JUSTIFICATION
576
JUSTIFICATION
smuggling Synergism into the "Book of Torgau"
(1576); but before the "Formulary of Concord" was
printed in the monastery of Bergen (near Magdeburg,
1557), the article in question was eliminated as het-
erodox and the harsh doctrine of Luther substituted
in the symbols of the Lutheran Church. The new
breach in the system formed by the Synergisten-
Streit was enlarged by a counter movement that orig-
inated among the Pietists and Methodists, who were
willing to admit the infallible assurance of salvation —
given by fiduciary faith — only in case that that as-
surance was confirmed by internal experience. But
what proliably contributed most of all to the crum-
bling of the system was the rapid growth of Socinian-
ism and Rationalism which during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries gained so many adherents
among the Lutherans. Fiduciary faith was no longer
considered a spiritual means to assist man in reaching
out for the righteousness of God, but was identified
with a disposition which is upright and pleasing to
God. Latterly, A. Ritschl defined justification as the
chan|;e in the consciousness of our relation to God and
amplified this idea by the statement that the certainty
of our salvation is further determined by the con-
sciousness of our union with the Christian community.
Schleiermacher and Hengstenberg deviated still far-
ther from the old doctrine. For they declared con-
trition and penance as also necessary for justification,
thus "coming dangerously near the Catholic system ",
as Dorner expresses it ("Geschichte der protest. The-
ologie", Munich, 1S67, p. 583). Finally the Lutheran
Church of Scandinavia has in the course of time ex-
perienced a "quiet refornuition ", inasmuch as it now,
without being fully conscious of the fact, defends the
Catholic doctrine on justification (cf. Krogh-Tonning,
"Die Gnadenlehre und die stille Reformation",
Christiania, 1S94). The strict orthodoxy of the Old
Lutherans, e. g. in the Kingdom of Saxony and the
State of Missouri, alone continues to cling tenaciously
to a system, which otherwise would have slowly fallen
into oblivion.
Clasen, Die christliche Heilsgewissheit (1907); Haring, diKoioo-iirT, eeoO bei PaiUus (1896) ; cf. Denifle, Die abend- Idndischen Schriftausleger iiber justitia Dei u. justificatio (Mainz, 1905); Chemer, Die pautinische Rechtfertigungslehre (2nd ed., 1900) ; Nosgen, Der Schriftbeweis fur die evangelische Rechtfer- tigungslehre (1901); Schlatter, Der Glaube im N. T. (3rd ed., 1905); Feme, Das Geseties/reie Emngelium des Paulus (1899); Idem, Jestis Christus u. Pa-ulus (1902); Clemen, Paulus, sein Leben u, Wirken (2 vols., 1904); Gottschick, Die Heilsgewiss- heit des evangelishen Christen in Zeitschr. fur Theol. u. Kritik (1903), 349 sqq.; Denifle, Luther u. Lulhertum in der erslen Entwicklung, I (Mainz, 1904) : Ihmels, Die Rechtfertigung allein durch den Glauben, unser fester Grund Rom gegeniiber in Neue kirchliche Zeitschrift (1904), 618 sqq.; Denifle and Weiss, Luther u. Luthertum etc., 11 (Mainz, 1909). Cf. also Harnack, Dogmengesch., Ill (4th ed., Freiburg, 1909); Ihmels in Her- ZOG and Hauck, Realencycl, fur protest. Theel., s. v. Rechtferti- gung.
II. The Catholic Doctrine on Justification. — We have an authentic explanation of the Catholic doctrine in the famous " Decretum de justificatione" of the Sixth Session (13 Jan., 1547) of the Council of Trent, which in sixteen chapters (cf . Denzinger-Bann- wart, " Enchir.", nn. 793-810) and thirty-three canons (I.e., 811-43) gives in the clearest manner all necessary information about the process, causes, effects, and qualities of justification.
