Interview: Why there is no such thing as “Lutheranism”

For a while now I’ve been saying that there is no such thing as “Lutheranism.” “Lutheran” is not an “ism.”

The guys on the Gospel Asylum invited me on to talk about “-ism”s, and to defend myself.

This was a really fun interview.

Listen here:

 

Here’s the outline of the discussion:

6:30   Movements vs Institutions
8:00  Institutions (the basic work of theology)
9:30  Where the church is instituted in Scriptures
10:40  Authority vs Power
12:30  The use of words in movement vs institution
13:40  Jesus and authority and power, and how this comes into the church. office and institution
15:45  Minister vs Leader
16:20  Emergency and Order
19:50  What is the church instituted to do? or: How is the church instituted? And how the definition of the church precedes the ends of the church, which sets us free from worry.
23:50 What it means that Lutheran is not an -ism.
27:00 Why do we tend to emergency thinking?
31:00 How feminism and Islam coexist? How the movement must fight against institutions.
33:05 The comfort of knowing that the devil cannot create.
37:05 What life in the institutions looks like.
39:10 Mission and Vision in the movement
40:00 Institution vs Bureaucracy, and the immediacy of the Lord’s mediated work
41:10 Being in the office does not mean that we are free from sin
43:10 What is “Lutheran”? What is the Lutheran Church?
48:10 The sturdiness of life in the Gospel.

 

Let me know what you think.

PrBW

Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Bryan Wolfmueller, pastor of St Paul and Jesus Deaf Lutheran Churches in Austin, TX, author of "A Martyr's Faith for a Faithless World", "Has American Christianity Failed?", co-host of Table Talk Radio, teacher of Grappling with the Text, and theological adventure traveler.

1 Comment

  1. Loved this. Especially liked how you juxtaposed “a movement” with “an institution” (meaning that which is INSTITUTED by God). Funny how the word “institution” has a bad connotation nowadays along with other words like submission, humility, sin, truth…..

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