Product Description

Commissioned in 1993, this new translation of The Book of Concord brings a new generation of scholarship and sensitivities to bear on the foundational texts of Lutheran identity. The fifth English translation since 1851, this edition succeeds that edited by Theodore Tappert published in 1959 by Muhlenburg Press.

A review of the text in light of a mountain of new scholarship and other factors dictated the new translation and apparatus, including changes in the English language over the past forty years, differences in the training and preparation of seminarians and pastors, limitations in the introductions and annotations to the various parts of the book, new knowledge of the history and theology of these very documents, and the occasional error in Tappert's translation.

Kolb and Wengert's team of leading Reformation historians was augmented by consultation with one hundred other scholars and teachers who use The Book of Concord continually, and two other teams of scholars who have reviewed the translations. In coming years, two volumes of related documents will follow.

Benefits of this new translation: Expanded introductions and annotations offer richer historical context New translation aims at accessible but accurate translation Format is easier to read and use Leading American scholars have been involved or consulted

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56251 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 774 pages

About the Author
Robert Kolb is Missions Professor of Systematic Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Timothy J. Wengert is Professor of Church History at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

Excerpted from The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church by Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche (Germany), Robert Kolb, Wengert, James Schaffer. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Introduction From the second century on Christians have expressed the biblical faith in summaries that served to identify the church's public message. The Greek word symbol--a technical word for creed--identified the function of such summaries of the church's teaching as its identifying statement of belief, purpose, and mission. The Apostles' and Nicene Creeds both offered believers guidance for public instruction and witness and also served to regulate and evaluate the public theology of the church's teachers. They demarcated lines between errors that had attacked the faith and biblical truth.

When Emperor Charles V called upon the Lutheran princes and municipal governments to identify their public teaching in 1530 at the Diet of Augsburg, the Wittenberg theologians and their associates from other territories, under the leadership of Martin Luther's colleague, Philip Melanchthon, composed what they called a confession of the faith (after considering the label defense [apology]). That document, the Augsburg Confession, became recognized as the public symbol of the Evangelical Lutheran movement. It became the legal definition on which the political toleration of its adherents was based through the religious Peace of Augsburg of 1555. By 1555 the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, and Luther's Catechisms were also being used alongside the Augsburg Confession to describe and define what the Wittenberg reformers intended as reform and thus to regulate ecclesiastical life in various territories that had accepted the Reformation.

The doctrinal controversies of the 1550s and 1560s necessitated further definition of public teaching, however, in the view of many Lutheran governments. Some of them sponsored the composition of additional confessions of faith, while others assembled confessional documents in collections called a corpus doctrinae (body of teaching). Melanchthon and other Wittenberg theologians had first used the term corpus doctrinae for the fundamental summary of the Christian faith, a term akin to analogy of faith. Later the term designated documents that could help determine the elements of the analogy of faith, and from 1560 it was employed to entitle a formal collection of such documents. In that year a printer in Leipzig, Ernst Vgelin, published a collection of the ancient creeds and eleven confessions and theological treatises from Melanchthon's pen as the Corpus doctrinae Philippicum. That collection became the legal definition of the faith in electoral Saxony in 1566 and in other lands at about the same time. Similar corpora doctrinae were published in a number of other principalities in the 1560s; they usually included Luther's Smalcald Articles and Catechisms as well as the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, along with one or more other local confessional documents. Two corpora assembled by Martin Chemnitz in 1576, for the principalities of Braunschweig-Lneburg and Braunschweig-Wolfenbttel, provided a model for the Formula of Concord.

The authors of the Formula of Concord responded to objections from followers of Melanchthon who treasured the Corpus doctrinae Philippicum, and therefore they did not use the term corpus doctrinae when they prepared the Formula for publication with the ancient creeds of the church, the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, and Luther's Smalcald Articles and Catechisms after the completion of the Formula of 1577. One of the leading figures in its composition, Jakob Andreae of the University of Tbingen, was commissioned to compose a preface for this collection of documents that would speak for the princes who had sponsored the drive for Lutheran reconciliation and unity which the Formula had climaxed. In it he sketched the history of the conflicts over the interpretation of Luther's teaching.

Andreae's efforts included tireless travels and diplomatic negotiations that finally brought Elector Ludwig of the Palatinate into concert with the other two leading Evangelical princes of the German Empire, the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, August and Joachim II. These three, joined by eighty other princely and municipal governments, led 8,188 theologians into subscription of the Formula of Concord by 1580, and the Formula and other confessions were published as the Book of Concord on the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession, on 25 June 1580. The Book of Concord received criticism from certain quarters, particularly the followers of Matthias Flacius Illyricus regarding the doctrine of original sin expressed in the Formula, and from those whose spiritualizing view of the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper led them to reject the Formula's sacramental theology and its Christology. Nonetheless, some two-thirds of German Protestants found in the Book of Concord an authoritative expression of their faith and a hermeneutical basis for interpreting scripture

Customer Reviews

As Expected
A review of a doctrinal work first published in 1580 by someone such as myself must of necessity confine itself to format.
The Book of Concord is the doctrinal basis of Lutheranism. The content is self explanatory. This edition compares most favorably with the Tappert edition of 1959. Differences in translation are noted. The typeset is clear and good size. I believe this edition is preferable to the Tappert.

Outstanding
Excellent reading for serious students of Lutheran theology/doctrine.

Layout is excellent, with translation of German text opposite that of the Latin. Footnoted material provides additional historical material.

A great read!

Tappert Version - 1580
The Book of Concord provides the basis of beliefs for today's Lutheran Synods of WELS, ELS and Missouri Synod. This book covers the Augsburg Confession, Smalcald Articles, Formula of Concord and Luther's Small and Large Catechism. It discusses religious belief arguments between Catholics, Baptists, Calvinists and can be applied to today's TV Evangelical teachings. The book supports 100% Biblical teachings of Justification by Grace, through Faith, through Christ's blood as stated in Ephesians 2:8. Faith is a gift of God; man cannot be justified by works, or make any personal decisions to come to faith as everyone is born, "dead in sin", Psalm 51.5. Natural man's free will can only sin; therefore, God must reveal himself through Biblical scriptures where a person reading or hearing may be made "spiritually alive" by the Holy Spirit. Only those chosen (predestined, elected) by God the Father in eternity will be saved, Ephesians 1:4-6. Man can by free will read and study the Bible, which has the power to believe built-in, Romans 10:17 and Ephesians 1:13. Since ony God knows who is chosen, the Gospel must be preached throughout the world so that it can reach the elect. Everyone can read and study the Bible, but not everyone does as it is considered "foolishness to those who are perishing," 1 Corinthians 2:14. This explains the fact that those who will perish, do it by choice for failure to read and study Biblical Scripture. For those who do believe in By Grace Alone through Faith, I would also suggest reading Luther's Works, any of 54 volumes