LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2026, Page 237

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
A Theology and Philosophy of Lutheran Education

THE FIRST ARTICLE
Lutheran Education and Creation (or Our
World, Lives, and Everything in Them)
What role does human reason play in Lutheran education?
Lutherans believe that God has created every person and has given each of them
the gift of human reason, which helps all people—including those without Christian faith—to understand and appreciate the world around them. Martin Luther’s
Small Catechism says that God has given me “my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all
my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.”6 God has
given us human reason to understand the world which He has created, to support
and protect our bodily lives, and to love and serve our neighbors. As the Lutheran
Confessions say (citing St. Augustine):

We grant that all people have a free will. It is free as far as
it has the judgment of reason. This does not mean that it is
able, without God, either to begin, or at least to complete,
anything that has to do with God. It is free only in works of
this life, whether good or evil. Good I call those works that
spring from the good in nature, such as willing to labor in the
field, to eat and drink, to have a friend, to clothe oneself, to
build a house, to marry a wife, to raise cattle, to learn various
useful arts, or whatsoever good applies to this life.7
Human reason in this sense is not reduced to strictly logical, cerebral expressions,
but also includes creative expressions such as art and music. We are free to use this
human reason, but only in a way that does not contradict what God has revealed
to us in His Word.

6

SC Explanation of the First Article; emphasis added.

7

AC XVIII 4–5 .

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The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Lutherans have often referred to this as the ministerial use of reason, which helps
us understand the truths God has revealed in His Word, the truths that are present
in His observable creation, and the basic conventions of language, grammar, logic,
and rhetoric that we use to communicate and debate. This is different from the
magisterial use of reason, by which sinful humans force Holy Scripture to conform
to our natural understanding of the world and everything in it.8 Human reason, as
we see it exercised in education, must not undermine or contradict Holy Scripture. Where Scripture speaks, we must believe and teach that truth. Where Scripture does not speak, we are free to use the human reason given to us by God to
pursue an understanding of our world. Even non-Christians have the gift of human
reason and use it to the benefit of those around them—think of the innumerable
advances in science, technology, the fine arts, literature, history, to name but a
few, where we have learned and benefited greatly from those who do not share our
Christian faith. Nevertheless, this does not mean Lutherans divide or oppose faith
and reason. On the contrary, we believe that Christians should always use human
reason in light of the truths God Himself has revealed in Holy Scripture. Human
reason informed by God’s Word will prevent its misuse or misapplication, which
is especially harmful in areas like morality and ethics. Moreover, Lutherans also
understand that human reason—unlike God’s Word—is not infallible. The human
understanding of the world around us will invariably change as we gain more information or as we revise our prior knowledge through experimentation, logic, etc.
We cannot trust human reason to be correct in all things; we can, however, trust
God’s Word in all that it tells us.

How do Lutherans study subjects not clearly revealed in Scripture?
When it comes to biblical teachings on the faith or morality (these teachings are
most often referred to as “theology”), what Scripture says is clear and must be
reflected in our own teaching. But what about subjects like the sciences, art, or
music? Where Scripture does not directly address these subjects, we are free to
use our God-given human reason to explore them. This is because God has established His world in an orderly way that is open to human study and observation.
However, our teachers must distinguish between the complete certainty of what
God has revealed in Holy Scripture and the provisional nature of what is known by
other means. For instance, in relation to disciplines such as the natural sciences, it
is scripturally clear that God created the world in six days (Genesis 1). That means
8

Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics (Concordia Publishing House, 1950), 1:196–200.

