Philipp Melanchthon (February 16, 1497—April 19, 1560)
Notable Works:
Loci Communes Rerum Theologicarum seu Hypotyposes Theologicae (Wittenberg and Basel, 1521). Later editions in 1535, 1543, and especially 1548 sacrificed the the sola gratia, and Melanchthon thus became the father of synergism and Majorism in the Lutheran Church (Pieper, vol 1, p. 150, footnote 203).
The Book of Concord (1580)
The Book of Concord or Concordia (1580) is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since the 16th century. They are also known as the symbolical books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The Book of Concord was published in German on June 25, 1580 in Dresden, the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg. The authoritative Latin edition was published in 1584 in Leipzig.
To this day the Book of Concord is doctrinally normative among traditional and conservative Lutheran churches, which require their pastors and other rostered church workers to pledge themselves unconditionally to the Book of Concord. They often identify themselves as "confessional Lutherans." They consider the Book of Concord the norma normata (Latin, "the normed norm") in relation to the Bible, which they consider the norma normans (Latin, "the norming norm"), i.e. the only source of Christian doctrine (God's authoritative word). In this view the Book of Concord, on the topics that it addresses, is what the church authoritatively understands God's authoritative word to say. This is also called a "quia" (because) subscription to the Lutheran confessions, i.e. one subscribes because the Book of Concord is a faithful exposition of the Scriptures. It implies that the subscriber has examined the Lutheran confessions in the light of the Scriptures in order to arrive at this position, which in the subscriber's view does not require the disclaimer implied in a "quatenus" (insofar as) subscription. One who subscribes the Lutheran confessions quatenus, insofar as they are a faithful exposition of the Scriptures, believes that there might be contradictions of the Scriptures in them. In some cases this is the manner of subscription of some other Lutheran churches, which regard the Book of Concord as an important witness and guide to the historical teachings of the Lutheran Church although not necessarily doctrinally binding.
(Excerpted from Wikipedia)
Contents:
The documents in the Book of Concord are known collectively as "the Lutheran Confessions." They are online at http://www.bookofconcord.org/
Lutheran Orthodoxy (1580-1730)
The most significant theologians of orthodoxy can be said to be Martin Chemnitz and Johann Gerhard. Lutheran orthodoxy can also be reflected in such rulers as Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Altenburg and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.
(Wikipedia)
The later period of Lutheran orthodoxy was occuring at roughly the same time as the the Age of Reason or the Englightenment in the secular realm, and also overlapped the beginnings of the Pietistic movement within the Lutheran Church.
Early orthodoxy: 1580-1600
High orthodoxy: 1600-1685
Late orthodoxy: 1685 -1730
The following are the most prominent dogmaticians from the age of Lutheran Orthodoxy:
Martin Chemnitz (November 9, 1522—April 8, 1586)
Notable Works:
Loci Theologici - published after the death of Chemnitz by Polycarp Leyser, 1591.
Leonhard Hutter (January 1563—October 23, 1616)
Notable Works:
Loci Communes Theologici - published after the death of Hutter by the Wittenberg faculty, 1619.
Johann Gerhard (October 17, 1582—August 10, 1637)
Notable Works:
Loci Theologici cum pro adstruenda veritate tum pro destruenda quorumvis constradicentium falsitate, 1610-1622.
Johann Conrad Dannhauer (March 24, 1603—November 7, 1666)
Notable Works:
Hodosophia Christiana, 1649.
Johann Friedrich Koenig (also: König, Köning; October 16, 1619—September 15, 1664)
Notable Works:
Theological Positiva Acroamatica, 1664. Pieper: "A brief compend for theological lectures, which Quenstedt made the basis of his Systema." (vol 1, p. 151, footnote 204).
