As the Church commemorates the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, this paper explores the dynamic nature of ecclesial identity, especially given Luther’s penetrating insight, “Thank God, a seven-year-old child knows what the Church is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd.”
The investigation delves into ecclesial identity through the ecclesiological proposals of two important but rival Luther scholars. Werner Elert (1885-1954), a prominent systematic theologian at Erlangen University, was widely read by American Lutherans. The subsequent analysis argues that Elert’s ecclesiology supported a more institutionalized and centralized understanding of the church. A watershed resolution of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod’s 1962 Synodical Convention concerning procedural routes to ordained ministry—which effectively shifted the authority to confer the office of ministry from local congregations to the Synod itself—serves as a critical case study of the implementation of Elert’s proposal.
Hans Joachim Iwand (1899-1962), another prominent Luther scholar in Bonn and also a friend of many evangelicals including Karl Barth, offered an alternative ecclesiology that has received far less attention than Elert’s. Two recent English translations of Iwand’s works provide unprecedented access to his more decentralized and open view of the nature of the church.
In light of Christ’s high priestly prayer that “they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:22), this paper critically explores the tension between Elert’s institutionalized and Iwand’s decentralized ecclesiological models. By juxtaposing their competing perspectives, the research exposes how denominational structures simultaneously reveal and obscure the church’s dynamic, Christ-centered and Spirit-led identity. The analysis ultimately calls for a continual process of reformation of the church’s understanding of the una sancta catholica et apostolica ecclesia as it listens to the voice of the Shepherd.