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A Theology and Philosophy of Lutheran Education
we cannot accept an evolutionary theory that contradicts this six-day creation. On
the other hand, Scripture does not teach how we are to conduct scientific research,
such as the use of scientific methods of experimentation, so we are free to teach
that method as human reason best sees fit, at the same time always conscious
of the truths revealed in Scripture about creation. Lutherans are not opposed to
science. Nicolaus Copernicus found support in Wittenberg among the Lutherans.
Even when scientific views contradict the Bible, we do not deny the use of reason
within its domain. Rather, we revel in the advance of science where it confirms the
complex ordered nature of the world from subatomic particle to the far reaches of
the universe or identifies a common human as ancestor of all living people, thereby pointing to a creator.
The arts and literature are approached in a similar way. We teach, study, and practice the visual or fine arts using our God-given “eyes, ears, and all [our] members”9
to create and appreciate the beauty of the sung word, painted canvas, or architectural design. This is a gift of God’s creation. To take but one example, Martin
Luther himself extolled the ancient histories, poetry, and literature of the classical
period, even though they were composed by pagans who did not know the God of
the Holy Scriptures. They provided illustrations of beauty, skill, and citizenship
that could be admired by Christians. On preparing youth for participation in government, for instance, Luther says,

Here we are excelled and put to shame by the pagans of old,
especially the Romans and Greeks. Although they had no idea
of whether this estate was pleasing to God or not, they were
so earnest and diligent in educating and training their young
boys and girls to fit them for the task.10
There are no strict rules in Scripture governing history or poetry, music or art.
Yet we must not use those created gifts in a way that undermines what God has
revealed or in a way that misuses His creation. In the case of the humanities or
social sciences, we are free to create, read, and interpret all the literature in these
fields as expressions of God-given human reason, but we do so with a discriminating eye. Like the natural sciences, we dare not teach the findings of non-Christian
social theories as if they were certain or categorically true. Moreover, we must reject them when they conflict with scripturally based beliefs about humanity or the
created world or morality. Social theories can and may be wrong, for their authors
are not infallible—only God’s Word is infallible and trustworthy.

9

SC Explanation of the First Article.

10

Luther, “To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian
Schools,” AE 45:367.

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Why do Lutherans value the study of nontheological disciplines?
Lutherans seek to educate students in subjects and disciplines not expressly revealed in Scripture because we also believe such studies contribute greatly to the
life of the mind, to the well-roundedness of the individual, and to the betterment
of the common good. We encourage that the study of engineering, agriculture,
art, architecture, history, literature, music, and other such disciplines be rooted
in and subservient to God’s Word. God has created a world that testifies to Him
in its order and beauty. A Christ-centered education will help students cultivate
their God-given faculties: They will learn to use their “eyes, ears, and all [their]
members” and their “reason” and “senses” to observe and delight in the beauty
and order throughout God’s creation that testifies to Him. As the psalmist says,
“Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2).
Through these studies, students and teachers practice good stewardship of their
God-given mental faculties. In addition to cultivating a delight in God’s handiwork, studies in various fields also prepare students for their vocations of service
to their neighbor—whether as doctors, musicians, artists, engineers, architects, or
in any other career. Lutherans encourage all educational disciplines—from practical vocational skills to liberal arts, fine arts, social sciences, and STEM disciplines—to celebrate God’s creation as His creatures, to give glory to the God who
created the world and everything in it, and to recognize simultaneously both our
distinct status as the image-bearers of God and the humility we should have as
fallen sinners standing in awe of the heavens and earth that God has created.

How does a biblical view of humanity inform Lutheran education?
Since Lutheran Christians believe God has created each individual, as Scripture
declares, this will have important implications for how Lutheran educators talk
about humanity and the moral and ethical choices all humans must make. Scripture clearly reveals not only the six-day creation but also how God has created humanity and desires all humans to live in accordance with their created design. God
has made us either male or female, according to our biological anatomy (Gen. 1:27;
Gen. 2:21–23). He has created marriage as a lifelong bond between one man and
one woman (Matt. 19:3–9; 1 Cor. 7:10–11). He has instituted marriage between one
man and one woman for the purposes of companionship and procreation (Gen.
2:18–25). He has reserved sexual activity solely for marriage between that one man
and that one woman (Ex. 20:14; Matt. 5:27–30). Through the sexual union of that
one man and one woman, God fills the earth (Gen. 1:28). God gives life—from

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2026 Convention Workbook