Le x Or a n d i Le x Cr e d e n d i

Ad i a p h o r a , Ma n d a t a , Da m n ab i l i a

Oliver K. Olson

A Brief History of distinguish between those who permit pipe organs and those who do not. Organs, it is explained, are not men- Someone who talks about pastoring a church is Baptist. tioned in the Bible. Someone who writes about congregants is probably Jewish. The same viewpoint stimulated Lutherans in the second Anyone who reads this journal uses the word adiaphora. adiaphora controversy (the history of dogma distinguishes Adiaphora is a classy word and antedates the English two adiaphora controversies). About 1681 a new opera language by a long time. Twenty-five hundred years ago house was talked about in Hamburg, and some local theo- the philosophical sect of the Sophists talked about adia- logians, followers of Pietist fathers Spener and Francke, phora, and the Cynics did it before them. Diapherein in denounced as not only the opera but also dancing, Greek means to separate, to make a difference. Add the smoking, and card-playing. Orthodox Lutheran pastors, letter alpha (an alpha privative) and it becomes adiapherein. on the contrary, looked on the controversial practices as Thus, adiaphora means things that do not make a differ- adiaphora. ence. Or it can mean things that are neither good nor . Our use of the word “adiaphora” today is a legacy of That makes the term a bit too static for good theological the first adiaphora controversy. The burning question then use. More useful and religiously interesting is the relation- was whether to obey or to resist the imperial law of 1548, ship of freedom and law in St. Paul’s paradox. the “.” It regulated religious matters after the military defeat of the Lutheran princes. A contempo- “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are rary description of the situation for English speakers passed helpful. “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be a negative judgment on the situation. enslaved by anything.” (i Corinthians 6:12) “All things are lawful,” but not all things are help- Interim is a booke whiche was at ye Emperoures ful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Maiesties commaundment printed and put forth Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his about the beginning of June, in this yere of our Sav- neighbor. (i Corinthians 10:23-24) iours birthe 1548, wherein is commanded that al the cities in Dutchlande that have receaved the worde of In The Freedom of a Christian Man, Luther, too, offered a god, and made a change of ceremonyes according paradox: “A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, to the word shal reforme their churches agayne, and subject to all. A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, sub- turne to the olde popische ordinaunces as a dog dothe ject to none.” to that he hath spued out, or a washen swine of the Nevertheless, the non-biblical term had been introduced, myre.1 and it had to be dealt with. The Puritan sourcebook, The Fortress of Fathers, explained that an adiaphoron is “a thing The “olde popische ordinaunces” were the invocation of whereof is made no matter, whether a man kepe hit or do saints, prayers for souls in purgatory, processions, festivals, not kepe hit.” Their definition agreed with the usage of the consecrations, vestments, seven sacraments, votive masses, Lutherans, who talked about Mitteldinge, indifferent things. and private masses (communicants, it was explained, were Puritans, however, were not fond either of adiaphora or not necessary but merely “useful”). paradox. They eventually decided just to exclude everything The punishment for disobedience was fearful. Imperial not specifically mentioned in the . A mod- soldiers enforced the Roman liturgy with guns. Predictably, ern continuation of that attitude (and a diverting footnote the majority chose conformity. In any case, many liturgi- to American church history) is the contrast one hears about cal practices were indifferent. Into the controversy Philipp between organic and non-organic branches of the Camp- Melanchthon introduced the word “adiaphora.” bellite tradition. The adjectives are not agricultural; they

