28 February 2011
Christliche oder Catholicam
It all depended - at least in the 16th and 17th century - on whether one was singing in German or in Latin. If the Creed was sung in German - and that means, Luther's "Wir Glauben All" - then one confessed that the Holy Spirit "die ganz' Christenheit auf Erden hält in einen Sinn gar eben." But if one sang the Latin Creed, then one confessed "unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam." And Lutherans for a couple centuries were totally at ease with confessing it either way; in many services confessing it both ways as the German was often sung by the people after the Latin was led by the choir. The notion that "christian" is preferred over "catholic" because that's how the Creeds were rendered in the German Book of Concord does not jive with the actual history of Lutheran liturgy.
Posted by William Weedon at 11:25 AM