The Augsburg Confession is a unique document in the history of the Christian church, containing both a succinct summary of the heart of Christian teaching and a defense of the changes in practice introduced by Martin Luther and the Wittenberg reformers. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert invite readers on an accessible journey into the heart of this foundational confession--as well as the minds of primary author Philip Melanchthon and the other reformers at the heart of the emerging Lutheran movement.
Kolb and Wengert use the version of the Augsburg Confession translated by Eric W. Gritsch for the 2000 Book of Concord, but also offer readers fresh insight into the history and evolution of this document by including cross-references to the editio princeps of 1531, the first official published edition of the confession. In addition to thorough introductions to the document and to each article, readers will benefit from extensive footnotes, extensive marginal comments, and appendices including important variations from the editio princeps, topics for discussion tailored to each article, and suggestions for further reading.
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).
Timothy J. Wengert is emeritus professor of church history at the United Lutheran Seminary. He has written extensively on Luther, Melanchthon, and the Reformation, including The Augsburg Confession: Renewing Lutheran Faith and Practice (Fortress, 2020). He was coeditor, with Robert Kolb, of the English edition of the Book of Concord (Fortress, 2000) and translated Luther's Small Catechism, used throughout the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He lives in Long Valley, New Jersey.
Eric W. Gritsch was Emeritus Professor of Church History at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Among his many works are Fortress Introduction to Lutheranism (1994), Lutheranism: The Theological Movement and Its Confessional Writings (with Robert W. Jenson, 1976), Thomas Muntzer: A Tragedy of Errors (1989), and the anthology Martin Luther: Faith in Christ and the Gospel (1996).
