The eleventh round of the American Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialog has released its latest common statement entitled The Hope of Eternal Life. Following the general format of the Joint Declaration the statement explores first the Biblical evidence and then ecclesial-specific doctrinal teachings on matters such as “death and Intermediate states”, “Judgment”, “Hell and the Possibility of Eternal Loss”, and “Heaven and the Final Kingdom”.  The metropolitan New York Lutheran-Roman Catholic Trialogue (Atlantic District-LCMS, Metropolitan Synod -ELCA, Archdiocese of New York – RC), began working through the document as an opportunity to seek more clarity on the unique emphases of each tradition when it comes to matters that generally fall under the rubric of death and the end times.

What became apparent almost immediately through my reading and through the subsequent discussion with both Roman Catholic and ELCA colleagues was how disorganized and inconsistent Lutheran teaching on these issues has been, particularly in recent times. While the Lutheran confessional documents speak of the Return of Christ to Judgment (AC XVII), Faith and Good Works (AC XX), the emphasis is almost universally upon the source of good works rather than upon the relationship between good works and the judgment that the Athanasian Creed makes so explicit, “Those who have done good will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil will go into everlasting fire.” (Tappart)

Perhaps more disconcerting is the realization that in my own preaching and teaching the subject of death, the final judgment, heaven and hell, and the kingdom of God, are often sloppily conflated on the basis of exegesis of individual texts as they come up in the lectionary (See Christ the King) , rather than as any sort of attempt to teach and preach them in a systematic way.  The notion of “the kingdom of God” as piece of “The Hope of Eternal Life” was not even on my theological radar screen, despite growing up confessing both the Nicene and Apostle’s creed, until I took a class on Matthew at the seminary with Dr. Jeff Gibbs, a student of Jack Dean Kingsbury. Always the emphasis was on heaven, and even then there was little discussion of what that meant in terms of intermediate or final state and whether there were one judgment or two (i.e. at death and the second coming). It is as if Lutherans have been so careful to rightly emphasize justification by faith as the paradigm which explains the basis of the judgment, that scant attention is deemed necessary for answering the how or the what questions about the judgment.

Curiously enough all of this discussion occurred in the section of the statement labeled as “Our Shared Doctrinal Heritage”.  Perhaps not surprisingly areas of traditional doctrinal dispute like “purgatory” and “prayer for the dead” actually have clearer Lutheran statements of belief. Fortunately, this round of ecumenical dialog provides an occasion for Lutherans to give more clarity of thought and attention to issues surrounding the “Hope of Eternal Life” before they become issues which need to be defined in the face of division and conflict.