Das Bekenntnis im Luthertum des konfessionellen Zeitalters

During the confessional age, the Lutheran doctrine, codified in the corpus doctrinae of the Book of Concord, performed different functions. The confession was not only relevant for professional theologians, it also influenced - especially in Luther's Small Catechism - the everyday spirituality of the common man. In some of the conflicts on doctrinal subjects in early modern Lutheranism, faculties of theology, in the reports they submitted, argued by using the confessions of the Book of Concord. For Lutheran theologians, the personal status confessionis in situations of persecution and confrontation by foreign religions or different Christian denominations was of prime interest.