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The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998
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Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso
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Lutheranism
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1992-09-03
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A form of Protestant Christianity derived
from the life and teaching of Martin Luther;
it is sometimes called Evangelical to
distinguish it from the other main branch of
European Protestantism, the Reformed. The
most generally accepted statement of
Lutheranism is that of the Augsburg
Confession 1530 but Luther's Shorter
Catechism also carries great weight. It is
the largest Protestant body, including some
80 million persons, of whom 40 million are in
Germany, 19 million in Scandinavia, 8.5
million in the USA and Canada, with most of
the remainder in central Europe. It is the
principal form of Protestantism in Germany,
and is the national faith of Denmark, Norway,
Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The
organization may be episcopal (Germany,
Sweden) or synodal (the Netherlands and USA):
the Lutheran World Federation has its
headquarters in Geneva. Lutheranism is also
very strong in the Midwestern USA where
several churches were originally founded by
German and Scandinavian immigrants. The
Evangelical Lutherans were formed 1988 from
merger of the Lutheran Church of America, the
American Lutheran Church and the Association
of Evangelical Lutheran Churches.