Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant: a book review by Norm Teigen
Greg Jackson, a Lutheran, has published a new book Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant A Doctrinal Comparison of Three Christian Confessions. This book is worthy of careful study.
Jackson's book is intended to be a catechism by which people may grow in their religious (read Lutheran) faith. The book is not a denunciation of the Catholic or the Reformed traditions as one might have feared by reading the title.
I think that this book would be of value to people who are trying to learn more about their Lutheran faith. By seeing what various faiths have to say about Christian doctrine one can learn more about one's own faith. I think Lutheran pastors looking for background information on the subject would find this book useful.
I found the book useful because I haven't thought about these subjects for a while.
The book is divided into three parts: Areas of Agreement, Areas of Partial Agreement, and Complete Disagreement.
The three faith traditions are, in Jackson's classification, agreed on the the use of Scripture, the Trinity, and Natural Law. There is partial disagreement on the meaning and importance of the Sacraments. The three traditions completely disagree on Justification, Purgatory, the Infallible Pope, on various doctrines concerning the Virgin Mary, and on interpretations of Martin Luther versus the Papacy.
I don't agree with the author on his interpretation of civil government. Jackson says that "A tyrant is a servant of God since tyranny is a better form of government than anarchy" and I'm not able to conceive that Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and Pol Pot could be considered servants of God in any sense. My conclusion is that Lutherans who study Lutheran theology haven't read much in the theory of civil government beyond their own seminary reading lists.
I think that one of the best points that Jackson makes is in the importance of the Scriptures as a measuring rod of doctrine. Jackson carefully lists the relevant passages and I am glad that he printed them out because I might not have looked them up.
Jackson knows something about the Church Fathers and again he prints out the quotations. I admit that I have heard of the Church Fathers but don't know very much about them ('Don't know much about the-ol-ogy, don't know much about es-cha-tol-ogy').
Jackson's book does not carry the imprimatur/nihil obstat of any of the organized Lutheran synods. Some might hesitate to read a book that has not been approved by a reputable Lutheran Doctrinal Committee.
That Jackson's book is not so endorsed might very well make it more worthy to be read. Jackson is his own man. He is, in a certain sense, a prophet who stands outside the walls of organized Lutheranism. He might need an editor to brush up a few cobwebs but he doesn't choose an editor who will tell him what to write.
The late J.A.O. Preus supposedly said that "by their footnotes ye shall know them." Jackson is careful to document his sources. He doesn't throw in comments from political right-wingers, which is a personal bug-a-boo for me. He knows his Church Fathers. When he quotes Luther he uses Ewald Plass's What Luther Says, which tells me that he has read more of the Church Fathers than he has Martin Luther.
Jackson might consider for future study a catechism on modernism. What should a pastor say to a couple who don't know much about the Christian traditions of faith but are troubled by ideas saturating American culture.
How does one answer the question of, what I call, the Here-and-Now? The Here-and-Now idea is that there is no past, there is no future, there is only the present.
What about the relativity problem? Everything is relative, there is no truth.
Jackson's book may be ordered from www.lulu.com I think it is available from another Lutheran prophet, the publisher of the Christian News.
I recommend the book.
