Radical Lutheranism

In 1987, the journal Lutheran Quarterly was relaunched in the midst of the negotiations that lead to the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In the lead issue of the "new series" of Lutheran Quarterly Gerhard Forde provided a future view for American Lutheranism titled Radical Lutheranism [4] . In the article, Forde addressed the future of Lutheran identity that he viewed as being bound largely to ethnic and cultural backgrounds, not the theological identity that he stated as being a dedication to the "radical" gospel of Jesus Christ and the concept of justification by faith. (This article predates and is older than the ELCA.)

We should realize first of all that what is at stake on the current scene is certainly not Lutheranism as such. Lutheranism has no particular claim or right to existence. Rather, what is at stake is the radical gospel, radical grace, the eschatological nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen as put in its most uncompromising and unconditional form by St. Paul. What is at stake is a mode of doing theology and a practice in church and society derived from that radical statement of the gospel. ... I do want to pursue the proposition that Lutheranism especially in America might find its identity not by compromising with American religion but by becoming more radical about the gospel it has received. That is to say, Lutherans should become radicals, preachers of a gospel so radical that it puts the old to death and calls forth the new, and practitioners of the life that entails ‘‘for the time being.’’ [5]