Conversi ad Dominum: Optional Orandi begets Proscribed Credendi
I am hoping that by being in Latin I will be able to better grasp some of the Latin which the Lutheran church fathers used. One such pair of terms is "lex orandi" and "lex credendi". Loosely translated "lex orandi" is "the law/principle will beg, ask for, pray; beseech, plead, entreat; worship, adore" and "lex credendi" is "the law/principle will trust, entrust; commit/consign; believe, trust in, rely on, confide; suppose." Typically, "lex orandi" is generically used to describe "practice" within the church like prayer, liturgy and the like. "Lex credendi" is used to describe the doctrine, dogma, beliefs. I've been struggling with their relationship as confessed in the Lutheran church. Obviously one doesn't have to think hard to find examples of practice and doctrine being in conflict. Generally the conflicts we experience are most often a conflict of not "practicing what we preach." Fr. Fenton believes the doctrine processes from practice. By this argument, divorcing your practice from historical liturgy will divorce you from historic belief. A new practice will establish new doctrine (and new theology) to justify the practice's existence. I think he's right. I prefer the language of practice being a confession of doctrine. Yet with this language by his argument, an alteration to the creeds (for example in a "contemporary service") would necessarily alter the theology of the creed. Perhaps we are so scared of being labeled "traditionalists" we embrace radical change (and consequent radical change of theology.) Consider it. Conversi ad Dominum: Optional Orandi begets Proscribed Credendi
In the Lutheran Church, is there such a thing as a lex credendi regarding not just what the orandi means (i.e., "theology of worship"), but also how liturgy is to be done? In other words, doesn't "liturgical theology" involve the way one prays (as well as what is left unsaid or said vapidly) and not just the doctrinal soundness of the words used?... ...Which is all a lengthy way of amending yet another lex coined by a former vicar of Zion: "Where historic liturgy is optional, historic faith will sooner or later be proscribed."
