Do Confessions Bind?

In a recent conversation with a fellow Lutheran layman, I was asked, "Do the Confessions restrict us?" He wanted to defend the notion that all practice is completely unfettered and that Confessional unity is a formal statement of common doctrine, only. Given that practice confesses doctrine -- usually more loudly, it seems, and often with as much effectiveness as the words we use, these days -- I responded, "Well, in a sense, yes -- but I would characterize it as a mutual, Brotherly submission, that is willingly engaged, not an onerous restriction."

In a previous post, [An Explanation of the Common Service (Part 7)], I mentioned that C.P. Krauth's work, The Conservative Reformation and its Theology, was followed after his death by a longer work from two of his colleagues in the General Council, Theodore Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, entitled, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. It is available online, here, and in book form, here. As the title suggests, it probes the principle of Confessionalism rather deeply, and engages in a rather detailed explanation of the development of the Confessions from the standpoint of this Principle. There is an interesting chapter in this book which directly addresses the question asked, above: Chapter VII, "Do Confessions Bind?" I post from this chapter, below.

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Excerpts from Chapter VII of
Schmauk and Benze's


The Confessional Principle
and the
Confessions of the Lutheran Church


"Do Confessions Bind?"

Is the Confession of our Church also our personal public confession?
The eagle chafes, behind golden bars, in a foreign land. It was made to soar. It cheerfully accepts the limitations of bare cliffs, and narrow crags, and snow-capped summits, and clouds whirling in tremendous storm; but it pines in confinement.

If our conscience, heart and convictions are not at home in a Confession that has not been made, approved or chosen by us, but in which we find ourselves, we shall chafe under its limitations. We shall continually be seeing the fence instead of enjoying the farm; we shall be peering between the bars, and climbing the pickets, and making ourselves miserable, in the effort to convince the men within, and the world without, that we are prisoners.

The Church is our home, its Confessions the walls.
Yet the sagacious dog, more noble and more civilized than the eagle, faithful to his master, enters eagerly into the law and confines of a domestic and common life, and languishes, or even dies, apart from the presence of his master. One of the most forlorn objects on the earth is a lost dog — a dog that has become "free," that is, exiled from its home and the companionship and voice of its master.

The man who sleeps within the four limiting walls of his house locks the doors and lies down to rest in peace, a free soul, because he is at home; while the ill and fevered spirit rising from its bed and seeking every avenue to escape is a prisoner, who knows not why, and knows not where to find repose.

The Eagle Behind Bars: Confessions are galling to the disloyal
To some men Confessions are not only binding, but galling. They fret beneath the yoke. Their hearts are not at home in the limitations, and the result is inevitable. A sentimental desire for freedom impels them, eagle-like, to soar above and beyond the vineyard rather than to work within it. Yet limitations are necessary, and are a condition not only of life, and thought, and truth, but of country and achievement, and age, and position, and also of faith.

The galling power of truth itself is great to those who do not desire to abide in and by it. They feel they must escape.

A trustful, confiding and converted spirit desires to keep well within the law and will of the object of its confidence, and finds its joys in the fulfillment of any given prescriptions. For such as these there is always the widest freedom. For them there is no law. Love has become the fulfilling of the law, and is unhappy beyond the forbidden bounds.

There is a service in the law, which is result and satisfaction; a service above the law, which is joy and freedom; and a service under the law, which is tyranny and bondage. It may be the selfsame service in all three cases. It is a galling service in bondage, to the weak man, the critic, the dissatisfied man, and the thinker of untamed instincts. It is a service in law, to the man of serious conscience. It is a service above law, to the man of ardent loyalty and generous affection.

We may conclude, then, that where there is confidence, faith and trust, the Confession will not need to bind, and cannot gall. But where there is doubt, mistrust, or any trace of the undevoted and critical mind, the Confession holds an eagle behind the bars.

Is there no freedom?
But is there no freedom in the Church; is there no consideration for the various growing and maturing convictions of students; are there no rights for those who have faithfully accepted the Church's Faith, and approved themselves as its pastors and juiblic teachers? Is there no room to be left for the development, progress and adjustment of the Faith under the new light, new scholarship, and the new conditions which each successive generation brings with it? Yes, there is large room — the Church must welcome all new light, new research, and new progress; but its confessional principle and its safety — as the only protection of Protestantism against individualism — require that such new teaching be not private, or experimental, or a prerogative of one or a few; but that it first be tested by the Church, and be officially formulated and accepted before it be taught.

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