22 Sp r i n g 2010 Although the prince might reach ormation altogether, they attempted a scandali: “In the situation in which a a decision which I cannot accept, little mitigation. Extreme unction was confession is required or which causes I shall nevertheless commit to reintroduced not as a sacrament but scandal, nothing is an indifferent mat- no seditious act, but will either “according to apostolic command” ter.”11 The article is not to be under- remain silent, go into exile, or (Mark 6:13, James 5:14) for the treat- stood as the basic Lutheran statement else bear the consequences. For ment of the sick, an interpretation about the liturgy—as is sometimes the I also previously bore an almost that the Roman has case. Article x is a political statement. deformed servitude at times recently adopted. Fasts were required Following the old principle of lex orandi when Luther heeded his own but as a matter of secular law. Author- lex credendi, Flacius insisted that “cult temperament, in which there ity for excommunication was trans- and doctrine cohere together and are was much polemical zeal, just as ferred to government consistories, connected.” “It is true, more than true, there are misfortunes of storms, but government of the church was that confession is in the adiaphora.”12 so there are some faults in the entrusted generally to the bishops and Stephan Skalweit suggests that, government which must be strin- the pope—with the wistful provision “[p]robably for the first time in the gently endured and concealed by that they would not persecute sound history of ,” Flacius saw the moderate.2 doctrine. clearly the inner connection between Melanchthon was ready to cooper- doctrine and liturgy.13 “The devil is Compromise, as Melanchthon ex- ate since, typical of his time, he did especially interested in the liturgy,” plained, was better than suffering the not believe in the separation of church Flacius wrote, for “when he has it, he bitter fate of South . The and state. “Christ determines the doc- has everything.” “Liturgical changes situation was nothing new: the church trine,” he wrote, “the government the will be the window through which the had always had to endure servitude.3 church order.”5 “Ecclesiastical tradi- wolf will enter the evangelical fold.”14 The Saxon government was also tions are civil laws, and their enforce- The defiant party thus ended up ready to compromise. Its own religion ment in no way pertains to spiritual making a contribution to the history law, the “,” was crafted government.”6 “Just as the father of of political resistance, even revolution. to make the emperor’s law tolerable in a family is a minister and executor of The Formulators of Concord had the a Lutheran land. A preliminary con- the church in his family, so is the mag- almost impossible task of siding with sultation was held from November 16 istrate minister and executor of the political resistance and at the same to 22, 1548, with Melanchthon partic- church in the republic.”7 “The magis- time convincing greater and lesser ipating. The guiding rule for the con- trate should be the protector not only lords to approve it. For Article x they sultants was “to introduce everything of the second table, but of the first.”8 came up with the clever term, “oppo- not opposed to God’s word and that By contrast, nents of the .”15 And the lords can be done with a good conscience.”4 wrote that “the state is the protector all signed it—three princes elector Their recommendation, nicknamed of both tables. But in secular office.”9 of the , sixteen As a battle ensign he adopted a flow- assorted other princes and thirty- “In the situation in ing, flapping, persuasive, unavoidable eight cities—even though they feared symbol—the surplice. “Whoever puts revolution. which a confession on a surplice,” Flacius wrote, “denies Christ’s teaching.” At the same time, The Lost Words Flacius explained for those who might is required or which and the Consequences not understand, “it is not true that we causes scandal, condemn the surplice itself.” What The permanent effect of the many made it unacceptable was coercion. quarrels corresponds nothing is an The surplice had to be resisted because in general to how noisy they were— the government had commanded it. and the first adiaphora controversy indifferent matter.” In the end, it was the resisters who was very noisy. “What kind of word won the confessional battle. Article x is ‘adiaphora’?” one weary German the “Celle Interim” by the resisters, of the Formula—“We believe, teach, said. “I think the accursed devil him- accepted almost all the ordo romanus: and confess that in a time of persecu- self invented it. Now everything is baptismal chrism, confirmation as a tion, when an unequivocal confession adiaphora, whether one prays to God sacrament, canonical hours, the of the faith is demanded of us, we dare or the devil.”16 The crucial difficulty language, candles, vessels, chants, not yield to the opponents in such indif- is that equally important words have and the breaking of bread at com- ferent matters”10—is a recasting of the been forgotten. Those other words munion. Since the participants were famous statement of Matthias Flacius, are mandata (things required) and not quite ready to abandon the Ref- Nihil est adiaphoron in casu confessionis et damnabilia (things forbidden). The

