About the ELCM: Are We Confessional?

This post inaugurates a as-yet-undetermined in number series on some of the beliefs of the Evangelical Lutheran Conference and Ministerium of North America. It has come to my attention that due to the relatively small size of the ELCM and the structure of the website, it might be hard for people to "zero-in" on exactly where we are on various doctrines, and where we fall on the spectrum.

There was a recent inquiry about the nature of this blog, because I didn't put out anywhere whether I am "Confessional" or not. Now, this term can mean different things in different circles, so a little clarification is going to be necessary. In general, it refers to a person, group, or church body for which a confessional document (or documents) are considered binding. As a Lutheran, then, it refers to the Lutheran Confessions (the Book of Concord).

Not all Lutheran church bodies view the historic documents of faith the same way. Not all of them include the same things - not all Lutheran church bodies include the Formula of Concord, for example, because of the historical situation in which it was written.

Even when we are talking about the same set of documents, there's the question of whether these are binding confessions of faith, true expositions of Scripture among others, or just one way to think about things.

To complicate matters more, "subscribing" to the Confessions (agreeing that they are true) can be done in more than one way. This is called quia or quatenus subscription.  

• Quia, which is Latin for "because," is subscription to the Confessions "because the Confessions are a correct statement of the teachings of Scripture" - that is, they rightly interpret Scripture and teach what Scripture teaches, wholly and totally.

• Quatenus, which means "insofar as," replaces the "because" in the above phrase: "insofar as the Confessions are a correct statement of the teachings of Scripture" - so, then, the bits that are not, one hasn't agreed to.

Of course, then you get into the problem of which bits are, and which bits are not. Claiming that they are true among others, or just one way to think about things is functionally equivalent to quatenus subscription.

The ELCM takes the quia view of subscription: The Confessions in their entirety rightly set out what Scripture teaches. From the ELCM documentation, we hold to:

"The “Quia” View  which holds that all of the Documents of the Christian Book of Concord (Unaltered Augsburg Confession, Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Small Catechism of Luther, Large Catechism of Luther, Treatise on the Primacy of the Pope, Smalcald Articles of Luther, Solid Declaration, and Formula of Concord - Epitome) are a correct setting forth of the Doctrines of Holy Scripture."

Now, wait a minute, does that mean we think more of the Confessions, these man-made documents, than we do of Scripture? Of course not. That's the Lutheran distinction between norma normans and norma normata -  and we'll get to that next.

So yes, the ELCM is a Confessional Lutheran body - we are happy to give our assent to the tradition of faith, to those correct teachings which have been handed down, and to stand up and say: this we confess and believe, for this is what Holy Scripture teaches.