 Title page from the 1580 German edition | |
| Author | Jakob Andreae andMartin Chemnitz (compilers) |
|---|---|
| Language | German |
| Subject | Lutheranism Doctrine of the Lutheran Church |
| Published | 1580 |
| Publication place | Germany |
The Book of Concord (1580) orConcordia (often referred to as theLutheran Confessions) is the historicdoctrinal standard recognized as authoritative by many Lutheran church bodies since the 16th century. It consists of tencreedal documents and is also known as the symbolical book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.[1]
The Book of Concord was published inGerman on June 25, 1580, inDresden, the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation of theAugsburg Confession to EmperorCharles V at theDiet of Augsburg. The authoritativeLatin edition was published in 1584 inLeipzig.[2]
Those who accept it as their doctrinal standard recognize it to be a faithful exposition of theBible. The Holy Scriptures are set forth inThe Book of Concord to be thesole, divine source and norm of allChristian doctrine.[3]
The Book of Concord was compiled by a group of theologians led byJakob Andreae andMartin Chemnitz at the behest of their rulers, who desired an end to the religious controversies in their territories that arose among Lutherans after the death ofMartin Luther in 1546.[4] It was intended to replace German territorial collections of doctrinal statements, known ascorpora doctrinæ (bodies of doctrine) such as theCorpus doctrinæ Philippicum orMisnicum. This aim is reflected by the compilers' not calling it acorpus doctrinæ although it technically is one.[5] The list of writings predating theFormula of Concord that would be included inThe Book of Concord are listed and described in the "Rule and Norm" section of theFormula.[6]
Following the preface written by Andreae and Chemnitz (1578–1580)[7] the "ThreeEcumenical Creeds" were placed at the beginning in order to show the identity of Lutheran teaching with that of the ancient Christian church.[8] These creeds, theApostles' Creed,Nicene Creed, andAthanasian Creed, were formulated before theEast-West Schism of 1054, but the Nicene Creed is the western version containing thefilioque.
The other documents come from the earliest years of the Lutheran Reformation (1529–1577). They are theAugsburg Confession, theApology of the Augsburg Confession, both byPhilipp Melanchthon, theSmall andLarge Catechisms of Martin Luther, hisSmalcald Articles, Melanchthon'sTreatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and theFormula of Concord, which was composed shortly before the publishing of the Book of Concord and intended for the same purpose: the pacification and unification of the growing Lutheran movement. The preface of theBook of Concord was considered to be the preface of theFormula of Concord as well.[7]
TheAugsburg Confession has singular importance
as the unanimous consensus and exposition of our Christian faith, particularly against the false worship, idolatry, and superstition of the papacy and against other sects, and as the symbol of our time, the first and unaltered Augsburg Confession, which was delivered to Emperor Charles V at Augsburg during the great Diet in the year 1530 ...[9]
A recent book on Lutheranism asserts, "To this day ... the Augsburg Confession ... remains the basic definition of what it means to be a 'Lutheran.'"[10]The Apology, theSmalcald Articles, theTreatise, and theFormula of Concord explain, defend, or serve as addenda toThe Augsburg Confession.[11]
The simple Latin title of the Book of Concord,Concordia (Latin for "an agreeing together"[13]), is fitting for the character of its contents: Christian statements of faith setting forth what is believed, taught, and confessed by the confessors "with one heart and voice." This followsSt. Paul's directive: "that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." (1 Cor. 1:10;NKJV). Thecreeds and confessions that constitute theBook of Concord are not the private writings of their various authors:[clarification needed][14]
Inasmuch, however, as they are in complete agreement with Holy Scripture, and in this respect differ from all other particular symbols (i.e.,denominational creeds and credal statements), the Lutheran confessions are truly ecumenical and catholic in character. They contain the truths believed universally by true Christians everywhere, explicitly by all consistent Christians, implicitly even by inconsistent and erring Christians. Christian truth, being one and the same the world over is none other than that which is found in the Lutheran confessions.[dubious –discuss][15]
To this day theBook of Concord is doctrinally normative among traditional and conservative Lutheran churches, which require their pastors and other rostered church workers to pledge themselves unconditionally to theBook of Concord.[16] They often identify themselves as "confessional Lutherans". They consider theBook of Concord thenorma normata (Latin, "the normed norm") in relation to theBible, which they consider thenorma normans (Latin, "the norming norm"), i.e. the only source of Christian doctrine (God's authoritative word). In this view theBook of Concord, on the topics that it addresses, is what the church authoritatively understands God's authoritative word to say. This is also called a "quia" (because) subscription to the Lutheran confessions, i.e. one subscribesbecause theBook of Concord is a faithful exposition of the Scriptures.