Lu t h e r a n Fo r u m 23 impression spread that “everything is times possible in the turmoil of tiatory sacrifice rejected by him. adiaphora.” the Reformation controversy has However, the expression could Alertness for avoiding the damna- revealed the enduring value of also be understood in the sense bilia led some Lutherans of the twen- some elements which were lost of a sacrifice accomplished in tieth century meekly to accept what temporarily in the sixteenth cen- the eucharistic canon; basically they had once adamantly opposed, tury reconstruction of the liturgy, he meant by it sacramental sac- the sacrifice of the mass. They were as, for instance the proper use of rifice in contrast to the sacrifice misled because in contemporary liter- the Prayer of Thanksgiving.19 of the Cross. The dual charac- ature it was given the innocent-sound- ter of our Lord’s institution is ing name, “Prayer of Thanksgiving.” Authority was no longer recognized in well maintained even in the new Enclosing the words of institution the Confessions but rather in the con- text: it is a perpetuation of the within prayer transforms the ritual sensus of certain liturgical research- sacrifice of the Cross and it is a direction of the whole service. Thanks- ers. Consequently both hymnals broke memorial.20 giving and testament are not the same. seriously with the Reformation. Their According to Luther: requirement of the eucharistic prayer Luther objected to the eucharistic is a clear confession that the Lord’s prayer because, at the center of the [W]e must therefore sharply dis- Supper is our thanksgiving. The sacra- liturgy, it made the mass a sacrifice. tinguish the testament and sac- ment is not something that God does Recently, the definition has been made rament itself from the prayers but that we do. more precise, one that would have we offer at the same time. shocked Luther even more: the eucha- Therefore, these two things— ristic prayer is “a living, active sharing mass and prayer, sacrament The Most Important in the redeeming deed of Christ.” and work, testament and sacri- of the Damnabilia Self-sacrifice thus comes to mean fice—must not be confused… In their recent “Theses on Worship,” sharing Christ’s sacrifice—and sharing the former descends, the latter the presidents of the Missouri Synod, in the atonement. That newest Roman ascends.17 concerned about disunity in the “wor- doctrine was built on the construction The reversal in ritual direction is all- ship wars,” informed us that “worship of a monk named Odo Casel. In his important. According to Lutheran is not adiaphora.” But the reverend explanation Casel explicitly denied doctrine, as in the New Testament presidents did not discuss damnabilia. by faith alone. itself, the words of institution are God’s Mandata and damnabilia belong Christ’s salvation must be made words, directed to the people. The with adiaphora. The most objection- reality in us. This does not come eucharistic prayer reverses the words able of the damnabilia is the mass about through a “” of institution and aims them toward canon. Unwary Protestants are rou- from “faith” or by an application God. This distinction, so important to tinely misled about it because it was of the grace of Christ, where we Luther, was distorted by the Lutheran renamed the “eucharistic prayer” or have only to clear things out of Book of Worship as “historically condi- “prayer of thanksgiving.” Who can be the way in a negative fashion to tioned material.” against giving thanks? receive it. Rather, what is neces- But more than simple thanksgiving The Lutheran heritage of wor- sary is a living, active sharing in is involved. As it stands, the practice ship, therefore, embraces and the redeeming deed of Christ.21 endorses propitiatory sacrifice as part affirms the whole Christian tra- of Christian worship instead of as the His construction has been accepted dition: its development should sole work of Christ. The change in by papal authority, and since Casel not be limited by non-critical terminology happened at the second theologians routinely argue in favor adoption of such historically Vatican Council. of “sharing in the redeeming deed.” conditioned material as the As another liturgical theologians after church orders of the sixteenth To be sure, the expression Casel put it: century.18 “eucharistic sacrifice” would perhaps not have forced itself But our union with Christ is In the tradition of the Augsburg through if Salvatore Marsili, not established simply by faith Interim, the Celle Interim, and the who belatedly gave a commen- in his message, but by effectual Leipzig Interim, the Service Book and tary on the passage, had pointed contact with his redemptive acts. Hymnal referred to the adiaphora as out earlier that Melanchthon The saving activity by which the “some elements which were lost tem- had employed this expression in Church continues the work of porarily.” order rather to emphasize the Christ does not consist solely in A vision clearer than was some- contrast to the concept of propi- the Word as preached, but in the

