The Lutheran Forum on the LCMS Theses on Worship

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The dust hasn’t settled yet on the recently published LCMS Theses on Worship. Comments and analyses are still appearing on the blogs. Two weeks ago I drew your attention to the commentary at WORLDmag.com. On Thursday Phil Secker published his analysis at the Lutheran Forum online titled, “A Response to the LCMS ‘Theses on Worship’”.

Secker offers a number of interesting critiques of the Theses. For example, he writes that, “A great strength of the Theses is their recognition of the confessional teaching that faith is the ‘true worship’ of Christ.” Secker criticizes the Theses for referring to faith as the highest form of worship, since this implies that there are other “forms” of worship alongside faith. He points out that the Lutheran Confessions do not speak this way, that they only refer to faith as the ‘true worship’ of Christ. Okay, fair enough.

The greatest difficulty I have with Secker’s commentary on the LCMS Theses on Worship is the metaphor he uses to control his entire critique. He argues that the Augsburg Confession presents a “conservative liturgical principle” in Article XV. Well, you can read this for yourself. I disagree with Secker that Article XV requires a “conservative liturgical principle” in the same way Secker understands it. I will say more about this in my own forthcoming comments and critique of the LCMS Theses on Worship.

I think the greatest value of  Secker’s “response” is the inclusion of several quotes from Arthur Carl Piepkorn. These quotes clarify Piepkorn’s point of view on liturgy, a point of view that, Secker argues, has been “widely misunderstood.”

JAW

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