AIELC - Introduction to Lutheran Confessions

Introductory Commentary of the Association of Independent Evangelical Lutheran Churches

Introduction to Lutheranism – The Essential Writings of Lutheranism

To understand the historical meaning of been Lutheran, and the elements that provide the doctrinal and theological base of Lutheranism we must remit ourselves to the texts that were written with that goal in mind.

The legacy that is transmitted in these works till our time are still resounding with the echoes of the Justification by Faith Doctrine.

Those documents must be read and study by all Lutherans to be able to speak with knowledge of the doctrinal structure of the basis of our faith. Those small extracts must not be a substitute for the reading of all the works in their entirely.

Appendix A

An Introduction to the Lutheran Confessions

The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Theodore G. Tappert, ed. and trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959. German edition: Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche. 3rd ed. rev. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1956. Cited as BC.

The Book of Concord contains a collection of documents known as the "Lutheran Confessions," which are proposals for the reform of the medieval Roman Catholic Church and accounts of what Lutherans hold to be normative for Christian faith and life. The first part of The Book of Concord consists of the three trinitarian creeds of the ancient church (Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian), followed by Martin Luther's Small and Large Catechisms of 1529; the Augsburg Confession of 1530; the Apology of the Augsburg Confession of 1531; the Schmalkald Articles of 1537; the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope of 1537; and the Formula of Concord of 1577. An appendix (only in the German and Latin editions) offers a "Catalogue of Testimonies From Scripture and the Ancient Pure Fathers of the Church."

The Small and Large Catechisms of 1529

Luther's catechisms are based on catechetical sermons preached in Wittenberg between 1523 and 1528, usually in May, September, and December. In addition, visitations in Saxony were conducted in 1527 and 1528 to diagnose church life among Lutherans. Four visitors made up a team that examined religious affairs and economic conditions. After Luther himself made visits to the Saxon countryside, he was shocked at the sloth of the clergy and the spiritual poverty of the laity. ("Good God, what wretchedness I beheld!" BC 338:2). He quickly published the Small Catechism for children and the Large Catechism for adults (first called German Catechism). The catechisms have five parts rather than the traditional three (decalogue, creed, Lord's Prayer). Luther added baptism and the Lord's Supper since he viewed the laity as partners in ministry with the ordained and thus should know basic Christian teachings. The Small Catechism concludes with forms for daily prayers and with instructions regarding the proper attitude toward ecclesiastical and political authorities.

The Augsburg Confession of 1530

Emperor Charles V invited the Lutheran reform party to state its case before the assembly of German princes at Augsburg on June 25, 1530. Luther's young friend and colleague, Philipp Melanchthon was asked to draft a statement since he was known for his diplomatic skill and irenic style (Luther called him a "soft-stepper," from the German Leisetreter). After much consultation, Melanchthon composed a two-part "confession" in German and in Latin. The first part summarizes teachings Lutherans had introduced in their territories with the help of governments in favor of reforms. These twenty-one "articles of faith and doctrine" affirm the dogma of the trinity (Articles 1-3), then assert salvation through Christ alone, by grace alone, by faith alone (Article 4). The other articles show how this Christocentric view reinterprets teachings about ministry, the church, sacraments, ecclesiastical and political government, ethics, and the cult of the saints (Articles 5-21). The second part of the confession lists "articles about matters in dispute" and shows how Lutherans have dealt with abuses. These seven articles defend communion in both kinds (the cup was denied to the laity), the marriage of priests, and the reform of public worship (Articles 22-24); they accept private confession, reject fasting and monastic vows (Articles 25-27); and contend for episcopacy in a renewed way (Article 28). Seven princes and two mayors signed the confession, claiming that it is in greater harmony with the Christian tradition than is the Roman Catholic Church.

