The Comprehensive Summary, Foundation, Rule, and Norm
By Which All Dogmas Should
Be Judged according to God’s Word,
and the Controversies That Have Arisen Should Be
Explained and Decided
in a Christian Way
[1] For thorough, permanent unity in the Church, it is necessary, above all things, that we have a comprehensive, unanimously approved summary and form of teaching. The common doctrine must be brought together from God’s Word and reduced to a small circle of teaching, which the churches that are of the true Christian religion must confess. They must do this just as the Ancient Church always had its fixed symbols for this use. [2] Furthermore, this should not be based on private writings, but on the kind of books that have been composed, approved, and received in the name of the churches that pledge themselves to one doctrine and religion. Therefore, we have declared to one another with heart and mouth that we will not make or receive a separate or new confession of our faith. Instead, we will confess the public common writings, which always and everywhere were held and used as such symbols or common confessions in all the churches of the Augsburg Confession before the disagreements arose among those who accept the Augsburg Confession. We will confess them as long as there are on all sides, in all articles, a unanimous adherence to ‹and maintenance and use of› the pure doctrine of the divine Word, as the sainted Dr. Luther explained it.
[3] 1. First, ‹we receive and embrace with our whole heart› are the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the pure, clear fountain of Israel. They are the only true standard or norm by which all teachers and doctrines are to be judged.
[4] 2. In ancient times the true Christian doctrine, in a pure, sound sense, was collected from God’s Word into brief articles or chapters against the corruption of heretics. Therefore, we confess, in the second place, the three Ecumenical Creeds: the Apostles—, the Nicene, and the Athanasian. They are glorious confessions of the faith, brief, devout, and founded on God’s Word. All the heresies that had at that time arisen in the Christian Church are clearly and irrefutably answered by these creeds.
[5] 3. In the third place, in these last times, by special grace, God has brought the truth of His Word to light again from the darkness of the papacy through the faithful service of the precious man of God, Dr. Luther. According to the Word of God, this doctrine has been collected from it into the articles and chapters of the Augsburg Confession against the corruptions of the papacy and other sects. Therefore, we also confess the first, unaltered Augsburg Confession as our symbol for this time. This is not because it was written by our theologians. We confess it because it has been taken from God’s Word and well founded firmly in the Word of God. We confess it precisely in the form in which it was committed to writing, in the year 1530, and presented to Emperor Charles V at Augsburg by some Christian electors, princes, and estates of the Roman Empire as a common Confession of the reformed churches. By this Confession, our reformed churches are distinguished from (a) the papists and (b) other rejected and condemned sects and heresies. This follows the custom and usage of the early Church, just as later councils, Christian bishops, and teachers appealed to the Nicene Creed, and confessed it.
[6] 4. In the fourth place, an extensive Apology was composed, published, and printed in 1531 regarding the proper and true sense of the oft-quoted Augsburg Confession. This was done after the Confession’s presentation, so that we might explain ourselves at greater length and guard against the papists. This was also done so that condemned errors might not sneak into God’s Church under the Augsburg Confession’s name or dare to seek cover under it. We unanimously confess this Apology also. Not only is the Augsburg Confession explained by the Apology (as much as is necessary and guarded), but it is also proven by clear, irrefutable testimonies of Holy Scripture.
[7] 5. In the fifth place, we also confess the Articles composed, approved, and received at Smalcald, in the great assembly of theologians, in the year 1537. We confess them as they were first framed and printed in order to be delivered in the Council at Mantua (or wherever it would be held) in the name of the estates, electors, and princes. They confessed it as an explanation of the above-mentioned Augsburg Confession, in which, by God’s grace, they were resolved to abide. In the Smalcald Articles the Augsburg Confession’s doctrine is repeated and some articles are explained at greater length from God’s Word. Besides this, the cause and reasons are indicated, as far as necessary, why we have abandoned the papistic errors and idolatries and can have no fellowship with them. They also explain why we do not know, and cannot think of, a way for coming to any agreement with the pope on these points.
[8] 6. In the sixth place, these highly important matters also concern the common people and laymen. Because they are Christians, they must distinguish between pure and false doctrine for their salvation. Therefore, we also confess the Small and the Large Catechisms of Dr. Luther, as they were written by him and included in his works. They have been unanimously approved and received by all churches holding to the Augsburg Confession and have been publicly used in churches, schools, and in homes. Furthermore, the Christian doctrine from God’s Word is put together in them in the most correct and simple way and explained, as far as is necessary ‹for simple laypeople›.
[9] In the pure churches and schools these public, common writings have always been respected as the sum and model of the doctrine that Dr. Luther (of blessed memory) has admirably pulled together from God’s Word and firmly established against the papacy and other sects. We want to appeal to his full explanations in his doctrinal and polemical writings. We do so in the same way and as far as Dr. Luther himself has given necessary and Christian encouragement about his writings in the Latin preface to his published works [LW 34:327–38]. He has clearly drawn up this distinction: God’s Word alone should be and remain the only standard and rule of doctrine, to which the writings of no man should be regarded as equal. Everything should be subjected to God’s Word.
