Der paulinische Ursprung von Melanchthons Loci

Philip Melanchthon's »Loci communes theologici« (1521), the first Protestant dogmatics textbook, is based on a rhetorical analysis of Paul's Letter to the Romans. With the help of the hermeneutics he developed while studying the arts, Melanchthon determines sin, law and mercy to be the three fundamental concepts of Christian faith, thereby demonstrating that justification by faith is not only the core of the Pauline letters, but of the whole of Holy Scripture. The at first seemingly impenetrable disposition of the »Loci communes theologici« becomes clear when the three Pauline concepts are read according to the rules of dialectics as methodological analysis.