# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1855_S219
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Excerpts as Contributions to Pastoral Casuistry. 219

pages, but in order to cover the material, it had to be made almost twice as large; nevertheless, the price has been increased only from 15 to 20 cents. It may be obtained from H. Ludwig or J. H. Bergmann in New York.

Excerpts as Contributions to Pastoral Casuistry.

Concerning the Acceptance of a Call to a Calvinist
Congregation.

Thus writes the theological faculty at Wittenberg:

The first question is this: whether a Lutheran pastor who has been installed in a Calvinist congregation in place of the deceased Calvinist pastor, and willingly accepted by the congregation, should, at the request of his hearers, conform to all the ceremonies practiced there from of old?

Answer: Two kinds of ceremonies are found in Calvinist churches, especially in the administration of Holy Communion. Some are regarded by the Calvinists themselves as free adiaphora, such as having a wooden or stone table, receiving the consecrated bread with the hand or with the mouth, sitting at the table and walking around it, etc. In these ceremonies a Lutheran preacher can indeed conform for a time, until his hearers are better instructed, without violating his conscience, since they are merely ceremonies that conceal no errors in doctrine. But then there are also rites that the Calvinists regard not as free adiaphora but as entirely necessary elements, such as the breaking of the bread, in which the sacramental analogy is concealed and which is urged by the Calvinists for this very reason, because they hold that such breaking is a necessary element of Holy Communion, which without it is mutilated and cannot be regarded as complete. Since, then, a gross error is involved in this ceremony, in which the hearers would be strengthened by an overly accommodating conformity on the part of the Lutheran pastor, we hold that a Lutheran teacher cannot conform to his Calvinist hearers with respect to these ceremonies as long as they persist in their opinion and refuse to accept instruction. *)

The second question is this: whether a Lutheran pas-

*) With regard to the breaking of the bread, we take the liberty of drawing attention to what has already been explained and reported concerning it in the 3rd year of the “Lutheraner.” See pages 94 and 95. D. R. v. L. u. W.