Abraham Calovius (Also Calov; April 16, 1612—February 25, 1686)
Notable Works:
Systema Locorum Theologicorum, (12 volumes, 1655-1677). Pieper: "The first volumes show careful work, the last volumes less. Calov is the most discerning theologian of the 17th century, a real Scripture theologian, and his Biblia Illustrata is still a classic exegetical work" (vol 1, p. 151, footnote 204).
Johannes Andreas Quenstedt (August 13, 1617—May 22, 1688)
Notable Works:
Theologia Didactico-polemica sive Systema Theologiae (Wittenberg, 1685, 1696, 1702, 1715).
Johann Wilhelm Baier (November 11, 1647—October 19, 1695)
Notable Works:
Compendium Theologiae Positivae, 1686. Pieper: "Baier was infected with the synergistic bias of his father-in-law Musaeus" (vol 1, p. 151, footnote 204).
David Hollaz (also Hollatz; 1648—April 17, 1713)
Notable Works:
Examen Theologicum Acroamaticum, 1707. Pieper: "The last genuinely Lutheran dogmatician" (vol 1, p. 151, footnote 204).
Pietism (1675-1817)
Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) is known as the "Father of Pietism." The University of Halle was founded under his influence in 1694. His two chief works are Pia desideria (1675) and Allgemeine Gottesgelehrtheit (1680). In spite of the fact that Spener is often called the "father of Pietism," Albrecht Ritschl (Geschichte des Pietismus, ii. 163) maintains that "he was himself not a Pietist," as he did not advocate the quietistic, legalistic and semi-separatist practices of Pietism, though they were more or less involved in the positions he assumed or the practices which he encouraged or connived at. The only two points on which he departed from the orthodox Lutheran faith of his day were the requirement of regeneration as the sine qua non of the true theologian, and the expectation of the conversion of the Jews and the fall of Papacy as the prelude of the triumph of the church. He did not, like the later Pietists, insist on the necessity of a conscious crisis of conversion, nor did he encourage a complete breach between the Christian and the secular life.
(Wikipedia)
Johann Salomo Semler (1725-1791)
German church historian and biblical commentator. Professor of theology at the University Halle from 1752-1791, he is sometimes called the "father of textual criticism" and the "father of German rationalism." He was the first to reject with sufficient proof the equal value of the Old and New Testaments, the uniform authority of all parts of the Bible, the divine authority of the traditional canon of Scripture, the inspiration and supposed correctness of the text of the Old and New Testaments, and, generally, the identification of revelation with Scripture. Semler pursued further the principle of classifying manuscripts in families, adopted by Richard Simon and J.A. Bengel. (Wikipedia)
Prussian Union (1817)
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768-1834)
Known for emphasizing the significance of the Christian consciousness and religious feeling. His most significant work is Der Christliche Glaube ("The Christian Faith"), the first edition of which was published in 1821-1822.
Pieper on the influence of Schleiermacher (vol. 1, p. 170): "The theology of Germany relinquished Scripture as the Word of God more and more and walked in the footsteps of Schleiermacher, the 'Reformer of the 19th century,' who did not lead the Church and its theology back onto the rock of God's Word, as the Reformer of the 16th century did, but dragged Church and theology into the slough of subjectivism by giving out the slogan that the Christian doctrine must not be drawn out of Scripture, but from the allegedly pious Ego of the theologizing subject, from the 'experienc,' etc. In this slough of subjectivism well-nigh the entire theology of Germany, as far as the public teachers are concerned, is at present floundering."
Tübingen School (mid-1800's to late 1800's)
"Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860) was a German theologian and leader of the Tübingen school of theology (named for University of Tübingen). Following Hegel's theory of dialectic, Baur argued that 2nd century Christianity represented the synthesis of two opposing theses: Jewish Christianity and Pauline Christianity. In the field of higher criticism, he proposed a late date for the pastoral epistles." (Wikipedia)
"The Tübingen School was a theological school which was active in the mid-19th century in Germany. Baur and the scholars who followed him applied Hegelian philosophy to Christian history in order to develop a new understanding about how Christianity developed. According to them, the key to early Christianity was the conflict between Peter, who led a Jewish party and Paul, who led a gentile party. Peter was the thesis while Paul was the antithesis.
