# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1855_S148
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

148 On the Original Form of the Small Catechism, etc.

of faith only called it justification by works because in this way he could most decisively convict lazy Christians, put them most deeply to shame, and rebuff them most emphatically; finally, the concern that by using the expression “justification by works” he might violate the form of sound words could not have occurred to him at all, since the restriction of the word “justification” in Christian instruction to the doctrine of faith arose only later, when this doctrine, in opposition to doctrines of works, received the firm and terminologically settled form of a church doctrine. The rest of the content of the epistle does not contradict in a single word this result of our interpretation of James 2:20–26, even if statements such as chapter 1:25 prompt us to investigate James’s doctrine of Law and Gospel. James’s conduct at the assembly of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem testifies throughout in favor of our interpretation; Acts 15. He is no more responsible for what those who came from James did in Antioch, Galatians 2:12, than Paul is for the words and deeds of those in Corinth who called themselves Pauline. His manner of teaching is distinctive; it is precisely that of James, just as Paul, John, and the other holy writers have their own distinctive manners of teaching. His discourse also necessarily had to sound quite different from Paul’s, since he was addressing people who were the exact opposite of those to whom Paul writes, for example, in the epistles to the Romans or the Galatians. Yet differing manners of teaching and differing tones of preaching in the Church never disturb the agreement of faith and doctrine; rather, under God’s wondrous governance, they must serve to make all the strings of the divine Word resound together in the heavenly harmony of the Gospel.

(Submitted by Pastor Keyl.)

On the Original Form of Dr. Luther’s Small Catechism

(Continuation and conclusion.)

The first part of this essay deals with the history of the Small Catechism; the second will now contain a comparison of its original form with the later editions.

The title of the first edition designated the Small Catechism for Christian heads of households to instruct their servants; but already in the second edition, which appeared in the same year (1529), the heading Enchiridion (Handbook) is found, together with the statement that it was intended for parish pastors and preachers, and all subsequent editions also bear this title. The headings of the individual parts, however, read consistently from the first edition onward as follows: “How the head of a household should the same