Teachings of Martin Luther emphasizing the cardinal doctrine of justification by faith alone.
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 Confession of Augsburg 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 US and Canada, with most of the remainder in central Europe.
Lutheranism 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 US): the Lutheran World Federation has its headquarters in Geneva. In the US, Lutheranism is particularly strong in the Midwest, 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. Lutheranism in the US is divided into three main bodies: the Lutheran Church in America, formed 1962 from the United Lutheran Church, Augustana Lutheran Church (Swedish), the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the American Evangelical Lutheran Church (Danish); the more conservative Lutheran Church, the Missouri Synod; and the American Lutheran Church (largely Norwegian and centered in the upper Midwest).