Sources and Contexts of the Book of Concord - Softcover

Kolb, Robert; Nestingen, James A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0800632907 ISBN 13: 9780800632908

Publisher: Fortress Press, 2001

Synopsis

Born in controversy and raised in university settings, the Lutheran reform movement was embroiled immediately, publicly, and perennially in theological disputes and political battles. While controversies during Martin Luther's lifetime centered on disagreements with Rome and Geneva, present and later differences emerged over interpreting Luther's and Melanchthon's theologies on such issues as governmental interference, liturgical practices, justification's implications for good works and sin, the Lord's supper, and election. It is this defining dis-concord, alternating with attempts at concord and conciliation, that is reflected in the documents newly translated in this indispensable documentary companion to The Book of Concord, which includes the works of Agricola, Eck, Chemnitz, Melanchthon, and Luther.

About this title

About the Authors

Robert Kolb, professor of systematic theology emeritus at Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri, has taught on five continents and written or edited some thirty books, including The Book of Concord, coedited with Timothy J. Wengert (Fortress Press, 2000), and The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther's Theology, coedited with Irene Dingel and Lubomir Batka (Oxford University Press, 2014).

James A. Nestingen has taught Church History at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a nationally recognized Luther scholar as well as a popular speaker and lecturer. Nestingen is the author of numerous books, including Martin Luther: A Life (2003) and Sources and Contexts of The Book of Concord (coeditor, 2001).

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From the Foreword (pre-publication version):

While the Reformation movement led by Martin Luther was conceived in Wittenberg, in the midst of the university s enterprise of teaching and learning, the Lutheran church which it produced was born at Augsburg, through a public act of confessing the faith. This confessing took lasting form in a document. The Lutheran princes, municipal representatives, and theologians assembled at Augsburg in June 1530 directed their testimony of the biblical message toward church and world in the Augsburg Confession. This act of confessing was preserved as a written statement of faith, the birth certificate and charter of the Lutheran church. This confessional document addressed specific issues of concern to the Christian community in a series of articles intended to define the teaching of Scripture for the situation of that day.

Again in 1537, as they prepared for the council called by Pope Paul III, Lutheran theologians subscribed to a confession of faith composed by Luther, the Smalcald Articles. These articles also treated fundamental elements of biblical teaching under dispute within the specific context of the time. Forty years later Lutheran churches confessed their faith in the Formula of Concord, again with reference to twelve topics being debated within their own historical context.

In each of these cases sixteenth-century Lutherans defined their faith and their church by proclaiming and teaching the content of Scripture within the nexus of their own setting and circumstances. Implicit in this observation is the fact that, like all historical documents, the living confession and exposition of the Christian faith found in the Book of Concord can be better understood when the conditions and issues of the time are clearer. This clarity is in part obtainable by reading other documents from the period which shed light on the debates and concerns that moved the theologians of the period to address the questions posed for their church. Indeed, the documents in the Book of Concord are understandable as they were written, also for those who live in the very different circumstances of the turn of the twenty-first century. But their contents may be digested more thoroughly with the aid of information and insight regarding the debates and discussions of their own time. Such insights and information may be gained from contemporary documents.

This volume is intended to aid and support the study of the sixteenth century Lutheran confessions. It presents fourteen texts that help illumine the situations in which the authors of these confessions perceived themselves to be. Some of these documents have previously appeared in English translation, but in almost every case they are out of print. In this collection several documents are available which have not previously been at the disposal of English readers. To aid instructors and students in their study of the confessions, we also make suggestions in this preface for the use of other available translations of documents which can illumine the confessional texts.

The Documents in this Volume

Chronologically, Luther s catechisms were the first of what would later be called the Lutheran confessions to appear in print. . . . At the same time he was writing and preaching on the fundamentals of biblical learning during the 1520s, the reformer was urging other colleagues in Wittenberg and elsewhere to create a primer of the faith for families, teachers, and pastors to use in the instruction of young people. One of the early attempts, A Booklet for Laity and Children, appeared in 1525 [document #1]; it demonstrates how one person among Luther s disciples, under his influence, perceived the catechetical task to which the reformer addressed his own efforts in 1528 and 1529. Luther himself finally took the writing of the children s catechism (the Small Catechism) and the accompanying teacher s guide (his Large Catechism) in hand. He did so in part because others in his circle had not found time to produce these works which he considered most urgent, in part because one of his students had indeed produced his own catechisms. Johann Agricola, among the brightest and best of Luther s earliest students, prepared instructional materials for the pupils in the schools of Eisleben, where he was rector. These works reflected his antinomian views, which had brought him into sharp disagreement with the Wittenberg theologians, led by Philip Melanchthon and Martin Luther, at just this time. His One Hundred Thirty Questions for the Girl s School in Eisleben [document #2] also illustrates how those in the Wittenberg circle understood the task of catechizing the young; at the same time it reveals how Agricola s use of the law of God differs from that of Luther and Melanchthon. Luther s own catechism represents his attempt to counteract the influence of Agricola in the field of Christian education.

At the same time Luther felt compelled to devote his energies to meet the pressing needs for the instruction of the young, imperial politics was driving Lutheran governmental officials and theologians to explain their program for the reform of the church in doctrine and life. Emperor Charles V called an imperial diet for late spring 1530 in the city of Augsburg. There, he demanded, the Evangelical princes and cities of his empire were to justify their alterations in ecclesiastical practice. When the delegation of Elector John of Saxony arrived in Augsburg, a new publication by the leading Roman Catholic theologian in Germany, Johann Eck, greeted them. His Four Hundred Four Articles gathered citations from writings of the Wittenberg reformers and other authors who opposed the papal party into one malodorous potpourri of heresies, associating Luther, Melanchthon, and their colleagues with Anabaptist and Sacramentarian ideas of various sorts [document #3]. Some of the citations from the Wittenberg theologians themselves were taken out of context and given a heretical spin. The Lutherans, led by Melanchthon, recognized that they would have to make clear that the faith they confessed belonged solidly to the catholic tradition of the whole church.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0800632907
• ISBN 13: 9780800632908
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296