Systematics Series

The Augsburg Confession is the single most-important confession of faith among Lutherans today. However, it is often taught either from a historical perspective or from a dogmatic one. Yet the context out of which it arose was far more practical and lively: marked from the outset as confessions of faith in the face of fierce opposition and threats. The original princely signers, while clearly outlining the teaching of their churches, were also staking their lives on the witness to the gospel that had been emanating from Wittenberg since 1517, when Martin Luther first published his Ninety-Five Theses. By situating both the history and the theology of this document within the practice and life of faith, Timothy J. Wengert shows just how relevant the Confession's witness is for today's Lutheran parishes and their leaders by unlocking how its articles can shape and strengthen the church's witness today.

St Gregory of Nyssa wrote the Catechetical Discourse as a handbook for his catechists, to help them defend and articulate the foundations of the faith, the Trinity, creation and the image of God, the fall and the nature of evil, the saving work of Christ, and the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. The Discourse draws upon the previous tradition--especially Origen, St Methodius of Olympus, and, above all, St Athanasius' On the Incarnation (PPS 44)--and influences later fathers like St John of Damascus in his On the Orthodox Faith (translation coming soon to SVS Press).

This complex work is also known for its ambiguous relationship to Origen's universalism, perhaps including the idea that the devil himself will be saved. The translator's introduction places this question, and a clear understanding of the Catechetical Discourse in general, in the context of St Gregory's use of rhetoric, his other writings and the broader patristic tradition.