Confessio Augustana eng



The Augsburg Confession is a Lutheran confessions of faith that was issued (1530) during the reformation at the Diet of Augsburg. In 1530, Emperor Charles V convoked the diet as part of his effort to bring religious peace to Europe. He failed in his efforts, however, because he underestimated the fervor with which the followers of Martin Luther had already formulated a distinctive position. Philipp Melanchton, one of the authors of the Confession, designed it to be relatively open to the Roman Catholic church on the right and to other reformed but non-Lutheran parties on the left. It affirmed inherited classic Christian doctrines. Its particular stress on Grace, as Luther had interpreted it in the writings of St. Paul, and its rejection of any righteousness based on human works and merits made it unacceptable to many other Western Christians. The Confession remains the primary statement of faith among Lutherans, who to this day expect their ministers at ordination to express fidelity to the way it interprets the biblical teachings.

Confession of Faith

The official Protestant statements of belief issued as standards of doctrine during the 16th and 17th centuries are called confessions of faith. The result of dogmatic controversy, they are generally polemical and reflect the historical situations from which they arose. A list of the major confessions of faith issued by the Lutheran, Calvinist, or Reformed churches includes the Augsburg Confession (1530), Helvetic Confessions (1536 and 1566), Gallican Confession (1559), Belgic Confession (1561), Scottish Confessions (1560 and 1581), Heidelberg Catechism (1562), and Westminster Confession (1647). Since the 17th century, other confessions have been issued by the Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers. Many Reformation statements were called Articles of Religion. The ancient professions of faith are usually called creeds

Articles of Religion

Short theological statements, articles of religion were official Protestant declarations of doctrine issued during the 16th and 17th centuries. The best known are the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1563), revised by the U.S. Episcopal Church in 1801. Other Reformation articles include the Schwabach Articles (1529), Ten Articles (1536), Schmalkaldic Articles (1537), Six Articles (1539), Forty-two Articles (1553), Lambeth Articles (1595), and Irish Articles (1615). Many Reformation statements were called Confessions of Faith.

Bibliography: George, Timothy, Theology of the Reformers (1988); Leith, John H., ed., Creeds of the Churches (1982).


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