Lutheranism

===Polity===
[[File:Das Vaterunser 2 Lucas Cranach d A.jpg|thumb|''Hallowed be Thy Name'' by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]] illustrates a Lutheran pastor preaching Christ crucified. During the Reformation and afterwards, many churches did not have pews, so people would stand or sit on the floor. The elderly might be given a chair or stool.]]
Lutheran [[Ecclesiastical polity|polity]] varies depending on influences. Although [[:s:Augsburg Confession#Article XIV: Of Ecclesiastical Order.|Article XIV]] of the ''Augsburg Confession'' mandates that one must be "properly called" to preach or administer the Sacraments, some Lutherans have a broad view of on what constitutes this and thus allow lay preaching or students still studying to be pastors someday to consecrate the Lord's Supper.<ref>For some opinions and historical discussion from someone who takes a broader view, see [https://essays.wls.wels.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/3205/MaaskeCall.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y What is a call?: or, When is a call a call, and who makes it such?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412074557/https://essays.wls.wels.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/3205/MaaskeCall.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |date=12 April 2019 }} By Alfred H. Maaske</ref> Despite considerable diversity, Lutheran polity trends in a geographically predictable manner in Europe, with episcopal governance to the north and east but blended and consistorial-presbyterian type synodical governance in Germany.

====Scandinavia====
[[File:Ärkebiskopsvigning.jpg|thumb|[[Nathan Söderblom]] is ordained as archbishop of the Church of Sweden in 1914. Although Swedish Lutherans boast of an unbroken line of ordinations going back prior to the Reformation, the [[Pope#Official list of titles|bishops of Rome]] do not recognize such ordinations as valid.]]
To the north in Scandinavia, the population was more insulated from the influence and politics of the Reformation and thus the Church of Sweden (which at the time included Finland) retained the [[Apostolic succession#Lutheran claims to apostolic succession|Apostolic succession]],<ref>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=SLlKBAAAQBAJ&q=%22Church+of+Iceland%22+%22Apostolic+Succession%22&pg=PA140 | title = Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism | last1 = Gassman | first1 = Günther | last2 = Larson | first2 = Duane H. | last3 = Olderburg | first3 = Mark W. | edition = 2nd | year = 2011 | publisher = The Scarecrow Press, Inc.| isbn = 9780810874824 }}</ref> although they did not consider it essential for valid sacraments as the [[Donatists]] did in the fourth and fifth centuries and the Roman Catholics do today. Recently, the Swedish succession was introduced into all of the [[Porvoo Communion]] churches, all of which have an episcopal polity. Although the Lutheran churches did not require this or change their doctrine, this was important in order for more strictly high church Anglican individuals to feel comfortable recognizing their sacraments as valid. The occasional ordination of a bishop by a priest was not necessarily considered an invalid ordination in the Middle Ages, so the alleged break in the line of succession in the other Nordic Churches would have been considered a violation of canon law rather than an invalid ordination at the time. Moreover, there are no consistent records detailing pre-Reformation ordinations prior to the 12th century.<ref>''Das kirchliche Amt in apostolischer Nachfolge''. In: Dorothea Sattler, Gunther Wenz: ''Das kirchliche Amt in apostolischer Nachfolge. Volume 3: Verständigungen und Differenzen''. Herder/ Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Freiburg and Göttingen 2008. {{ISBN|3-451-29943-7}}, p. 167–267, and p. 266.</ref>

In the far north of the Scandinavian peninsula are the [[Sámi people#Laestadius|Sámi people]], some of which practice a form of Lutheranism called Apostolic Lutheranism, or [[Laestadianism]] due to the efforts of [[Lars Levi Laestadius]]. However, others are [[Sámi people#Religion|Orthodox in religion]]. Some Apostolic Lutherans consider their movement as part of an [[Laestadianism#"Unbroken line of living Christianity"|unbroken line down from the Apostles]]. In areas where Apostolic Lutherans have their own bishops apart from other Lutheran church organizations, the bishops wield more practical authority than Lutheran clergy typically do. In Russia, Laestadians of Lutheran background cooperate with the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria|Ingrian]] church, but since Laestadianism is an interdenominational movement, some are Eastern Orthodox. Eastern Orthodox Laestadians are known as [[:ru:Ушковайзет|Ushkovayzet]] (article is in Russian).<ref>[http://uralistica.com/profiles/blogs/karelskoe-religioznoe Karelian religious movement Uskhovayzet]</ref>

