This is the Catholic Faith
We Lutherans are often accused of heresy by Roman Catholics by means of a clever and ironic rhetorical trick. Roman Catholics will sometimes claim that Jesus founded the Catholic Church, and therefore the Catholic Church is the only true church.
And they are right! At least about Jesus founding the Catholic Church.
But where they err is their appropriation and misuse of the word “Catholic.” They refer to themselves as “The Catholic Church” - omitting the adjective “Roman.” They posit that their jurisdiction and bureaucratic structure alone is Catholicism. This is especially ironic given the meaning of the word “catholic” - which I suppose almost none of them know what it means.
Moreover, while they deny that the Eastern Orthodox churches are Catholic, they accept their ministry and sacraments as valid. Of course, they can do no other given that the ancient Eastern jurisdictions have never been under the authority of the Bishop of Rome. The Roman Catholic Church also recognizes the Eastern Fathers as saints of the Church - although they have never accepted nor been subjected to the authority of the pope!
Moreover, the Athanasian Creed (Quicumque Vult) explicates what it means to be Catholic: what the Catholic faith is. This ecumenical creed says nothing about the papacy or Roman jurisdiction.
But even worse than the Roman Catholic misuse of the term “Catholic” is its disuse among us Lutherans. For the opposite of “catholic” is “heretic.” This is how the term has been used through nearly two millennia of church history:
In the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense 'catholic,' which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors.
The Roman Catholic Church, during the time of the Reformation, began to derisively refer to our churches as “Lutheran” - implying that they were heretical, not catholic. The early “Lutherans” took great umbrage at this, and would not concede this point. But in time, Lutherans have come to treat the Roman Catholic Church as if it were right: that we are not Catholic Christians. And sadly, until recently, the vast majority of the laity - and even, it seems, a lot of our clergy - were ignorant of the Book of Concord.
Fortunately, that has been undergoing a change - which has led to a renaissance of Lutherans embracing their unabashed Catholicity and moving away from the broad-brush “Protestant” label that unites us rhetorically (and in the case of the Prussian Union, literally) with Reformed churches that do not confess and worship as we do. The reason the founders of the LCMS came to America in the first place was to escape this compelled union that forced us into a compromised theology of the sacraments - as well as the worship practices that go along with such a theology.
And so here are some quotes from the Book of Concord itself that assert the catholicity of our churches and our faith. And by the way, our confessional documents never describe our churches or our faith as either Lutheran or Protestant.
Ecumenical Creeds:
Augsburg Confession:
The Apology of the Augsburg Confession:
Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope:
The Epitome to the Formula of Concord (Introduction, 3) contains the word “catholicae” in the Latin, “allgemeinen” in the German, and is rendered “universal” in the English of the Triglot (777).
The words we use in our confession of the faith are important. The Roman Catholic Church, by redefining words, has convinced a lot of people that it is “the” Catholic Church, and none other. Sadly, Lutherans fall for this ploy by surrendering the word “Catholic” to those Christians under papal jurisdiction. In so doing, they are unwittingly confessing the doctrine of the papal church! Like our confessional forbears, we should not concede this point. The defense of our catholicity is why the Augsburg Confession was written in the first place.
Nor do I recommend that we buy into the artificial distinction between “Catholic” and “catholic.” Capitalization is a point of grammar and style, not of theology. We are not second-class citizens of the Lord’s Kingdom. We are not - as some people refer to us - “Catholic Light.” We are Catholic Christians, and in the terminology of the Rev. John Brentz, we should be so bold as to confess our churches as “the true and genuine catholic Church.”
“This is the catholic faith; which except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.” Amen.