What is forensic/declared in justification, according to the Lutheran viewpoint?

Abstract

What is forensic/declared in justification, according to the Lutheran viewpoint? It was just in polemics with Andreas Osiander when the Lutheran viewpoint of justification was worked out as «declared». Based on his experience while writing his articles for the Orthodox Encyclopedia, the author compares Russian and Latin texts of the relevant articles in the Defense of the Augsburg Confession and the Formula of Concord, as well as John Theodore Mueller’ Christian Dogmatics. The article examines the terms and outlines the Orthodox and Catholic viewpoints. The author sums up interpretation of the Lutheran dogma: justification and imputation are actual, not declarative. Righteousness in the sense of impeccancy is declarative, but it is also actual in the sense of justification. Accordingly, solely impeccancy and capability for expiation of one’s own sinfulness with his or her deeds and merits are declarative. The Lutheran viewpoint is entirely different from that of Catholic and Orthodox churches and yet is reductive or distorted in various handbooks on religious studies.

Keywords

• justification
• righteousness
• sinfulness
• imputation
• the defense of the augsburg confession
• the formula of concord