Content provided in partnership with

The Joint Declaration on Justification

Ecumenical Review, The, April, 2000 by Hans L. Martensen

Let me begin my comments on the Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declaration on Justification with some personal remarks. I grew up in a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools. Although a Dane living in Copenhagen, my background was as Catholic as it would have been in Spain or in Poland. At that time -- in the 1930s and 1940s -- ecumenism was virtually unknown to an average Catholic. My philosophical and theological studies with the Jesuits in Munich and Frankfurt were not particularly ecumenical in their content.

After finishing my Catholic theological studies, I entered the University of Copenhagen, where I met Prof. Kristen Ejner Skydsgaard, who awakened my interest in Martin Luther's and gave me the idea of writing a doctoral dissertation on him. I chose as my subject Luther's interpretation of the famous christological hymn of Philippians 2 in his second lecture on the psalms, his lecture on Romans and other early works.

Two years of intense study of Luther showed me how central the question of justification was for his entire spiritual world. At the same time, I came to see how justification through faith was inseparable from an absolutely Christ-centred spirituality. It was remarkable to discover that the world of faith which I found in Luther's writings of that period in no way offended against my own Catholic faith. And when I was unexpectedly interrupted in my studies and appointed Catholic bishop of Copenhagen, I chose a quotation from Luther for my episcopal cross: Crux probat omnia (WA, V, 179, 31): "the cross proves everything" or "the cross discerns everything" -- the cross is the ultimate criterion of all choices.

As a bishop, I attended the fourth and last session of the Second Vatican Council in the autumn of 1965. Her again I met Prof. Skysgaard, who was a Lutheran observer in Rome during all the four gatherings of the Council. He was also one of those who took the initiative to form the joint Lutheran-Catholic working group, which met in Strasbourg August 1965 and Apirl 1966, leading to the official formation of an international study commission. I was a member of this group from its first working period (1967-71).

After five plenary sessions, the international study commission released the so-called Malta report on "The Gospel and the Church". It is noteworthy that one of the main issues of the Malta report was the question of justification:

   A far-reaching consensus is developing in the interpretation of
   justification. Catholic theologians also emphasize in reference to
   justification that God's gift of salvation for the believer is
   unconditional as far as human accomplishments are concerned. Lutheran
   theologians emphasize that the event of justification is not limited to
   individual forgiveness of sins, and they do not see in it a purely external
   declaration of the justification of the sinner. Rather the righteousness of
   God, actualized in the Christ event, is conveyed to the sinner through the
   message of justification as an encompassing reality basic to the new life
   of the believer (no. 26).

The text goes on to say that "in this sense justification can be understood as expressing the totality of the event of salvation" (no. 27).

After Malta a new commission was constituted, including some of the members from the first commission. From 1973 to 1984 ten plenary sessions worked on important texts and statements: "The Eucharist" (1978), "Ways to Community" (1980), "All Under One Christ", a statement on the Augsburg confession (1980), "The Ministry in the Church" (1981), "Martin Luther -- Witness of Jesus Christ" (1983) and "Facing Unity" (1984).

Among the members of the third international commission, which worked from 1980 to 1993, I was one of the few who had participated in both of the previous commissions. In eight plenary sessions we worked on the text "Church and Justification", the largest document so far published by the commission.

Parallel to this work at the international level, two important Lutheran-Catholic dialogues had been going on at the national level. The dialogue in the United States, which began already in 1965, had "Justification through Faith" as its theme from 1978 to 1983, finally reaching the conclusion that a fundamental consensus had been achieved. In Germany a joint Lutheran-Catholic working group, consisting of bishops and leading theologians from both sides, was appointed after the pope's visit in 1980. The main result was published in 1986 under the title Lehrverurteilungen -- kirchentrennend? -- "The Condemnations of the Reformation Era -- Do They Still Divide?"

The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification is an official attempt by the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation to make a brief compendium of the results attained in more than thirty years of Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue. After the publication of so many long and detailed theological texts, it was considered appropriate -- indeed, necessary -- to make a common statement. The authors of the Joint Declaration were appointed partly by the Vatican, partly by the Lutheran World Federation, and mandated to study the dialogue texts and give the shortest possible summary of the key question of justification. Until recently the names of these authors were not published, perhaps because their task was not to create any new arguments, but simply to make a summary of the consensus achieved.

The Joint Declaration on Justification

Ecumenical Review, The, April, 2000 by Hans L. Martensen

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Technology

Most Popular Articles in Reference

Most Popular Publications in Reference