Editor’s Note: This is the first of two essays marking the quarter-century anniversary of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.
On October 31, 1999, after decades of dialogue, leaders from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in Augsburg, Germany. The event was heralded as effectively resolving one of the key theological conflicts of the 16th century.
Other global church bodies likewise joined in various ways—the World Methodist Council in 2006, the Anglican Consultative Council in 2016, and the World Communion of Reformed Churches in 2017. In 2019, representatives from these five communions gathered at the University of Notre Dame to recommitment themselves to the message of God’s grace in Christ.
Quiet in comparison to the celebrations of the Nicaea Anniversary, the declaration’s quarter-century was marked by a consultation held at the Center for Ecumenical Research at Strasbourg, where so much of the work building to the signing in 1999 took place. As one of the two invited representatives for the Anglican Communion at this anniversary consultation (and the only American in the room), I experienced a distinct sense of reception. Although there were papers and responses, the purpose was clearly to encourage a relatively younger generation of theologians and church leaders to continue the dialogue.
Was 1999 a triumph of ecumenism? And if so, how? Augustine’s controversy with the Pelagians in the fifth century was alive in the minds of the Protestant reformers of the 16th. Even though Augustine and orthodox Christians insisted that sinners are justified only by God’s free gift of grace, Augustine understood God’s work as being made righteous by the active, indwelling presence of the Spirit.
But did this leave too much room for human cooperation? Martin Luther believed that later theologians, long after Augustine, shifted the burden back to the human being who had to try his best. From Luther’s perspective, this looked like Pelagianism all over again, and therefore he insisted that justification must be understood as an event, a declaration or reckoning, rather than a process. From the 16th century onward, a stark debate was set between a Catholic impartation and a Protestant imputation.
In the Anglican context, sermons on the First Book of Homilies (1547) and Articles 11–18 of the Thirty-Nine Articles establish a theology of justification in which one is accounted righteous before God only by the merits of Christ through faith. Richard Hooker wrote in his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (V.56.11) that “we participate [in] Christ partly by imputation, as when those things which he did and suffered for us are imputed unto us for righteousness; partly by habitual and real infusion, as when grace is inwardly bestowed while we are on earth, and afterwards more fully both our souls and bodies made like unto his in glory.”
For Hooker, the declaration of justification, the imputation of an alien righteousness to the sinner who is dead in his trespasses, is followed by the enduring presence of the Holy Spirit within the justified Christian. This is the unfolding process of sanctification.
Thus, in 1992, when a committee established by the Anglican Consultative Council agreed with Lutherans on the Helsinki Report, they wrote that “we are accounted righteous and are made righteous before God only by grace through faith because of the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and not on account of our works or merits.”
The Helsinki Report said both traditions affirm that justification leads to good works. “We understand sanctification in relation to justification not only as an expression of the continuity of justification, the daily forgiveness of sins and acceptance by God, but also as growth in faith and love both as individuals and as members of the Christian community” (emphasis added).
The 1999 declaration, then, was remarkable not simply in what it said, but also for its method of differentiated consensus. Perhaps the most important part is this: “Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.”
Note that the disputed terms—impart and impute—are avoided. This was followed by both parties offering a word of explanation to live with integrity and overcome misunderstanding. The Lutherans admit that holiness of life follows but explain that “justification remains free from human cooperation and is not dependent on the life-renewing effects of grace in human beings.” On the other hand, Catholics explain that when they speak of renewal “they do not thereby deny that God’s gift of grace in justification remains independent of human cooperation.”
This method of expressing a shared sense of biblical truth, that God is the active agent in both justifying sinners and leading them in holiness of life, and that the two are inextricably related, while making space to identify differences, was intended to foster charity and mutual recognition for gospel witness to the world.
But justification was only one aspect of the Reformation era. The late historian David Steinmetz wrote that the Reformation was a contest between Augustine’s theology of salvation and his theology of the church. As such, these five communions each have different approaches to the church, five different approaches to ecclesiology. While it is clear who speaks for Rome, one may be forgiven for wondering who speaks for other bodies, both practically and authoritatively, especially in signing statements that resolve centuries-old disagreements.
The Lutheran World Federation has 154 member churches (denominations). The agreement on the Lutheran side in 1999 proceeded when most of those different Lutheran bodies agreed to the declaration. As for Anglicans, the Anglican Consultation Council passed a resolution and there was a celebration at Westminster Abbey in 2017, but neither the primates nor the Lambeth Conference have taken action. The Strasbourg Consultation in 2025 was an enriching dialogue, but what seems clear is the need to continue the exchange and bring more partners, even from within the current bodies, into that dialogue.
The Rev. Calvin Lane, PhD is the Editor of Covenant: The Online Journal of The Living Church. The author of two books on the Reformation, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2013 . In addition to serving as associate rector of St. George's Episcopal Church, Dayton, Ohio, Dr. Lane has taught for various seminaries and colleges, including as Affiliate Professor at Nashotah House. His service to the church includes a term on the General Board of Examining Chaplains (2018-2024).
