Note:
Yesterday the commonplace carried a hopeful note that because Lutherans and Catholics do theology in the same way and are both careful to write theology precisely, the two have made progress on bridging the gap between them. He specifically referred to the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification as evidence. The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) didn’t sign on to the Joint Declaration and today’s author knows better than to make the same kind of hopeful praise.

So, in a slight counterpoint to yesterday’s post I note that, as a respected seminary professor in the LCMS, Charles Arand clearly knows of what he speaks, but I sure wish he hadn’t called the differences “irreconcilable.”

[And, as I don’t know who is reading this post, perhaps I need to explain that “second and third articles” below refers to the second and third parts of the Apostles’ Creed, which confess our faith in Jesus and justification, and in the Holy Spirit and the Church, while the “first article” confesses our faith in the Father and his act of creation.]

Quote:
“We have irreconcilable differences with Rome on the second and third articles related to the work of Christ and justification by faith alone that date back to the sixteenth century. But we share a number of common convictions regarding the first article of the creed as it relates to the moral issues of society and God’s continuing work in creation (creatio continua).” (p. 308)

Source: Charles P. Arand, “Tending Our Common Home: Reflections on Laudato Si’.” Concordia Journal Fall 2015, vol. 41, no. 4,