[10] Other good, useful, pure books, expositions of the Holy Scriptures, refutations of errors, and explanations of doctrinal articles are not rejected by this point. As long as they are consistent with the above-mentioned type of doctrine, these works are considered useful expositions and explanations. They can be helpful. What has been said so far about the summary of our Christian doctrine is only intended to mean this: we should have a unanimously accepted, definite, common form of doctrine. All our evangelical churches should confess it together and in common. Because this Confession has been derived from God’s Word, all other writings should be judged and adjusted to it to determine the extent to which they are to be approved and accepted.
[11] For this purpose we brought together the above-mentioned writings: the Augsburg Confession, Apology, Smalcald Articles, Luther’s Large and Small Catechisms as the frequently mentioned summary of our Christian doctrine. This was done because these have always and everywhere been regarded as the common, unanimously accepted meaning of our churches. Furthermore, they have been signed at that time by the chief and most enlightened theologians, and they have held sway in all evangelical churches and schools. [12] Also, as mentioned before, they were all written and sent out before the divisions among the theologians of the Augsburg Confession arose. Therefore, they are held to be impartial, and neither can nor should be rejected by either side of those who have entered into controversy. No one who is a follower of the Augsburg Confession without guile will complain about these writings. They will cheerfully accept and tolerate them as witnesses of the truth. No one can think ill about us because we get an explanation and decision about the articles in controversy from these writings. [13] As we lay down God’s Word—the eternal truth—as the foundation, we also introduce and quote these writings as a witness of the truth and as the unanimously received, correct understanding of our predecessors who have steadfastly held to the pure doctrine.
Antithesis or False Doctrine
in the Disputed Articles
[14] It is not only necessary that the pure, wholesome doctrine be rightly presented for the preservation of pure doctrine and for thorough, permanent, godly unity in the Church, but it is also necessary that the opponents who teach otherwise be reproved (1 Timothy 3; [2 Timothy 3:16;] Titus 1:9). Faithful shepherds, as Luther says, should do both things: (a) feed or nourish the lambs and (b) resist the wolves. Then the sheep may flee from strange voices (John 10:5–12) and may separate the precious from the worthless (Jeremiah 15:19).
[15] Regarding these matters, we have thoroughly and clearly told one another the following: a distinction should and must by all means be kept between (a) unnecessary and useless wrangling (the Church should not allow itself to be disturbed by this, since it destroys more than it builds up) and (b) when the kind of controversy arises that involves the articles of faith or the chief points of Christian doctrine. Then the false, opposite doctrine must be reproved for the defense of the truth.
[16] The aforesaid writings offer the Christian reader—who delights in and has a love for the divine truth—clear and correct information about each and every disputed article of our Christian religion. They show what he should regard and receive as right and true according to God’s Word of the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures. They also show what he should reject, shun, and avoid as false and wrong. The truth must be preserved distinctly and clearly and distinguished from all errors. Nothing must be hidden and concealed under common words. Therefore, we have clearly and directly declared ourselves to one another on the chief and most important articles taken one by one. At the present time these articles have come into controversy so that there might be a public, definite testimony, not only for those now living, but also for our descendants. We make known what is and should remain the unanimous understanding and judgment ‹decision› of our churches in reference to the articles in controversy:
[17] 1. First, we reject and condemn all heresies and errors that were rejected and condemned in the primitive, ancient, orthodox Church, on the true, firm ground of the holy, divine Scriptures.
[18] 2. Second, as just mentioned, we reject and condemn all sects and heresies that are rejected in the writings of the comprehensive summary of the Confession of our churches.
[19] 3. Third, within thirty years divisions arose among some theologians of the Augsburg Confession because of the Interim and for other reasons. Therefore, it has been our purpose to state and to declare plainly, purely, and clearly in thesis and antithesis our faith and confession about each and every one of these divisions. This means we state the true doctrine and the opposite doctrine, in order that the foundation of divine truth might be clear in all articles. In this way all unlawful, doubtful, suspicious, and condemned doctrines might be exposed ‹distinctly repudiated› (wherever and in whatever books they may be found, and whoever may have written them, or who even now may be ready to defend them). So everyone may be faithfully warned against the errors, which are spread here and there in some theologians’ writings. No one should be misled in this matter by the reputation of any person. [20] From this declaration the Christian reader will inform himself in every emergency. He will compare it with the writings listed above, and he will find out exactly what was confessed in the beginning about each article in the comprehensive summary of our religion and faith. He will note what was later restated at different times and is repeated by us in this document. He will see that it is in no way contradictory, but is the simple, unchangeable, permanent truth. Therefore, we do not change from one doctrine to another, as our adversaries falsely assert. We eagerly desire to be found loyal to the once-delivered Augsburg Confession and its unanimously accepted Christian meaning. Through God’s grace we desire to abide firmly and constantly by the Augsburg Confession in opposition to all corruptions that have entered.