is worthy of wide distribution. Confessional Lutherans can be confident that this polished product is well suited for persons ready and willing to learn more about the evangelical-Catholic tradition of Christianity or, alternatively, any Lutheran layperson looking for a low-impact catechetical guide or refresher course. With a good pastor to fill in the blanks and make only a couple of necessary corrections, Lutheranism 101 immediately displaces Augsburg Press's dreadfully minimalistic and cartoonish The Lutheran Course as the standard resource for new member classes.