"The synthesis, or resolution to the conflict, happened with the development of early Catholic Christianity in the 2nd century. Unfortunately, Baur's influence and ideas did not survive very long after him and the Tübingen School declined very quickly during the late 19th century. What did survive, however, was the idea of explaining the development of early Christianity without references to divine influences or divine mandates. Baur's was a completely naturalistic explanation of Christian development, something which was not tried much before but which has become the standard since.
(About.com)
"Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930) was the most prominent among the Tubingen historians of dogma, teaching in Berlin. As a disciple of Ritschl, he tried to show how Greek ideas had dominated early Christianity ("Hellenization") and how attention had shifted from the teachings of Jesus to his person. Accordingly, the essence of Christianity, the orginal teachings of Jesus, had been buried in a dogmatic, liturgical, and ecclesiastical process, evident in Roman Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy. So Harnack issued a Protestant call for a revival of Christianity according to three essential teachings of Jesus: (1) the reign of God and its coming, (2) God the Father and the infinite value of the human soul, and (3) the higher righteousness and the commandment of love."
(Gritsch, p. 200)
Albrecht Ritschl (1822-1889)
"German Protestant theologian. He taught theology at Bonn (1851-64) and at Göttingen (from 1864). The Ritschlian theology, a reaction against rationalism, was influential in the 19th and early 20th cent. Ritschl held that God could be known only through the revelation contained in the works and person of Jesus. His theology stressed ethics and the community of man and repudiated metaphysics. Ritschl's most characteristic work has been translated as The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation (Vol. I and III, 1872 and 1900). His son Otto Ritschl wrote his biography (2 vol., 1892-96)." (www.infoplease.com)
Ritschl is cited in Pieper (vol. I, p. 154) as the most typical figure of the liberal theological left while Franz Hermann Reinhold von Frank (see below) is the most typical of the liberal theological right.
Confessional Renewal (early to late 1800's)
A renewed emphasis on the Lutheran Confessions, this movement is generally considered to have at least three branches, described in the following three notes: the Repristination Movement, Neo-Lutheranism, and the Erlangen School.
The Repristination Movement (early to late 1800's)
The movement to restore historical Lutheranism in reaction to rationalism and the Prussian Union. The repristination theology group was represented by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, Carl Paul Caspari, Gustav Adolf Theodor Felix Hönecke, Friedrich Adolf Philippi, and C.F.W. Walther.
"The theologians who are opposed to 'doctrinal progress' and 'progressive theology' have been branded 'repristinating theologians,' particularly the so-called Missourians (Preface to Lehre und Wehre, 1875, 1 ff. 33 ff., especially 65 ff.), but also others, for example, Philippi. Referring to Philippi, Hofmann gibes: "Let him who likes to take things easy keep on sleeping' (Schutzschriften, I, p. 2).—See the articles, 'Die falschen Stuetzen der modernen Theorie von den offenen Fragen,' Lehre und Wehre, 1868, 97ff. and 'Die moderne Lehrentwicklungshaeresie,' Lehre und Wehre, 1877, 129ff." (Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Vol. I, p. 129, footnote 182)
Neo-Lutheranism (early to late 1800's)
Closely related to...repristinationism was the Neo-Lutheranism represented by Wilhelm Loehe (1808-72) and August Vilmar (1800-1868). Influenced by German nationalism and the romantic movement, Neo-Lutheranism was a Lutheran churchly revival akin to the Oxford Movement in England. Loehe stressed that the Lutheran church, as defined by its confessions, conformed exactly to the New Testament church. Vilmar stressed the ordained ministry as the means through which Christs works in and through the church. Loehe in particular was widely suspected of crypto-Catholicism because of his liturgical emphasis, his exaltation of the Lord's Supper, and his stress upon the catholic character of Lutheranism and its confessions. (E. Clifford Nelson, Lutherans in North America, page 151)
Erlangen School (mid to late 1800's)
The Erlangen School tried to combine Reformation theology with the new learning. In Tillich's words (in A History of Christian Thought), "Schleiermacher's idea of the religious consciousness was enlarged in significance under the heading of the concept of experience. The religious experience meant everything." Those of the Erlangen School included Franz Hermann Reinhold von Frank, Theodosius Harnack, Franz Delitzsch, Johann Christian Konrad von Hofmann, Karl Friedrich August Kahnis, Christoph Ernst Luthardt and Gottfried Thomasius. Pieper, on page 114 of Vol. I, Section 16, refers to somebody named Ph. Bachmann, as "the last outstanding representative of the Erlangen School."
