Church History
Confessions of Faith
The Book of Concord, the Reformed confessions, the Thirty-Nine Articles, Barmen
A confession of faith (confessio fidei) is a formal doctrinal document defining the convictions of a church by marking them off from the errors it rejects. The Lutheran confessions are gathered in the Book of Concord (1580), the most complete confessional corpus in Protestantism.
The Book of Concord
The Augsburg Confession (1530)
Drafted by Melanchthon for the Diet of Augsburg, Luther being then under imperial ban and therefore absent. It comprises twenty-eight articles, twenty-one of doctrine and seven on abuses, and seeks continuity with the catholic tradition while affirming the truths of the Reformation. Article VII defines the Church as the assembly of believers among whom the gospel is purely taught and the sacraments rightly administered. It remains normative for Lutheran churches worldwide.
The Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1531)
Melanchthon’s reply to the Catholic Confutatio, and a fuller and more technical treatment of justification. Article IV remains the classical Lutheran formulation: justification is the remission of sins and acceptance by God, by faith alone, for Christ’s sake.
The Smalcald Articles (1536)
Drafted by Luther for a general council that never met, and more combative in tone than the Augsburg Confession. Luther sets out what cannot be conceded to Rome: “the first and chief article is this, that Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Rom 4:25),” on which all else depends.
The Small and Large Catechisms (1529)
Luther regarded the Small Catechism as his most important work. Composed for households and children, it treats the Decalogue, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, baptism, confession and the Supper in question and answer form. It remains a masterpiece of catechetical pedagogy and is still in use.
The Formula of Concord (1577) and the Book of Concord (1580)
After decades of internal controversy following Luther’s death, between Gnesio-Lutherans and Philippists over the Supper, free will and good works, the Formula of Concord clarified Lutheran doctrine in twelve articles. The Book of Concord of 1580 gathers the whole corpus: the Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian creeds together with the five Lutheran documents.
The Reformed confessional tradition is plural. In place of a single normative corpus it comprises a series of national confessions sharing a common Calvinist substrate. All affirm the authority of Scripture, covenant theology and predestination.
The principal Reformed confessions
The Second Helvetic Confession (1566)
Drafted by Heinrich Bullinger, Zwingli’s successor at Zurich, for his friend the Elector Frederick III of the Palatinate. Its thirty chapters cover the whole of systematic theology. It is the most widely received Reformed confession, adopted in France, Scotland, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands and England, and it seals the reconciliation of Calvinism and Zwinglianism achieved in the Consensus Tigurinus of 1549.
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563)
Composed by Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus for Frederick III, in 129 questions. The first is celebrated: “What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.” It is normative in the Dutch, German and American Reformed churches.
The Gallican Confession (1559)
The confession of the French Huguenots, drafted with Calvin’s collaboration in forty articles, adopted at the first national Protestant synod in Paris in 1559 and revised at La Rochelle in 1571. It remained normative for French Protestants until the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which dispersed the Huguenots across Europe.
The Canons of Dort (1619)
Drafted by the international Reformed synod of Dort in answer to the five Arminian Remonstrances of 1610, they set out Reformed soteriology in five heads, later summarised as TULIP. With the Belgic Confession (1561) and the Heidelberg Catechism they form the Three Forms of Unity of the Dutch Reformed churches.
The Westminster Confession (1647)
Drafted by the Westminster Assembly, comprising 121 divines together with parliamentary delegates, in thirty-three chapters. It is the most complete and systematic of the Reformed confessions. With the Larger and Shorter Catechisms it remains normative for English-speaking Presbyterianism in Scotland, the United States, South Korea, Nigeria and Australia.
The Anglican confessional tradition seeks a via media between Rome and Geneva. The Thirty-Nine Articles (1571) remain the normative document, notwithstanding a deliberate ambiguity on several points.
The Thirty-Nine Articles and other confessions
| Confession | Tradition | Year | Principal affirmations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thirty-Nine Articles | Anglican | 1571 | Art. 11: justification by faith alone. Art. 17: a moderate Calvinist predestination. Arts. 28-29: rejection of transubstantiation. Deliberately open on eucharistic theology. |
| Second London Baptist Confession | Particular Baptist | 1689 | An adaptation of Westminster for Baptists: credobaptism in place of paedobaptism, with Reformed soteriology otherwise retained. |
| Barmen Declaration | Lutheran and Reformed | 1934 | Drafted by Barth for the Confessing Church. Thesis 1: Jesus Christ as attested in Holy Scripture is the one Word of God, against the subordination of the Church to National Socialism. |
Confessional texts are not dry documents but theological and spiritual manifestos, written by men in times of crisis. Reading them directly is irreplaceable.
Primary texts with commentary
Augsburg Confession, article VII (1530)
This definition is functional rather than institutional: the Church is identified by what takes place within it, the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments, and not by who exercises authority within it. Neither hierarchy nor apostolic succession appears among the marks. It also distinguishes what is required for unity, namely doctrinal agreement, from what is not, namely uniformity of ceremony.
Heidelberg Catechism, question 60 (1563)
The strength of the formulation lies in its pastoral concreteness. It addresses the believer directly and sets against the gravity of sin the completeness of imputation. This is forensic justification in its most pastoral expression, at once juridically precise and spiritually searching.
Westminster Confession, chapter I §4 (1647)
The text states with precision the doctrine of autopistia, the self-attestation of Scripture. The Bible is not canonical because the Church declared it so; it is the Word of God because God is its author. The Church recognises that character; it does not confer it. Here lies the substantive difference from the Catholic account of the relation between Scripture, Tradition and Magisterium.
Primary sources
- Kolb, Robert and Timothy J. Wengert, eds. The Book of Concord. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000.
- Cochrane, Arthur C., ed. Reformed Confessions of the 16th Century. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003.
- Leith, John H., ed. Creeds of the Churches. 3rd ed. Atlanta: John Knox, 1982.
Studies
- Muller, Richard A. Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics. 4 vols. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003.
- Pelikan, Jaroslav and Valerie Hotchkiss, eds. Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition. 4 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Quiz — Confessions of Faith
Which document gathers the Lutheran confessions from 1580?
- The Thirty-Nine Articles
- The Book of Concord
- The Second Helvetic Confession
- The Heidelberg Catechism
Kolb and Wengert, The Book of Concord (Fortress, 2000)