page_title: Evangelical Catholic
section_title: Evangelical Catholicism in the Lutheran Churches
hierarchical_section_title: Evangelical Catholic / Evangelical Catholic Lutheranism / Evangelical Catholicism in the Lutheran Churches
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Ljusbärare framför Jesusikon, Landskyrkan, Skellefteå Pastorat, Luleå Stift.
context_page_description: The term Evangelical Catholic is used in Lutheranism, alongside the term Augsburg Catholic, with those calling themselves Evangelical Catholic Lutherans or Lutherans of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship stressing the catholicity of historic Lutheranism in liturgy, beliefs, practices, and doctrines. Evangelical Catholics teach that Lutheranism at its core "is deeply and fundamentally catholic". The majority of Evangelical Catholic Lutheran clergy and Evangelical Catholic Lutheran parishes are members of mainstream Lutheran denominations.
context_section_description: In the 19th century, "Evangelical Catholicism" was seen as a vision for the Church of the future. The term was used by Lutherans such as Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach and Heinrich Leo within the post-Prussian Union church in Germany who were inspired by the church of the Middle Ages, and by neo-Lutheran Friedrich Julius Stahl.
  The term Evangelical Catholic is often used today instead of the term "High Church Lutheranism" because it is a theological term. It is comparable to the term "Anglo-Catholic" within Anglicanism.  Evangelical Catholic Lutheranism is not strictly defined, and can mean, for example, the theologically, biblically, and socially conservative ultra-high church Lutheranism of the strongly Roman Catholic-oriented Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church and the more Eastern Orthodox-oriented Evangelical Catholic Church, those within the Confessional Lutheran movement who follow the late Arthur Carl Piepkorn, the Evangelical Catholic Orthodoxy of Gunnar Rosendal, the more theologically liberal high ecclesiology of Carl Braaten, the very liberal Evangelical Catholicity of Nathan Söderblom, or even the more liberal Catholicism of Friedrich Heiler, and the ecumenical vision of Hans Asmussen and Max Lackmann.
  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada defines its doctrinal basis as such: "We derive our teachings from the Holy Scriptures and confess the three ecumenical creeds of the Christian church. We hold to orthodox catholic theology as enunciated in the ecumenical councils of the first five centuries of Christianity." Some small "Evangelical Catholic" church bodies include the Evangelical Catholic Church, Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, Lutheran Church - International and the Lutheran Episcopal Communion. The Nordic Catholic Church in Norway has roots in High Church Lutheranism. However, most Evangelical Catholic Lutheran clergy and Evangelical Lutheran parishes are part of mainstream Lutheran denominations such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Evangelical Church in Germany and Church of Sweden. Many Lutherans hold beliefs that would be characterized as being of the Evangelical Catholic churchmanship of Lutheranism, but prefer to be called simply as "Lutherans" as they view the catholic nature of Lutheranism to be inherent in Lutheranism and prefer to stress the unity within Lutheranism as a whole.
  In 1976 Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, suggested that the Augsburg Confession might be possible to recognise as a Catholic statement of faith. This did not happen due to differences in understanding of the theology on justification. Various Roman Catholic leaders and theolgians, such as Cardinal Kurt Koch have proposed the idea of Lutheran Ordinariates within the Catholic Church, which would allow Lutherans to join the Catholic Church and retain aspects of their liturgy and traditions. Lutherans of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship, however, have opposed conversion to Roman Catholicism, arguing that the "riches of the catholic tradition are already ours, and at our best we embrace that heritage".
caption: A votive candle rack stands before an icon of Christ Pantocrator in a Luthearn parish church of the Church of Sweden in Skellefteå.
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ExifOffset": "78", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated"}