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This article understands the term ‘confessionalism’ as ‘defining the church by confessional document’ (Arand, Nestingen, and Kolb 2012: 5). The authors of the Lutheran Confessions (for the historical and theological background cf. Arand, Nestingen, and Kolb 2012) were deliberately conscious of the contemporary character of the confessional writings in the sixteenth century, but at the same time deeply convinced to confess the eternal truth of God’s word (Kolb 1999: 449–466). Thus, the Lutheran confessions of faith are not simply ‘instruction about’ the gospel, propositions and theory, nor are they merely an ‘introduction to’ the gospel, but rather a guideline for making practical application of the gospel. In the nineteenth century, confessional Lutheran churches created a new awareness of the Concordia-Lutheran principles of the sixteenth century and gave them renewed ecclesiological reality. In the International Lutheran Council, many of these, or those to follow their objectives, form the International Lutheran Council, committed to determining their decisions solely on the basis of the Word of God, and not on social, cultural or practical considerations. Lutheran identity, however, is not first and foremost a special identity; it rather lays claim to catholicity. As in the Reformation, to renew the Church means to remain faithful to the One, Holy, Catholic Church. This approach includes an ecumenical dimension as well. Lutherans understand themselves as being at once evangelical, catholic, orthodox, and ecumenical in the best sense of the word.