The Erlangen School regarded the Lutheran Confessions as dynamic, not static.
E. Clifford Nelson in Lutherans in North America, page 151, says, "Unlike the other movements which emerged from the confessional revival, the Erlangen school did not regard the confessions as rigid, inflexible interpretations of the Christian faith but rather as expressions of the religious experience of the church in its conflict with error and its search for truth. The Erlangen school's adherents were, therefore, neither repristinators nor confessional romantics. They held that Christianity is not an inherited doctrine about man's relationship to God, but the relationship itself, i.e., a personal experience of regeneration. Thus, the Erlangen school may be characterized as a theology of organic progress."
Gritsch, p. 201: "The Erlangen school represented the conservative Lutheran elite, defending the inspiration of the Bible, the orthodoxy of the Lutheran Confessions, and personal spiritual experience."
Comments from Pieper: "'The entire dogmatic labor of the Church of the nineteenth century has followed,' as Seeberg points out, 'the guidelines laid down by Schleiermacher" (loc. cit., p. 84). That applies, and particularly so, to what is known as the 'Erlangen Theology.' This school stands squarely and unalterably on the theology of self-assurance. Hofmann declared that the Christian consciousness 'does not look to the Church nor to Scripture for the primary and real certification of its truth, but it rests in itself and has an immediate assurance of the truth; it has within itself the Spirit of God to certify the truth to it.' And Frank says: 'We deal with the central and specific essence of the Christian certainty, where no authority coming from without but the Christian personally determines the ground and validity of his certainty.'" (Christian Dogmatics, Vol. I, Section 16, p. 114)
Franz Hermann Reinhold von Frank (1827-1894)
Toward the end of the 19th century, von Frank, likewise a Lutheran of Erlangen, continued along the path set forth by Hofmann, but not without modifications. For he teaches the causative authority of Scripture Hofmann denies. According to Frank, the Scriptures create the subjective consciousness of being reborn which, in turn, lets one believe that the Scriptures are indeed God's Word. This fides divina (faith in God's Word of the bible caused by the Holy Spirit) in the Scriptures is mediated by the fides humana (faith caused by historical and rational arguments for the Scriptures); chief among these historical arguments for the Scriptures as God's word is their continued presence, use, and authority in the church.
"Frank criticizes the historical criticism of his age by pointing out that it focuses exclusively on the 'human side' of Scripture which prevents it from seeing the dual nature of Scripture, its human and divine aspects, together. He agrees, on the other hand, with the critical description of the NT as part of the apostolic proclamation. This grants, even strictly historically speaking, preeminence to the documents contained in the NT.
"Due to his historical approach he rejects any preconceived notions of 'inerrancy' or 'infallibility' of God's word. The 'development' of this doctrine has to be understood out of its historical context, that is, the opposition between the Protestant reformers and the Roman church. 'Infallible' thus describes merely what they experienced as infallible, that is, the gospel and everything necessary for salvation, not simply the whole content of Scripture.
("19th and 20th Centuries" from www.lutheranwiki.org)