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The Book of Concord or Concordia (1580) is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since the 16th century. It has been categorized as a "body of doctrine" or corpus doctrinæ compiled by Jakob Andreae and Martin Chemnitz. It was published in German on June 25, 1580 in Dresden, fifty years to the day after the presentation of the Augsburg Confession to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg. The authoritative Latin edition was published in 1584 in Leipzig. Its untranslated title Concordia, Latin for "an agreeing together, union, harmony," literally, "with one heart," denotes the character of Christian statements of faith as setting forth what is believed, taught, and confessed by the confessors with one heart and voice. This follows St. 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). As creeds and confessions of Christian faith the documents that constitute The Book of Concord are considered by many Lutherans to be authoritative public documents of the one holy catholic and apostolic church:

Inasmuch, however, as they are in complete agreement with Holy Scripture, and in this respect differ from all other particular symbols , 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."

The documents of The Book of Concord are also known as the symbolical books of the Lutheran Church.

The Book of Concord begins with the "Three Ecumenical Creeds," the Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, and Athanasian Creed, statements of Christian faith that were formulated before the East-West Schism of 1054. However, the Nicene Creed is the western version containing the filioque. The other documents come from the earliest years of the Lutheran Reformation (1529-1577). They are the Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, both written chiefly by Philipp Melanchthon, then the Small and Large Catechism by Martin Luther, his Smalcald Articles, and Melanchthon's Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope. The final documents, the two sections of the Formula of Concord, were written shortly before The Book of Concord was published. The Formula of Concord was formulated for the same purpose as that of the The Book of Concord itself: to unify the growing Lutheran movement. The preface of The Book of Concord was considered to be the preface of the Formula of Concord as well.

To this day The Book of Concord is regarded as doctrinally normative among traditional and conservative Lutheran churches, which require their pastors and other rostered church workers to pledge themselves unconditionally to The Book of Concord. Such believers often refer to themselves as "confessional Lutherans" (see, confessional Lutheran). The Book of Concord is called by them the norma normata (Latin, "the normed norm") in relation to the Bible, which is called the norma normans (Latin, "the norming norm"): the Bible is considered the only source of Christian doctrine (God's authoritative word), and The Book of Concord on the topics that it addresses is what the church authoritatively understands God's authoritative word to say. Among other Lutheran churches The Book of Concord is regarded as an important witness to the historical teachings of the Lutheran Church; and, although it is not necessarily doctrinally binding, it is regarded as an important guide.

footnotes

1. "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 in 1577" .
2. Bente, Historical Introduction to the Lutheran Confessions (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House: 1921), p. 3 with square bracketed text added.
3. C. F. W. Walther, Why Should Our Pastors, Teachers and Professors Subscribe Unconditionally to the Symbolical Writings of Our Church

Documents constituting The Book of Concord

• The Three Ecumenical Creeds
  • The Apostles' Creed
  • The Nicene Creed
  • The Athanasian Creed
• The Augsburg Confession of 1530
• The Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1531)
• The Small Catechism of Martin Luther (1529)
• The Large Catechism of Martin Luther (1529)
• The Smalcald Articles of Martin Luther (1537)
• Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (1537)
• Epitome of the Formula of Concord (1577)
• The Solid or Thorough Declaration of the Formula of Concord (1577).

Printed Editions of The Book of Concord

• Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch=lutherischen Kirche. Herausgegeben in Gedenkjahr der Augsburgischen Konfession 1930. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1976. ISBN 3-525-52101-4.
• Bente, F. et al., trans. and eds. Concordia Triglotta. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921. , .
• Kolb, Robert and Timothy J. Wengert, eds. The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8006-2740-7
• McCain, Paul T., general editor, Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions -- A Reader's Edition of the Book of Concord. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, Second edition, 2006.
• Tappert, Theodore G., ed. The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959. ISBN 0-8006-0825-9

Online text of The Book of Concord

• The Book of Concord in PDF and HTML, other useful resources as well - www.bookofconcord.org

Bibliography

• Bente, Friedrich. Historical Introductions to the Book of Concord. (1921) New reprint edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995. ISBN 0-570-03262-8 View excerpt here.
• Fagerberg, Holsten. A New Look at the Lutheran Confessions (1529-1537). Gene Lund, trans. Paperback Edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1988. ISBN 0-570-04499-5
• Forell, George W. The Augsburg Confession: A Contemporary Commentary. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1968. LOC 68-25798
• Grane, Lief, The Augsburg Confession: A Commentary. translated by John H. Rasmussen. Minneapolis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1986. ISBN 0-8066-2252-0
• Kolb, Robert and James A. Nestingen, eds. Sources and Contexts of The Book of Concord. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8006-3290-7
• Preus, Jacob A.O. The Second Martin: The Life and Theology of Martin Chemnitz. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004.
• Preus, Robert D. and Wilbert H. Rosin, eds. A Contemporary Look at the Formula of Concord. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1978. ISBN 0-570-03271-7
• Preus, Robert D. Getting Into the Theology of Concord." Reprint. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004.
• Preus, Robert D. Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism: Volume I. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1972. ISBN 0-570-04545-2
• Reu, Johann Michael. The Augsburg Confession. Reprint. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995.
• Schlink, Edmund. Theology of the Lutheran Confessions. Translated by P. Koehneke and H. Bouman. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, Reprint 2004.
• Schmauk, Theodore. The Confessional Principle and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. Translated by C. Theodore Benze. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, Reprint 2005.
• Wengert, Timothy J. A Formula for Parish Practice: Using the Formula of Concord in Congregations. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0-8028-3026-9

Translation of the German Misplaced Pages entry

Source:

The Book of Concord was published on June 25, 1580 in Dresden as complete collection of the so called "symbolical books of the Lutheran Church" in the German language. In this sense it can also be described as canon or corpus doctrinæ of the Lutheran Church. The authentic Latin text was published in Leipzig in 1584.

The Book of Concord contains:

• the three so called ecumenical symbols (creeds)
  • the Apostolic Creed (Apostolicum)
  • the Niceno-Constantinopolitanum (called Nicaenum)
  • the Athanasian Creed (Athanasianum),
• the so called Lutheran particular symbols
  • the so called unaltered Augsburg Confession according to the supposedly German original copy,
  • the Apology of the Augsburg Confession according to the German translation of Justus Jonas the Elder,
  • the Smalcald Articles of 1537
    • with the appendix of Philipp Melanchthon on the power and authority of the pope
  • the Small Catechism of Martin Luther
    • with the appended wedding and baptismal booklets,
  • the Large Catechism of Luther,
  • the Formula of Concord.

The concept "ecumenical symbols," which had been used since 1577, however, has not been employed accurately.

• Christian confessions, creeds and statements of faith
• Christian texts
• Lutheranism
• Martin Luther
• 1580 books