"Lex orandi lex credendi": A Phrase That Can Afford To Be Retired

I was reading Rev. Klemet Preus's fine book The Fire and the Staff today, and I was distressed to see him quote favorably the old axiom, "Lex orandi lex credendi." Actually, the axiom isn't that old. It's a fairly recent innovation that contains a pernicious teaching. Rev. Preus attributes it to Prosper of Aquitaine, but what St. Prosper actually said was, "ut legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi," "that the law of what is to be beseeched in prayer may confirm the law of what is to be believed." That means that because St. Paul commanded prayers on behalf of the secular authorities (a true "lex supplicandi"), and these prayers would naturally include the supplication that pagan rulers would be converted to Christ, the grace of Christ precedes any act of human free will in the miracle of conversion. This fact lends support to the "lex credendi," i.e. the binding article on sola gratia. It does not mean that practice in general reflects doctrine in general (Rev. Preus's point), and it especially doesn't mean that the liturgy independently determines doctrine (what most who say "Lex orandi lex credendi" usually teach).

I'm tired of hearing Lutherans use this axiom. It's a fantasy of those behind the modern liberal liturgical movement, those who find the "beauty of the liturgy" far more compelling than the beauty of pure doctrine as actually taught by our Lord Christ. It's fine to say that doctrine must inform, yea, must determine practice. It's fine to say that good practice can teach pure doctrine. It's fine to say that corrupt practice leads to corrupt doctrine. But when you say, "Lex orandi lex credendi," you're using a "made-up" phrase (it can't be attributed in that form to Prosper of Aquitaine), you're associating yourself with a disgusting trend, and you're tossing around a slogan that's either meaningless or actively pernicious. Pope Pius XII had the sense to invert the axiom (how refreshing!). Why can't Lutherans do the same, as did Hermann Sasse? or, better yet, just not use the phrase at all? Please let's have done with "Lex orandi lex credendi."