The Apology of the Augsburg Confession of 1531

When Emperor Charles V rejected the Augsburg Confession, with the help of theologians siding with Rome, Melanchthon composed a lengthy defense, called an "apology" (from the Greek apologia, meaning "a speech in defense"), responding to the Roman theologians' Confutation. He offered the lengthiest and most passionate defense of the fourth article on justification (sixty pages), arguing once again how ecumenical Lutherans are in contrast to the Roman hierarchy. Melanchthon was a lay theologian committed to dialogue for Christian unity. By 1540 he had rewritten the Augsburg Confession (known as the "altered Augsburg Confession"), hoping to unite other Protestants with Lutherans. But Lutherans only accepted the unaltered Confession of 1530.

The Schmalkald Articles of 1537

These articles are Luther's theological testament, written for the Lutheran reform movement at a time when he thought he was dying: he had been seriously ill, suffering from kidney and gall stones as well as from heart problems. When Pope Paul III issued orders for a council of bishops to meet in Mantua, Italy, German Lutheran territories wanted Luther to draft a statement of faith worth dying for. Luther produced the statement and had it reviewed by other theologians before submitting it to the Saxon government. Saxony and other territories had formed a military league at Schmalkald in 1531 to defend the Lutheran cause against an attack by pope and emperor.

Luther's statement was to be adopted by the Schmalkald League at its assembly in the Thuringian town (ca. fifty miles southwest of Erfurt) in February of 1537. But the sick Luther went home before he could present the statement, and Melanchthon lobbied against it because he found it too polemical to unite all the members of the League. As a result, the Schmalkald Articles (as they were later called) were signed only by about forty Lutheran pastors and church leaders. Melanchthon signed with the condition that Lutherans would accept the authority of the pope as a symbol of Christian unity (BC 316-317).

In the first part of the articles, Luther affirmed the dogma of the trinity. In the second part, he asserted the unconditional authority of Christ in all aspects of faith and life (Article 2, 1). Then Luther condemned the Roman version of the Mass, the invocation of saints, monasteries, and the papacy (Article 2, 2-4). In the third part, Luther summarized his teachings focusing on sin, law, repentance, and the way the gospel functions in Christian life, ranging form baptism to ordination and ecclesiastical structures. (Article 3, 1-15).

The Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope of 1537

Melanchthon wrote this treatise for the assembly of the Schmalkald league which adopted it as an amplification of the Augsburg Confession's statement on the power of bishops (Article 28).

Melanchthon rejected the Roman claims that the papacy was instituted by God through Christ's choice of Peter as the archetype of the papacy. He uses testimony from the Bible and from history to refute these claims. If popes continue to make such claims, he reasoned, they must be viewed as manifestations of the antichrist. The church, therefore, does not need popes but faithful bishops who are accountable to the whole church.

The Formula of Concord of 1577

After Luther's death in 1546, German Lutherans quarreled about ways in which Luther's theology should be doctrinally formulated. The disciples of Melanchthon sought formulations that might reconcile Wittenberg and Rome. Conservative Lutherans, led by Matthias Flacius, rejected all such attempts. Some tried to mediate since 1568, led by the Swabian Jakob Andrea whose sermons on concord created a basis for further efforts to unite the feuding factions. Supported by politicians, a convocation of theologians in Torgau, Saxony, produced the "Torgau Book" which was recast in 1577 as the Formula of Concord.

The document begins with a summary, entitled "Epitome," and lists the issues in the intra-Lutheran debates. They are to be settled in light of Scripture whose "prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments are the only rule and norm according to which all doctrines and teachers alike must be appraised" (BC 464:1). Then twelve issues are listed together with recommendations how to settle them: original sin, free will, righteousness of faith, good works, law and gospel, the third use of the law (whether Christians need laws), the Lord's Supper, the person of Christ, Christ's descent into hell, adiaphora, divine election, and factions which are not committed to the Augsburg Confession. The full text of the Formula is called "Solid Declaration" and is signed by the six theologians who drafted it; by 1580, 8,188 other church leaders had signed it. On June 25, 1580, the Formula became the final part of The Book of Concord, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Augsburg Confession. The signators of The Book of Concord want to be certain "that no adulterated doctrine might in the future be hidden [under the word of God] and that a pure declaration of the truth might be transmitted to Our posterity as well" (BC 7).