Consensus Volume 22 Article 1 Issue 2 Essays Ecumenical and Historical 11-1-1996 Our Role in God's Rule: Lutheran and Mennonite Views on Moral Agency Waldemar Janzen Harry Huebner Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus Recommended Citation Janzen, Waldemar and Huebner, Harry (1996) "Our Role in God's Rule: Lutheran and Mennonite Views on Moral Agency," Consensus: Vol. 22 : Iss. 2 , Article 1. Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol22/iss2/1 This Articles is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Our Role In God’s Rule: Lutheran And Mennonite Views On Moral Agency Waldemar Janzen and Harry Huebner Canadian Mennonite Bible College, Winnipeg, Manitoba Introduction This article is a comparative study of Lutheran and Men- nonite ethics, viewed from a Mennonite perspective. Instead of engaging in a general survey we have focused attention on the respective understandings of moral agency, believing this to be the area of greatest ethical divergence between the two confes- sions. In other words, we want to address primarily the ques- tion of the Christian’s place and role in doing the will of God, as understood by Lutherans and Mennonites, respectively. A recent Lutheran-Mennonite dialogue in Germany con- firms this choice of focus. ^ It identifies the areas of baptism and ethics as those of greatest divergence between the two confes- sions. Within the realm of ethics, the dialogue isolates the eth- ical relevance of the humanity of Jesus {die ethische Relevanz des Menschseins Jesu) as the central area of tension.