====Eastern Europe and Asian Russia====
[[File:Spb 06-2012 Nevsky various 06.jpg|thumb|[[Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul]] in [[Saint Petersburg]]]]
Although historically Pietism had a significant influence on the understanding of the ministry among Lutherans in the [[Russian Empire]],{{efn|See [[:ru:Вюст, Эдуард|Edward Wust]] and [[:ru:Вюстизм|Wustism]] in the Russian Wikipedia for more on this.}} today nearly all [[Russia]]n and [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] Lutherans are influenced by Eastern Orthodox polity. In their culture, giving a high degree of respect and authority to their bishops is necessary for their faith to be seen as legitimate and not sectarian.<ref>[https://www.sonntagsblatt.de/artikel/kirche/ihre-gemeinde-ist-annulliert Kirche weltweit Ukraine: "Ihre Gemeinde ist annulliert"] 18.09.2016 by Von Helmut Frank]</ref> In [[Russia]], lines of succession between bishops and the canonical authority between their present-day hierarchy is also carefully maintained in order to legitimize the existing Lutheran churches as present day successors of the former Lutheran Church of the Russian Empire originally authorized by [[Catherine the Great]]. This allows for the post-Soviet repatriation of Lutheran church buildings to local congregations on the basis of this historical connection.<ref>[https://logia.org/pdf-back-issues/15-1pdf-lutheranism-in-asia A New "Old" Lutheran Church in Asian Russia] by Alexei Streltsov, in Logia, Epiphany 2006: Volume 15, Number 1</ref>

====Germany====
[[File:KirchenordnungSHA.jpg|thumb|The [[Schwäbisch Hall]] Church Order in 1543]]
In [[Germany]], several dynamics encouraged Lutherans to maintain a different form of polity. First, due to de facto practice during the [[Nuremberg Religious Peace]] the subsequent legal principal of [[Cuius regio, eius religio]] in the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, German states were officially either Catholic or "Evangelical" (that is, Lutheran under the ''Augsburg Confession''). In some areas both Catholic and Lutheran churches were permitted to co-exist. Because German-speaking Catholic areas were nearby, Catholic-leaning Christians were able to emigrate and there was less of an issue with Catholics choosing to live as "[[crypto-papist]]s" in Lutheran areas. Although Reformed-leaning Christians were not allowed to have churches, Melancthon wrote ''[[Augsburg Confession Variata]]'' which some used to claim legal protection as "Evangelical" churches. Many chose to live as [[crypto-Calvinists]] either with or without the protection offered by the ''Variata'', but this did not make their influence go away, and as a result the Protestant church in Germany as of 2017 was only about ~40% Lutheran, with most of the rest being United Protestant, a combination of Lutheran and Reformed beliefs and practices.<ref name=EKD18>[https://www.ekd.de/ekd_de/ds_doc/Gezaehlt_zahlen_und_fakten_2019.pdf Zahlen und Fakte zum kirchlichen Leben 2019] Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland</ref>

In terms of polity, over the 17th and 18th centuries the carefully negotiated and highly prescriptive [[Church Order (Lutheran)|church orders]] of the Reformation era gave way to a joint cooperation between state control and a Reformed-style blend of consistorial and presbyterian type synodical governance. Just as negotiations over the details in the church orders involved the laity, so did the new synodical governance. Synodical governance had already been practiced in the Reformed Netherlands prior to its adoption by Lutherans. During the formation of the modern German state, ideas about the nature of authority and the best design for governments and organizations came from the philosophies of [[Political philosophy of Immanuel Kant|Kant]] and [[Elements of the Philosophy of Right|Hegel]], further modifying the polity. When the monarchy and the sovereign governance of the church were ended in 1918, the synods took over the governance of the state churches.

