scholarly journals Luther’s Doctrine of Universal Priesthood and Its Implications for Today

2017 ◽  
Vol 87 (null) ◽  
pp. 209-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
우병훈
Keyword(s):  
Universal Priesthood

scholarly journals Die priesterskap van die gelowiges soos Calvyn dit gesien het

1989 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. Pont
Keyword(s):  
John Calvin ◽  
Priesthood Of All Believers ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Universal Priesthood ◽  
The Church

The priesthood of all believers as seen by Calvin The Lutheran thesis of the priesthood of all believers was also taken over by John Calvin. The position of this thesis in Calvin’s theology is examined and it is shown that Calvin does not trea t this thesis as a separate statement. A short introduction is given of the main points Calvin explores when he discusses the meaning of the thesis. In the end it is shown that Calvin developed the thesis of the universal priesthood in such a low-key form to preserve the order in the Church and the prime position of the preaching of the gospel.

This is an extremely important point. Luther’s thought is more subtle than many have given it credit for. The two kingdoms idea, with its strict demar-cation between the world of social discourse, public righteousness, and daily life and the world of individual salvation, righteousness before God, and spiritual life, effectively serves to demarcate the bounds and the application of the teachings embodied in the notions of universal priesthood and Christian freedom. These are ultimately categories which refer to the spiritual and not the material world. Thus their strict democratizing tendencies, in Luther’s mind at least, are restricted to that sphere. What he is doing is to allow for a universal, egalitarian attitude to grace and conversion, while setting up bar-riers which prevent this Reformation programme being carried across into the secular field. Failure to spot this subtlety, or fear that others might fail to spot it, lay behind much of the early Catholic opposition to Luther. Indeed, in the con-text of a discussion of the priesthood of all believers, David Bagchi makes the following observation concerning Luther’s early Catholic opponents: [T]he controversialists in general were much less antagonistic to Luther’s doctrine of the priesthood of all believers than might have been sup-posed. Their objection, as with some of Luther’s other teachings, was prompted largely by the possibility that the rabble might understand it out of ignorance or malice . . . Cochlaeus, Fisher, Bartholomeus Usingen, Eck, Arnoldi Von Chiemsee, Johannes Gropper, and Jodocus Clichtoveus all accepted the universal priesthood, provided that it did not detract from the special priesthood.

2003 ◽  
pp. 36-37
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Priesthood Of All Believers ◽  
Material World ◽  
The World ◽  
Egalitarian Attitude ◽  
Universal Priesthood ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
Field Failure

‘Eyn Mercklich Underscheyd’: Catholic Reactions to Luther’s Doctrine of the Priesthood of all Believers, 1520–25

1989 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 155-165
Author(s):  
David Bagchi
Keyword(s):  
Martin Luther ◽  
Priesthood Of All Believers ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
German Nation ◽  
Universal Priesthood

After the great Reformation principles of ‘faith alone’ and ‘Scripture alone’, probably the most revolutionary doctrine commonly associated with Martin Luther is that of the priesthood of all believers. It is well known that, as it appears in his address ‘to the Christian nobility of the German nation’ of 1520, he intended this doctrine to bring down the walls of the new Jericho by striking at the heart of the distinction between clergy and laity on which the medieval Church was based. What is less well known is the reaction to this doctrine of Luther’s contemporaries, and in particular his critics. I propose to look at how they regarded the reformer’s conception of the universal priesthood, and what they thought its implications were, in the hope of shedding more light on its contemporary significance.

itself as theologically significant as the underlying ideas. The year 1520 was in many ways make-or-break for the Lutheran Reformation. After inconclusive meetings with the church authorities at Augsburg and Leipzig and while awaiting the inevitable bull of excommunication, Luther published his three greatest treatises: To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation; The Babylonian Captivity of the Church; and On the Freedom of the Christian. In these works he stated his emerging Reformation theology in a sharply polem-ical manner and made a last (somewhat unconvincing) attempt to appeal to the Pope. It was in this climate that the language of universal priesthood came to the fore, though this did not in itself represent an underlying change or radical development in theological perspective. It was rather an attempt to give full expression to the content and implications of salvation by grace through faith which had been developing in his mind since approximately 1515, while at the same time making a sharp polemical criticism of the Roman church’s priestly pretensions. In the early 1520s, therefore, the rhetor-ical power of the term was in many ways as significant as the theological point being made – a point which had in effect been made by Luther on ear-lier occasions without using this kind of language.

2003 ◽  
pp. 34-35
Keyword(s):  
Full Expression ◽  
Reformation Theology ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
German Nation ◽  
Universal Priesthood ◽  
The Church
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