Thursday, April 19, 2012

School and Thoughts on Vocation






Anonymous said...

Interesting title for your paper ... What was Dr. Luther's definition of a sacrament? Confirmation taught that a sacrament is
1) ordained by God,
2) has visible means,
3) gives or imparts forgiveness of sins.
Some define a sacrament in other ways thus expanding the number of acts that qualify as sacraments. How did your paper define a sacrament?

Is there a difference between penance and confession and absolution?


Pastor Peasant said...


In the second half of 1520, Luther wrote his treatise entitled "The Babylonian Captivity of the Church" where he took exception to the sacraments of the Roman church and by the end said that, strictly speaking, there were only two: Baptism and the Supper. Before 1520 (the focus of my paper) he was using the term as he had been taught in the Roman church. So at this point, he is still calling Penance a Sacrament, hence the title of my paper.

After 1520, Luther will still often, but not always, call private absolution a sacrament, but with the understanding (I believe) that it is lacking a visible means - one of the criteria you point out. For Luther, what was important was not so much the label as what was going on. That's also why he changed the name he used from "penance" to "absolution" - penance put the emphasis on what the person was doing, absolution puts the emphasis on what God is giving. Far more important!

So, the term penance is really the Roman term and the term "private absolution" is really a Lutheran term.

Hope that makes sense! Thanks for reading and asking.