Lutherans - An Introduction
Lutherans
believe that in Holy Communion, Christ is "really present" in
the bread and wine in a mystical and miraculous way, although not in the
literal sense of the Catholic doctrine
of transubstantiation. (Presbyterians,
on the other hand, regard the consecrated bread and wine of Holy Communion
as symbols, or "representations," of the Lord's body and blood.)
Lutherans, named after Martin Luther, a German friar who is credited
with starting the Protestant Reformation after nailing his Ninety-Five
Theses (protests against the Catholic
church) on the door of a church at Wittenberg, Germany, in 1517. Luther's
reform movement quickly spread throughout Germany, then across northern
Europe and eventually around the world. Lutheranism is today the oldest
and largest Protestant denomination.
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