Just a Couple Dozen Topics—That’s All

In my last post, I argued that you could reduce the content of the Book of Concord to a couple dozen topics. You can consider this blog entry to be “the footnotes” for that post. I have arranged the content in outline format since some of the topics are clearly subcategories of other topics. You’ll need to know the following abbreviations: AC = Augsburg Confession; Ap. = Apology; SA = Smalcald Articles; Treatise = Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope; SC = Small Catechism; LC = Large Catechism; and FC = Formula of Concord. The numbering system of the Apology is somewhat convoluted and varies by edition, but I have followed the Kolb/Wengert numbering system since it lines up with that of the Augsburg Confession.

 

Often these articles may touch on some other topics tangentially, such as when Luther’s comments on the mass in SA 2:2 also deal with purgatory, the invocation of saints, and other topics. I have not tried to note every such subtopic because (as I argued in my last post) there is a particular coherence in the worldview that would guarantee that a Lutheran view of the mass would be in line with the Lutheran view of purgatory and vice versa.

By the way, the picture I have chosen to illustrate this blog entry illustrates that I am not the first to think that the various topics of the confessions cohere with one another. This is a sixteenth century woodcut that portrays the various topics of the Augsburg Confession as essentially seven branches of a lampstand illuminated by the Holy Spirit and grounded on the Scriptures and Christ. If you can read German, try to enlarge the picture and give it a closer look. It packs a lot of theology into a brief amount of space. (I downloaded the picture from Wiki Commons, where I get a lot of my free, out-of-copyright-protection pictures that I post here.)

I.                   God/Trinity: AC 1; Ap. 1; SA 1; SC 2; LC 2.

II.                Sin/Anthropology of the Fallen State: AC 19; Ap. 19; SA 3:1.

A.                Original Sin: AC 2; Ap. 2; FC 1.

B.                 Free will: AC 18; Ap. 18; SA 3:1; FC 2.

III.             The Law: SA 3:2; SC 1; LC 1; FC 5, 6.

IV.             Christ/His two natures/Unity of His person: AC 3; Ap. 3; SA 1; SC 2; LC 2; FC 3, 8, 9, 12.

V.                Justification: AC 4; Ap. 4; SA 2:1; 3:13; FC 3.

VI.             Repentance: AC 12; Ap. 12; SA 3:3.

VII.          Predestination/Election: FC 11.

VIII.       Ministry/Preaching office: AC 5, AC 14; Ap. 14; SA 3:4, 10.

A.                Clerical marriage: AC 23; Ap. 23; SA 3:11.

B.                 Power of bishops and of the pope: AC 28; Ap. 28; SA 2:4; Treatise.

IX.             Sanctification/good works: AC 6, AC 20; Ap. 4, Ap. 20; SA 3:13; FC 4.

X.                The church: AC 7, AC 8; Ap. 7-8; SA 3:12.

A.                Church regulations and ceremonies: AC 15, AC 24, AC 26; Ap. 15, Ap. 24; SA 2:2; 3:15; FC 10.

B.                 Invocation of the saints: AC 21; Ap. 21; SA 2:2.

C.                 Monasticism: AC 27; Ap. 27; SA 2:3; 3:14.

XI.             The sacraments: AC 13; Ap. 13.

A.                Baptism: AC 9; Ap. 9; SC 4; LC 4; SA 3:5.

B.                 The Lord’s Supper: AC 10; Ap. 10; SA 3:6; SC 6; LC 6; FC 7.

C.                 Two kinds in the sacrament: AC 22; Ap. 22.

D.                (Private) confession and absolution: AC 11, AC 25; Ap. 11; SA 3:7-9; SC 5; LC 5.

XII.          Government and secular life: AC 16; Ap. 16; FC 12.

XIII.       The return of Christ: AC 17; Ap. 17.