It implies that the subscriber has examined the Lutheran confessions in the light of the Scriptures in order to arrive at this position, which in the subscriber's view does not require the disclaimer implied in a "quatenus" (insofar as) subscription. One who subscribes the Lutheran confessionsquatenus, insofar as they are a faithful exposition of the Scriptures, believes that there might be contradictions of the Scriptures in them. In some cases this is the manner of subscription of some other Lutheran churches, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which regard theBook of Concord as an important witness and guide to the historical teachings of the Lutheran Church although not necessarily doctrinally binding.[17][18]
English translations of individual documents ofThe Book of Concord, notablyThe Augsburg Confession, were available since the 16th century.[19] The first complete English translation ofThe Book of Concord was the 1851 Henkel edition followed by a second edition in 1854. These volumes included historical introductions.
Henry E. Jacobs and others published the next English version in 1882 with a revised "People's Edition" in 1911. The 1882 edition was accompanied by a companion volume that contained historical introductions and English translations of other documents illustrative of the history ofThe Book of Concord.
The third complete English translation, which also included the German and Latin texts, was published in 1921 as a jubilee observance of the 400th anniversary of the Reformation (1917) called theConcordia Triglotta: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church, German-Latin English edited by Friederich Bente.[20] This edition introduced the practice of inserting in square brackets the translations of variant readings of either the Latin translation of the German or the German translation of the Latin text. A smaller edition with just the English text was also published.
The differences of the German translation ofThe Apology of the Augsburg Confession from the original Latin text were made apparent by Bente's insertion within square brackets of the variant readings of his English translation of the German text into the main body of his translation of the original Latin text.Justus Jonas, who had originally translated theApology from Latin into German, made use of both the quarto and the octavo editions. The other reason for the differences is the "looseness" of the Jonas translation that is more like a paraphrase than a translation.[21]
With the appearance of the 1930Bekenntnisschriftencritical text, a new English version was deemed desirable. This was begun but left unfinished by John C. Mattes, who died in 1948. In 1959, the "Tappert" edition was produced, with Theodore G. Tappert as general editor and translator and withJaroslav Pelikan, Robert H. Fisher, and Arthur Carl Piepkorn as additional translators.[22] This edition discontinued the practice of inserting translations of variant readings in square brackets.[23] However, it began the practice of providing the translations of both the German and Latin texts of the Augsburg Confession since both texts of that confession are considered authoritative. The manner of presentation was the translation of the German text on the top of the page, that of the Latin on the bottom.
An extensive revision of the Tappert edition was published in 2000, translated and edited byRobert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert. As with the Tappert edition, the "Kolb-Wengert Edition" was translated by scholars from two different Lutheran denominations (Kolb of theLutheran Church – Missouri Synod and Wengert of theEvangelical Lutheran Church in America).[24] This edition provided the translations of both German and Latin texts of the Augsburg Confession on alternating pages. The translation team also included Eric Gritsch, Charles Arand, William Russell, James Schaaf, and Jane Strohl.
The Kolb-Wengert edition exhibits one of the difficulties in the translation ofThe Apology of the Augsburg Confession. Two editions ofThe Apology were published in 1531, namely, the "quarto edition" and the "octavo edition", which are so designated based on the format in which they were printed.[24] The quarto edition was printed with the first publication ofThe Augsburg Confession in April or May 1531; hence, the name "editio princeps" ["first edition"]. The octavo edition followed in September, 1531.[25]
The Kolb-Wengert translation ofThe Apology of the Augsburg Confession uses the later octavo edition text of 1531 rather than the earlier quarto edition text of 1531, with the variant readings of the quarto edition appearing in italics. The Tappert edition had used the quarto edition as the basis of its translation.[26] The editors and translators of the Kolb-Wengert edition decided to use the octavo edition as the main source for their translation because they believed the octavo edition was the official text ofThe Apology. This is the position of the German scholar Christian Peters, who claimed the quarto edition was merely a stage on the way to a definitive text, i.e. the octavo edition.[27]
The octavo edition Latin text was utilized in a private Latin edition ofThe Book of Concord in 1580.[25] Scholars question whether or not this octavo edition text can be considered the text approved by the Lutheran Church in the 16th century.[28] The official 1584 LatinBook of Concord has the quarto edition text as its text ofThe Apology of the Augsburg Confession.[25] Another notable feature of the Kolb-Wengert edition is the setting off of "thefilioque" of theNicene Creed in square brackets.[29]
The most recent English version of the Book of Concord was published in 2005 to commemorate the 425th anniversary of its publication and the 475th anniversary of the presentation ofThe Augsburg Confession. EntitledConcordia: The Lutheran Confessions—A Reader's Edition of the Book of Concord, it is a revision of the English text of theConcordia Triglotta and was edited by Paul T. McCain, Edward A. Engelbrecht, Robert C. Baker, and Gene E. Veith.[30] A second edition followed in 2006.