====Western Hemisphere and Australia====
[[File:Ministerium Hymnal.jpg|thumb|The Pennsylvania Ministerium published this hymnal in 1803.<ref>This website has [https://hymnary.org/hymnal/HELC1865 text and midi files] for the 1865 Pennsylvania Ministerium hymnal.</ref>]]
[[File:Lighthouse Lutheran Church in Freedom.jpg|thumb|Lighthouse Lutheran Church, an LCMC congregation in [[Freedom, Pennsylvania]]]]
During the period of the emigration, Lutherans took their existing ideas about polity with them across the ocean,<ref>Abdel Ross Wentz (1954), ''A Basic History of Lutheranism in America'', Philadelphia, Pa., p. 41</ref><ref>Clifton E. Olmstead (1960), ''History of Religion in the United States'', Englewood Cliffs, N.J., pp. 6, 140</ref> though with the exception of the early Swedish Lutherans immigrants of the New Sweden colony who accepted the rule of the Anglican bishops and became part of the established church, they now had to fund churches on their own. This increased the congregationalist dynamic in the blended consistorial and presbyterian type synodical governance. The first organized church body of Lutherans in America was the [[Pennsylvania Ministerium]], which used Reformed style synodical governance over the 18th and 19th centuries. Their contribution to the development of polity was that smaller synods could in turn form a larger body, also with synodical governance, but without losing their lower level of governance. As a result, the smaller synods gained unprecedented flexibility to join, leave, merge, or stay separate, all without the hand of the state as had been the case in Europe.

During their 19th-century persecution, Old Lutheran, defined as scholastic and orthodox believers, were left in a conundrum. Resistance to authority was traditionally considered disobedience, but, under the circumstances, upholding orthodox doctrine and historical practice was considered by the government disobedience. However, the doctrine of the [[lesser magistrate]] allowed clergy to legitimately resist the state and even leave. Illegal free churches were set up in Germany and mass emigration occurred. For decades the new churches were mostly dependent on the free churches to send them new ministerial candidates for ordination. These new church bodies also employed synodical governance, but tended to exclude Hegelianism in their constitutions, due to its incompatibility with the doctrine of the lesser magistrates. In contrast to Hegelianism where authority flows in from all levels, Kantianism presents authority proceeding only from the top down, hence the need for a lesser magistrate to become the new top magistrate.

Over the 20th and 21st centuries, some Lutheran bodies have adopted a more congregationalist approach, such as the [[Protes'tant Conference]] and the [[Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ]], or LCMC. The LCMC formed due to a church split after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America signed an [[Called to Common Mission|agreement]] with the Episcopal Church to start ordaining all of their new bishops into the Episcopalian apostolic succession. In other words, this meant that new ELCA bishops, at least at first, would be jointly ordained by Anglican bishops as well as Lutheran bishops so that the more strict Episcopalians (i.e., Anglo-Catholics) would recognize their sacraments as valid. This was offensive to some in the ELCA at the time because of the implications this practice would have on the teachings of the [[Theology of Martin Luther#Universal priesthood of the baptized|priesthood of all believers]] and the nature of ordination.

Some Lutheran churches permit dual-rostering.<ref>For example, the single Lutheran church on [[Guam]] is a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. See [http://www.lutheranchurchofguam.org/blog/?page_id=890 Lutheran Church of Guam History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717115937/http://www.lutheranchurchofguam.org/blog/?page_id=890 |date=17 July 2020 }}</ref> Situations like this one where a church or church body belongs to multiple larger organizations that do not have ties are termed "triangular fellowship". Another variant is independent Lutheran churches, although for some independent churches the clergy are members of a larger denomination. In other cases, a congregation may belong to a synod, but the pastor may be unaffiliated. In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church of Australia,<ref>[https://researchbank.acu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1222&context=theses Legitimacy, authority and transition in the public office of the ministry in the Lutheran Church of Australia] by Grulke, David. 2 vols. (2007), thesis, [[Australian Catholic University]]</ref> the Wisconsin Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Church of the Lutheran Confession, and the Missouri Synod, teachers at parochial schools are considered to be ministers of religion, with the latter defending this before the [[Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission|Supreme Court in 2012]]. However, differences remain in the precise status of their teachers.<ref>One example of these differences are those [[Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod#Relationship with other Lutheran bodies|between the Missouri and Wisconsin Synods]].</ref>