Worship James White\'s Manuscript, Protestant

Worship

James White's manuscript, Protestant Worship: Traditions in Transit, examines both historical and contemporary religious practices for Protestants. It is a fairly comprehensive volume, with individual chapters on many of the different varieties of Protestantism, many of which simultaneously sprang from the initial dissent and dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church in the early part of the 16th century. As such, there are similarities and differences found between many of these varying denominations of Protestantism, including those found between Lutheranism and Methodism. In order to properly examine these differences and similarities that are existent between these two scions of Christianity, it is necessary to analyze their inception, which was widely based on the Catholic Reformation.

One of the principle differences between Lutheranism and the Methodism is the fact that the former is decidedly more conservative (White 36) in its method of worship than the latter is. In fact, Lutheranism and, possibly the Episcopal Church, is one of the most right-wing of all Protestant denominations. This stems largely from the founding of this religion, which was directly inspired by the actions, thought process, and tenets of Martin Luther. This fact is not surprising since it was Luther's document, Ninety Five Theses, which originally launched the Reformation and the division of the Catholic Church. As such, Lutheranism was founded upon its leader's fundamental beliefs regarding sacramental worship and the importance of the sacraments in one's relationship with God. Luther firmly believed that the Roman Catholic Church was too reliant on the sacraments as a way of allowing men to 'earn' favors from God or salvation. However, as Luther denoted within the Babylon Captivity, one of the primary tenets of Lutheranism is the notion that salvation is a free gift from God for everyone, and cannot be determined by adherence to the sacraments (White 38).

Therefore, some of the key points of comparison between Lutheranism and any other Protestant religion, such as the Methodist Church, relate to the sacraments. Originally, Martin Luther believed that the only two necessary sacraments were baptism and the Eucharist. However, his reasons for believing so were extremely pragmatic and reduced the degree of importance that these sacraments had in relation to the Roman Catholic Church. For instance, Luther wanted baptism to continue to be performed for the purpose of ordaining people, so that there would be a definite pool of "qualified" ministers (White 41). Most other Protestant groups, including the Methodist Church, are not as formal and generally allow greater license for people regarding circumstances in their ability to minister. Still, Methodists baptize infants in much the same way that Lutherans do, both faiths tend to not Christian children during this sacrament.

Regarding the sacrament of the Eucharist, Luther felt it was important to limit the amount of times that parishioners received the body and blood of Christ. Again, his initial attempt in forming this belief was to limit the role that man would play in determining the salvation of believers. It was important for him that the Sacrament only be received in faith of God and not through the grace of man, as it were. This is a chief distinction between Lutherans and Methodists; the latter regard the Holy Communion as symbolic of God's grace. Therefore, they perform this sacrament with a significant amount of regularity and frequency that far exceeds that of Lutherans. Lutherans perform the eucharist much more sparingly in order to circumscribe the direct effect that humans have on the chances of salvation and god's divine grace they can bestow upon them.

The specific type of worship that both churches adhere to serves as a key point of commonality and of difference. The Lutheran church is liturgical, and generally follows an established tradition, conservative in nature in how its people worship and commune with God. The Methodist church is not liturgical and is substantially more flexible and liberal in the methods its parishioners employ for the worship of God. It is part of the "free-church tradition" (White), essentially meaning that there is not a lengthy, rigid tradition which its believers have to adhere to in this regard.