Lutherans and Catholics Agree on Justification

The Augsburg Confession of 1530 taught that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith (Augsburg Confession Article IV). The Council of Trent, in its session of January 1547, condemned anyone who said that the sinner is justified by faith alone in the sense that nothing else is required to cooperate in obtaining the grace of justification and that he need not be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will (Council of Trent Session 6, canon 9). The Joint Declaration opens by saying that the condemnations on both sides were still in force and still divided the churches (Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification 1).

The declaration sums up the dialogue held since the Second Vatican Council (Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification 4, 13). At its centre is a common confession: people are accepted by God “by grace alone”, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit of their own, and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews their hearts and equips and calls them to good works (Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification 15). It claims “a consensus in basic truths” of the doctrine, calls the remaining differences of language, theological elaboration and emphasis acceptable, and concludes that the teaching of each church as presented in the declaration does not fall under the other’s sixteenth-century condemnations (Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification 40–41). It says that it does not cover all that either church teaches about justification (Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification 5), and it lists questions still to be clarified, among them the church, authority, ministry and the sacraments (Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification 43).

The Lutheran World Federation reported in June 1998 that 89 of its 124 member and associate churches had replied, 80 with a yes and five with a no; the hardest points were the doctrine as criterion, sin in the justified, and good works (LWF Council, Action on the Joint Declaration (1998) A.3–4). Its Council voted to affirm the agreements (LWF Council, Action on the Joint Declaration (1998) B.2) on 16 June 1998, and the Catholic response followed on 25 June (Official Common Statement (1999) 2). That response accepted the consensus in basic truths but held that some positions still diverged (Response of the Catholic Church to the Joint Declaration (1998) Declaration). It called the Lutheran formula “at the same time righteous and sinner”, as the declaration explains it, not acceptable to Catholics (Response of the Catholic Church to the Joint Declaration (1998) Clarifications 1), and judged that some differences were matters of substance (Response of the Catholic Church to the Joint Declaration (1998) Clarifications 5).

An Annex answered these questions (Official Common Statement (1999) 2). It says that Lutherans and Catholics can together understand the Christian as at once righteous and sinner to the extent it sets out, despite their different approaches (Official Common Statement (1999) Annex 2A). With it, Cardinal Edward Cassidy and Bishop Walter Kasper for the Catholic Church, and Bishop Christian Krause and seven other officers for the federation, signed a statement confirming the declaration “in its entirety”; it adds that further dialogue is needed to reach full church communion (Official Common Statement (1999) 3 and signatures). The signing took place at Augsburg on 31 October 1999, and in Rome that day John Paul II called it a “milestone” (John Paul II, Angelus, 31 October 1999 1).

Other communions later associated themselves with it or affirmed it. The World Methodist Council declared at Seoul in 2006 that the declaration’s common understanding corresponds to Methodist doctrine (World Methodist Council, Statement of Association (2006) heading and 2). The Anglican Consultative Council in 2016 welcomed and affirmed its “substance” (Anglican Consultative Council, Resolution 16.17). The World Communion of Reformed Churches affirmed its common statements in 2017 (World Communion of Reformed Churches, Association with the Joint Declaration (2017) 1–2; date from the communion’s own page, linked in the source record).