(1) The Proce.'is of Justification {Processus justifica- tionis). — Since justification as an application of the Redemption to the individual presupposes the fall of the entire human race, the Council of Trent quite logically begins with the fundamental statement that original sin has weakened and deflected, but not en- tirely destroyed or extinguished the freedom of the human will (Trent, sess. VI, cap. i: " Liberum arbi- trium minime extinctum, viribus licet attenuatum et inclinatum"). Nevertheless, as the children of Adam were really corrupted by priginal sin, they could not of themselves arise from their fall nor shake off the bonds of sin, death, and Satan. Neither the natural
faculties left in man, nor the observance of the Jewish
Law could achieve this. Since God alone was able to
free us from this great misery. He sent in His infinite
love His only begotten Son Jesus C'hrist, Who by His
bitter passion and death on the cross redeemed fallen
man and thus became the Mediator between God and
man. But, if the grace of Redemption merited by
Christ is to be appropriated by the individual, he must
be "regenerated in tjod", that is he must be justified.
What then is meant by justification? Justification
denotes that change or transformation in the soul by
which man is transferred from the state of original sin,
in which as a child of Adam he was born, to that of
grace and Divine sonship through Jesus Christ, the
second Adam, our Redeemer (1. c, cap. iv: "Justifi-
catio impii . . . translatio ab eo statu, in quo homo
nascitur filius primi Ada;, in statum gratiae et adop-
tionis filiorum Dei per secundum Adam, Jesum Christ-
um, Salvatorem nostrum"). In the New Law this
justification cannot, according to Christ's precept, be
effected except at the fountain of regeneration, that
is, by the baptism of water. Wliile in Baptism in-
fants are forthwith cleansed of the stain of original sin
without any preparation on their part, the adult must
pass through a moral preparation, which consists es-
sentially in turning from sin and towards God. This
entire process receives its first impulse from the super-
natural grace of vocation (absolutely independent of
man's merits), and requires an intrinsic union of the
Divine and human action, of grace and moral freedom
of election, in such a manner, however, that the will
can resist, and with full liberty reject the influence of
grace (Trent, 1. c, can. iv: " If any one should say that
free will, moved and set in action by God, cannot co-
operate by assenting to God's call, nor dissent if it
wish ... let him be anathema"). By this decree
the Council not only condemned the Protestant view
that the will in the reception of grace remains merely
passive, but also forestalled the Jansenistic heresy
regarding the impossibility of resisting actual grace.
(See Jansenius.) With what httle right heretics in
defence of their doctrine appeal to St. Augustine,
may be seen from the following brief extract from his
writings: " He who made you without your doing does
not without your action justify you. Without your
knowing He made you, with your willing He justifies
you; but it is He who justifies, that the justice be not
your own" (Serm. clxi.x, c. xi, n. 13). Regarding St.
Augustine's doctrine cf . J. Mausbach, " Die Etliik des
hi. Augustinus", II, Freiburg, 1909, pp. 208-58.
We now come to the different stages in the process of justification. The Council of Trent assigns the first and most important place to faith, which is styled " the beginning, foundation and root of all j usti- fication" (Trent, 1. c, cap. viii). Cardinal Pallavicini (Hist. Cone. Trid., VIII, iv, 18) tells us that all the bishops present at the council fully realized how im- portant it was to explain St. Paul's saying that man is justified through faith. Comparing Bible and Tradi- tion they could not experience any serious difficulty in showing that fiduciary faith was an absolutely new invention and that the faith of justification was iden- tical with a firm belief in the truths and promises of Divine revelation (I. c, cap. vi: " credent es vera esse, quae divinitus revelata et promissa sunt"). As its first effect this supernatural faith produces in the soul a fear of God's avenging justice, and then, through the consideration of God's mercy, it awakens the hope of forgiveness for Christ's sake, which is soon followed by the first beginnings of charity (I.e.: " illumque [Deum] tanquam omnis justitiae fontem diligere incipiunt"). The next step is a genuine sorrow for all sin with the resolution to begin a new life by receiving holy bap- tism and by observing the commandments of God. The process of justification is then brought to a close by the baptism of water, inasmuch as by the grace of this sacrament the catechumen is freed from sin
