Private Confession in the Lutheran Church

By PHD Lang

Lutherans hold that, "confession and absolution should by no means be allowed to fall into disuse in the church" (SA III.viii.1). Still, somehow it has. Today, in spite of decades of effort to reverse the trend, countless souls in Lutheran churches never do experience the benefits of private absolution. Why does the disuse of private confession persist and even grow even amid our conscious efforts to promote it? In this essay Lang answers by noting that some of the very factors that first led to the decline of private confession are still present to hinder its use today. (19 January 97 / 64K)

Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20011106041958/http://members.aol.com/SemperRef/private.html

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