Evangelical Lutheran Church

Jaakko Mäkelä, Doctor of Theology 2000 Abo Akademi University, Finland, Director of the Office for Global Mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland (Retired)

jaakko.makela@dnainternet.net

Mäkelä, J . Mäkelä J. Baptism, Lutheran Confession and Ecumenical Relations. Three Contexts, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2014, vol. 3, pp. 314–320.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2014-00015

Language: English

The article examines attitude of the Lutheran Church towards baptisms as reflextion of the ecumenical relations. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is a historical majority church with official theological dialogues with Roman Catholic, Orthodox, historical Protestant and Anglican churches and churches influenced by the Anabaptist tradition. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia is a growing historical minority church in a country where Orthodox churches have been dominant. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thailand is a growing minority church in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country. It is also a minority among Christians. In spite of the differences in their contextual settings, all of them share similar stands in questions concerning baptism and ecumenical relations.
In all three cases the Lutheran churches accept the baptism of other churches. This is stated in their Constitutions and Church Orders. This way they identify themselves as part of the Church Universal. Baptism is not usually a problem in their relation to Roman Catholic, Orthodox and historical Protestant churches.
Only the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has had official theological dialogues with churches drawing from Anabaptist tradition, but the others interact with churches with this tradition. These interactions are mainly not recorded. Re-baptisms have created tension between Lutherans and Pentecostals in Finland. In Thailand, re-baptisms were a controversy in the 1960s and 1970s prior to the beginning of Lutheran ministry.

Key words: Evangelical Lutheran Church, Finland, Thailand, Ingria, Anabaptism

URL: //rcs-almanac.ru/makela-2014-en/

pdf

Mikhail Vitalyevich Shkarovskii Doctor in history, chief archivist, the Central State archive of Saint-Petersburg (ulitsa Antonova-Ovseenko, 1, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 193168), shkarovs@mail.ru

Shkarovskii M. V. The Ministry of the bishop Arthur Malmgren, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2016, vol. 5, pp. 250–262.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2016-00012

Language: Russian

The article is devoted to the Ministry of the bishop Arthur Malmgren in the USSR in 1920–1930s. Arthur Malmgren is undoubtedly one of the most important figures not only in the history of the German Lutheran community of St. Petersburg, but also in the history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia. His heroic and tragic Ministry was aimed entirely at preservation and development of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the difficult conditions of the revolutionary and post-revolutionary events and politics, when increasingly totalitarian, in fact anti-religious, regime was developing. Arthur Malmgren managed to do quite a lot: he held the General Synod in 1924, at that the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Soviet Union was established, then he founded the Leningrad Preachers Seminary, which functioned until 1934. But in the end his case was lost. Having experienced severe personal drama, the bishop moved to Germany, where he died. In general, the article is based on the extended archical sources and is the first exhaustive attempt of study of the bishop Arthur Malmgren’s biography.

Key words: Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bishop, USSR, Leningrad, Seminary

URL: //rcs-almanac.ru/shkarovskii-m-v-2016-en/