Event · 1999

Joint Declaration on Justification

The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, signed in Augsburg in 1999 by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church.

It states a shared understanding that sinners are justified by grace through faith in Christ, not by their own merit. It says the remaining differences between Lutheran Justification and Catholic Justification no longer justify the mutual condemnations of the Reformation era, as far as those condemnations apply to the teaching set out in the declaration. The World Methodist Council joined in 2006. Some Lutheran and Catholic theologians criticised it for leaving key differences unresolved.