Lutheranism

Lutheranism

Once Luther had passed from the scene, a period of bitter theological warfare occurred within Protestantism. There was controversy over such matters as the difference between justification and sanctification; what doctrine was essential or nonessential; faith and works; and the nature of the real presence at the eucharist.

This is the period when Lutheranism developed — something which Luther foresaw and condemned. The Book of Concord, which sets out what we now understand as theranism, was published in 1580. It included Melanchthon’s Augsburg Confession and Augsburg Apology; Luthers’s two Catechisms and the Schmalkald Articles (drawn up in 1537); and the Formula of Concord. Some of the Lutheran theologians drove large numbers of people over to the Calvinist church through their dogmatism. The Calvinists in Germany adopted the Heidelberg Confession as their statement of faith.

The tragic Thirty Years’ War perpetuated political strife in Germany in the seventeenth century, until by the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) the Lutherans and Calvinists won equal rights with the Catholics.

[tags]Augsburg-Confession, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Lutheranism, Protestantism[/tags]

 

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