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Lutherans and Roman Catholicism: The Changing Conflict, 1917–1963 by Myron A. Marty

1969; Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception; Volume: 33; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tho.1969.0021

2473-3725

Hilary Martin,

Canadian Identity and History

810 BOOK REVIEWS Lutherans and Roman Catholicism: The Changing Conflict, 1917-1963. By MYRON A. MARTY. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968. Pp. ~54. $6.95. The first chapters of Mr. Marty's book are very much like a visit to the family attic or basement where the furniture and knickknacks of thirty or forty years ago are being stored. The value of such a visit is to remind us how things used to be and how far we have come, and in most cases how unwilling we would be to have these things back in the living room again. For those who are impatient with the pace of ccumenism and are tempted to feel that our partners in the dialogue are not changing enough, this book will be reassuring. Lutherans and Roman Catholicism: The Changing Conflict, as the title indicates, is a case study of the rhetorical exercises and polemics between the churches which was carried on between 1917 and 1963. Mr. Marty deals only with the Lutheran side of these activities, however, and then only with those of the Missouri Synod Lutherans, not the Lutherans in this country in general. The year 1917 was chosen to begin the study in part because Lutherans were then celebrating the fourhundredth anniversary of the Reformation when their anti-Catholicism found special opportunities for a place in print. 1963 was chosen as the eutoff date because Mr. Marty sees that year as one of " many turning points " for the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue and as good a place as any for concluding the discussion. 1963 was also coincidentally, as he points out, the four-hundredth anniversary of the closing of the Council of Trent. The changing Lutheran attitude toward Roman Catholicism is illustrated for us by quotations from the pages of the semi-official press of the Missouri Synod and some popular periodicals like the Cresset, from books published by the editors of those periodicals, and from books of other authors who held influential posts such as professors in the Synod's seminaries . The opinions expressed by these writers over the years undoubtedly reflect the " official line " of the leaders of the Missouri Synod, if not quite the official church doctrine. In 1917 and in the early 19~0's, as we might expect, articles and editorials were uncompromising in tone, liberally sprinkled with emotionally charged words and with references to the past evil deeds of the Roman Catholic Church. By the late 1940's and into the 1960's a very different spirit prevailed even where hesitations and severe reservations about the Roman Catholic Church were being expressed. Two quotations from Mr. Marty's book aptly illustrate the change of climate in forty years. Writing in 19~4 in answer to a papal invitation for reunion of the churches the Lutheran Witness said: Remember that a return to the Pope means 1t return to bondage under him who burned innocent and faithful Hus at the stake, rejoiced over the massacre of thousands of godly men and women on that bloody night of St. Bartholomew, waged cruel persecution against millions of faithful Christians in Spain, ~France, BOOK REVIEWS 811 Germany, England and the Netherlands till this savagery rivaled, if it did. not surpass, that of the Roman emperors who hunted down the early .Christians. By 196fl, in response to Pope John XXIII's call for an ecumenical Council' that would discuss reform and reunion, the Cresset editors felt called upon to write: The Roman Catholic Church is our mother, from whose house we are, for the time being, absent in cbedience to Our Lord's demand, " He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." We hope for the day when tho;: invisible fellowship which we share with all Christians will once more be a visible reality in the fellowship of one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. The change of editorial style between 1924 and 1962 did not, of course; come about all at once but was prepared for little by little over the years. In separate chapters Mr. Marty traces this change for us by showing how the Luthern press gradually modified its stance and...