24 Sp r i n g 2010 Word as sacramentally effica- The controversies about 6. Charles L. Hill, “Some Theses of Philip cious. So, in our assembly, the the canon were of the highest Melanchthon,” Lutheran Quarterly 6 (1954): reading and preaching of the importance to me, and I thank 247. 7. c r x v i col. 124. Word is followed by the eucha- God, if I succeed in preventing 8. c r i i i col. 225. ristic celebration, in which the that these impieties are forced on 9. Matthias Flacius, Gründliche Verlegung aller mystery of Christ’s redemptive the pastors.25 Sophisterey (: Christian Rödinger, work is sacramentally renewed, The eucharistic prayer, he wrote, 1551), fol. A iij r. so that we can take part in it.22 could not be accepted without impi- 10. The , eds. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis: For- ety.26 It was such a weighty matter that tress, 2000), 516 [hereafter b c ]. It is impossible to believe both: that it needed to be settled by an ecumeni- 11. Das man in diesen geschwindern Leufften, we are justified by faithand that we are cal council.27 No ecumenical council dem Teuffel und zugefallen, nichts in den not justified by faith. It is impossible to has done that. Kirchen Gottes voerendern soll. Durch Joh. Herman- believe that communion is a sheer gift To speak responsibly about the num (Magdeburg: Michael Lotter, 1548). of God and that it is participation in church’s worship it is important to 12. Ein Buch von waren und falschen Mitteldin- gen (Magdeburg: Christian Rödinger, 1550), Christ’s atonement. It is impossible to recognize what are mandata and what fol. Q iij v. believe Lutheran doctrine while par- are damnabilia just as much as what 13. Reich und Reformation (Berlin: Propyläen, ticipating in a rite that teaches some- are adiaphora. Mandated, according 1967), 361. thing quite the opposite. to Luther’s biblical insight, are the two 14. Bulla Antichristi de retrahendo populo Dei in Four centuries ago, the eucharistic sacraments of and commu- ferream Aegipticae servitutis (Magdeburg: Michael Lotter, 1549), fol. A iij r. prayer was enthusiastically promoted nion. Not mandated is the action of 15. b c 517. by Johann Agricola, chaplain to Elec- breaking the bread in the communion 16. Ein Vermanung zur Bestendigkeit in bekennt- tor Joachim i i of Brandenburg. liturgy, as other churches have required nis der warheit, Creutz, und Gebett, in dieser betrübten and Lutherans have resisted. Damned zeit sehr nützlich und tröstlich (Mageburg: Chris- Whoever does not accept the is turning God’s gift into our action. tian Rödinger, 1549), fol. A iiij v. Interim is not a Christian, 17. Luther’s Works, American Edition, 55 Adiaphora is not the final word. LF because in two years all of vols., eds. J. Pelikan and H. Lehmann (St. Europe will come to the gos- Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia and For- Ol i v e r K. Ol s o n , retired from the l w pel; it will be effective in France, tress, 1955ff.), 36:50, 56 [hereafter ]. faculty of Marquette University, is 18. Worship among Lutherans, ed. Eugene L. Poland, the whole world… If the president of Lutheran Quarterly and Brand (Geneva: Lutheran World Federation, Luther were alive now and only author of Matthias Flacius and the Sur- 1983), 12. heard that the mass… was only a 19. Service Book and Hymnal (Minneapolis: vival of Luther’s Reform (Wiesbaden: commemorative and eucharistic Augsburg, 1958), vii. Harrassowitz, 2002). sacrifice he would live ten years 20. Commentary on the Documents of Vatican i i , 23 vol. i, ed. Herbert Vorgrimmler (Herder and longer for joy. Notes Herder, 1967), 33. Italics added. Neither the victor (Flacius) nor the 1. A Waying and Considering of the Interim by 21. odo Casel, The Mystery of Christian Wor- loser (Melanchthon) of the sixteenth- the honourworthy and highly learned Philip Melanch- ship and Other Writings (Westminster, Maryland: thon, trans. John Rogers (London, 1548), fol. A Newman, 1962), 14, 52. century adiaphora controversy was iij v. 22. Charles Davis, Liturgy and Doctrine: The overtaken by joy. According to Mel- 2. Lowell C. Green, Melanchthon in English Doctrinal Basis of the Liturgical Movement (New anchthon, it was above all the rejec- (St. Louis: Center for Reformation Research, York: Sheed and Ward, 1960), 69ff. Italics tion of the eucharistic prayer that 1982), 18ff. added. preserved the Reformation. 3. Corpus Reformatorum, vols. 1–28: Philippi 23. Gustav Kawerau, “Gutachten Joh. Melanthonis Opera Quae Supersunt Omnia (Halle Agricolas über die Annahme des Augsburger The action at Leipzig makes no and Brunswick: C. A. Schwetschke, 1834–60), Interims,” Neues Archiv für Sächsische Geschichte change in the church because v i i col. 258 [hereafter c r ]. und Alterthumskunde 1 (1880): 278. 4. Ibid., col. 208. 24. c r v i col. 292. the contention concerning the 5. Hans Christoph von Hase, Die Gestalt der 25. c r v i i col. 342. mass and the eucharistic prayer Kirche Luthers. Der casus confessionis im Kampf des 26. c r v i i col. 234. is postponed for further consid- Matthias Flacius gegen das Interim von 1548 (Göt- 27. c r v i i col. 214. eration.24 tingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1940), 54.

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