We Are All Priests: The Ecclesiological Boundaries and Horizons of Martin Luther’s Common Priesthood

In this book, Roger Whittall argues that Luther’s teaching on the common priesthood (the “priesthood of believers”) was a persistent element of Luther’s ecclesiology and closely related to his understanding of the church as the communion of saints. Whittall’s focus is the common priesthood’s activity in the Christian community, moving beyond its contested relationship to the church’s ordained ministry, or the views that limit its appearance to Luther’s early polemical writings. Rather, the common priesthood stands alongside the public ministry. They are equal partners in the church’s mandate to receive and speak God’s word, to respond in prayer, praise, and joyful service of God’s world and all its people. This wide-ranging investigation features later material not often considered in relation to the common priesthood. For Luther “priesthood” was a biblical expression of Christian spiritual life, worship, and service, forming both the personal faith of individual Christians and the corporate nature of the Christian community. Whittall also examines Luther’s use of key biblical texts to link church and priesthood through the themes of unity and community, equality, and participation. Understood in this way, this priesthood still speaks powerfully to the identity and mission of the church today.