Editing Priesthood of all believers (section)

===Priesthood of no believers===

Commentators sometimes use the phrase "Priesthood of ''no'' believers" for example for democratized Protestant groups where there are no clergy,<ref name=thomson>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Mark D. |title=Celebrating the Reformation: Its Legacy And Continuing Relevance |date=21 September 2017 |publisher=SPCK |isbn=978-1-78359-510-5 |language=en}}</ref> or in churches which have purely symbolic, or no, sacraments,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Dom |title=Martin Luther's Theology of Universal Priesthood: A Historical, Contextual and Contemporary Analysis |date=1 January 2019 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42899868}}</ref>{{rp|71}} or which do not make a distinction between religions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cox |first1=R. David |title=Priesthood in a New Millennium: Toward an Understanding of Anglican Presbyterate in the Twenty-First Century |date=2004 |publisher=Church Publishing, Inc. |isbn=978-0-89869-388-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-k5FAwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|220}} Some Lutheran theologians have pushed back on idea that the priesthood of all believers entails a democratic leveling of offices: {{quote|Luther's text "cannot mean, "anyone can be a pastor," but rather, "all of us are members of the one body of Christ and individually servants to each other in our respective offices." The Protestant and pietistic appropriation of these terms turns everything on its head and replaces service with power-grabbing and the unity of Christ's body with the disunity of individualistic spirituality. Or, as my friend Paul Rorem puts it, the democratic, American misconstrual of the priesthood of all believers means in actuality the priesthood of no believers." |source=Timothy J. Wengert, ''The Priesthood of All Believers and Other Pious Myths''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wengert |first1=T. |title=The Priesthood of All Believers and Other Pious Myths |journal=Institute of Liturgical. Studies Occasional Papers |date=2005 |volume=2}}</ref>  }}

This expression has also been used for households without heads<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sutton |first1=Ray R |title=That you may prosper : dominion by covenant |date=1992 |publisher=Institute for Christian Economics |isbn=0-930464-11-7}}</ref> and for mutually-indifferent Christians.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ortberg |first1=John |title=Steps: A Guide to Transforming Your Life When Willpower Isn't Enough |date=4 February 2025 |publisher=Tyndale House Publishers |isbn=978-1-4964-4704-3 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|114}}