Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a Christian tradition committed to the main theological insights of Martin Luther. It is numerically the second largest single Christian tradition, with an estimated 82.6 million people belonging to the various congregations, bodies, and churches which call themselves Lutheran. Many Lutherans and most outside the tradition consider Lutheranism to be Protestant.

Modern Lutheranism in Europe

Lutheranism is the state religion of several Scandinavian countries in Northern Europe, including Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. In these countries, the churches are supported directly by taxes. The church tax, an income tax of about 1–2%, is collected only from the members of the church, but the church also gets its share from other taxes such as the municipal corporation tax. Priests are educated at the Faculties of Theology of the state universities. With the extension of the European Union, the status of state churches is largely revised; they remain a State Church but win greater autonomy. In Sweden, Lutheranism was the state religion up until the year 2000. The church is no longer supported by taxes, but the fees are collected along with taxes.

Related Topics:
State religion - Scandinavia - Europe - Norway - Denmark - Finland - Iceland - Corporation tax - European Union - Sweden - 2000

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Lutheranism is also prominent in Estonia, and Latvia. Members of the predominant churches in Germany, whether Lutheran, Reformed or Catholic are also required by the state to pay a church tax in addition to their normal income tax. Certain parts of Germany are traditionally Lutheran (generally towards the north and east) while others are historically Catholic (especially Bavaria and areas along the Rhine). Modern mobility and a decrease in religiosity have, however, been instrumental in shifting the demographic situation, as did the movements of German refugees from areas lost to Poland and Russia as a result of World War Two.

Related Topics:
Estonia - Latvia - Catholic - Bavaria - Rhine - World War Two

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Notably, the European churches have very low attending memberships at the offices; due to the history of those European churches, most parts of them knew persecution during the 17th and 18th centuries. The church attendance on Sunday is not decisive and houses offices are still perennial, particularly in southern Europe. Most people feel it is more important to attend to the lot of conference and training and Biblical studies. So, in northern Europe many attend religious services only for baptisms, confirmations, weddings, funerals and possibly at Christmas. Confirmation is treated seriously and is usually delayed until the end of the high school courses. The Lutheran confirmation training usually constitutes the largest exposure of Northern Europeans to Christian doctrines.

Related Topics:
Baptism - Confirmations - Wedding - Funeral - Christmas

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Recently, the Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands merged with two Reformed churches (the Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk and the Gereformeerde Kerken), creating the 2,000,000 strong Protestant Church of the Netherlands. The 'PKN' claims to be both Reformed and Lutheran and is a member of both the WARC and the Lutheran World Federation. The Lutheran congregations in the Netherlands have remained largely autonomous.

Related Topics:
Protestant Church of the Netherlands - WARC - Lutheran World Federation - Netherlands

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Except in Northern Europe (see above), very few seminaries are state-supported. Due to large agreements like the Concorde de Leuenberg (1962), involving many churches raising from the Reformation the training for students in theology embraces a wide range of theologies including modern and contemporary movements in biblical criticism and theology.

Related Topics:
Concorde de Leuenberg - 1962 - Reformation - Theology

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Many major seaports contain the outposts of the respective Nordic Lutheran churches (e.g. Norwegian and Finnish) to provide aid, social opportunities and pastoral care for visiting seamen — in their own language. A few Lutheran pastors work in foreign countries such as France.

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