| Summary: | Luther's reform of the medieval sacrament of penance was accomplished through the application of his theological hermeneutic of justification extra nos, justification of the sinner in Christ's righteousness alone appropriated by faith. This study seeks to evaluate Luther's reform in light of this hermeneutic and to determine whether such a hermeneutical tool was employed in the Lutheran Confessions and applied in the sixteenth-century Lutheran church orders. The reforms of Vatican II and the resulting Roman Catholic and Lutheran rites of the 1970's will be evaluated with a view toward proposing a contemporary model for the use of ecclesial confession and forgiveness. Chapters One and Two trace the history and development of confession and absolution from the apostolic era through to the Reformation. This development provides the context in which Luther begins his reform. Chapter Three evaluates Luther's use of the extra nos hermeneutic which allows him to retain private confession and absolution as an excellent vehicle for the personal application of God's grace and comfort as well as to eliminate those practices which place the emphasis on human works in justification. Chapter Four looks at Melanchthon's writings in the Book of Concord and the later Formula of Concord to determine how they apply Luther's hermeneutic to their treatments of justification and penitence. By studying the sixteenth-century Lutheran church orders in Chapter Five we can see how the reform was enacted in various places. Though most church orders require private confession and absolution prior to Communion, they do so in the context of a doctrinal examination. This examination ultimately shifted the emphasis of confession and absolution away from the extra nos and comfort, making of confession again a required work. The 1973 Roman Rite for Penance and the Lutheran Book of Worship are discussed in Chapter Six in the context of the penitential reforms of Vatican II. These reveal the new, though inchoate, emphasis upon the corporate nature of sin and the ecclesial nature of absolution as reconciliation. The remainder of the chapter makes recommendations for further expansion of these emphases and proposes a contemporary adaptation of an order of penitents.
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