One of the most impressive feats of Reformation ecumenism was the Wittenberg Concord of 1536, signed by Capito, Bucer, and Musculus on the Reformed side and Luther and Melanchthon, among others, on the Lutheran side. Luther admitted that the two groups diverged on various details, but declared, in a deeply emotional moment, \u201cUp this point we shall not quarrel.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was truly a compromise document. James Kittelson and Ken Schurb described the Reformed concessions in a 1986 article in the Concordia Theological Quarterly<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u201cThe text did speak of a sacramental union and even clarified what this term meant: \u2018that is, they [Bucer and his associates] hold that when the bread is distributed [porrecto<\/em>] at the same time the body of Christ is present and truly offered [exhibere<\/em>].\u2019 The Wittenberg Concord, then, followed Luther\u2019s insistence in the preceding negotiations, namely, that what was done with the bread in the sacrament was likewise done with the body of Christ. The Concord maintained this thought by indicating that the bread was the body of Christ as it was offered, and before it was received!\u2019 Most striking of all, though, were the words, \u2018as Paul says, the unworthy also eat [indignas manducare<\/em>]. Thus, they hold that the true body and blood of Christ are distributed also to the unworthy, and that the unworthy eat, where the words and institution of Christ are retained!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Luther refused to insist that the South Germans retract their earlier spiritualized interpretation of John 6:63, accepting the common condemnation of all who taught that the elements were \u201cmere bread and wine.\u201d Further, \u201che signed a confession that declared \u2018that with the bread and wine the body and blood are truly and substantially present, offered, and received!\u2019 In this regard, it is important to note the word with,\u2019 a word that would cause no end of trouble in the debate over the Variata<\/em>. In addition, Luther signed a confession that failed to give a complete definition of \u2018the unworthy.\u2019 It stated that these \u2018partake for judgment\u2019 if they presented themselves \u2018without repentance and faith.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The question of what was meant by \u201cfaith\u201d was left to the side, but that was the point where the two sides most obviously diverged.\u00a0Bucer distinguished between the utterly godless and those who have a thin, shallowly-planted faith: The latter \u201care possessed not merely of mind and reason-which of course recognize there nothing but bread and wine-but of faith also. But because they receive it without true dedication of heart, and therefore without that living and saving faith which appropriates for itself the boundless grace of God, they are consequently guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.\u201d Bucer could say that many \u201cexercise faith in the ordinance of the Lord\u201d but \u201cfail to discern the Lord\u2019s body, and so receive the Lord\u2019s body in this sacrament unworthily.\u201d<\/p>\n For Luther, even the weakest faith counted as faith. Anyone who believed the words of institution, that Christ was truly offering Himself in bread and wine, had faith sufficient to receive the sacrament worthily.<\/p>\n As Kittelson and Schurb put it, \u201cboth sides compromised by virtue both of what they did say and what they tacitly agreed not to say in the Concord.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the most impressive feats of Reformation ecumenism was the Wittenberg Concord of 1536, signed by Capito, Bucer, and Musculus on the Reformed side and Luther and Melanchthon, among others, on the Lutheran side. Luther admitted that the two groups diverged on various details, but declared, in a deeply emotional moment, \u201cUp this point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reformation"],"yoast_head":"\n