Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Sheet 535
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Sheet 535

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

504 “WHAT IS A DOCTRINE?”

tion of the sacraments.” !* That this is the correct under-
standing is indicated by the preceding sentence: “The
church is the assembly of saints in which the Gospel
is taught purely [pure docetur] and the sacraments are
administered rightly.” That doctrina evangelii refers to
the public teaching of the Gospel is also shown by-the
German text, accurately translated as follows:

For it is sufficient for the true unity of the Christian

church that the Gospel be preached in conformity with

a pure understanding of it and that the sacraments be

administered in accordance with the divine Word.!"

The Lutheran Confessions also know a usage of the
term “doctrine” as a summing up of the total doctrine
confessed by the Lutheran Church. The following state-
ment of the Formula of Concord illustrates this usage:

The primary requirement for basic and permanent con-
cord within the church is a summary formula and pattern,
unanimously approved, in which the summarized doc-
trine commonly confessed by the churches of the pure
Christian religion is drawn together out of the Word of
God. For this same purpose the ancient church always
had its dependable symbols. It based these not on mere
private writings, but on such books as had been written,
approved, and accepted in the name of those churches
which confessed the same doctrine and religion. In the
same way we have from our hearts and with our mouths
declared in mutual agreement that we shall neither pre-
pare nor accept a different or a new confession of our
faith, Rather, we pledge ourselves again to those public
and well-known symbols or common confessions which
have at all times and in all places been accepted in all
the churches of the Augsburg Confession. .. .!7

The Lutheran Confessions do not use the term “doc-
trine” in precisely the same way it is used in the ques-
tion “What Is a Doctrine?” They often use “doctrine”
in its general meaning as “that which comes from the
teacher,” or “instruction,” whether it be true or false,
pure or adulterated. Frequently they employ the term
to sum up the total Christian doctrine viewed as one
grand whole.

When the Lutheran Confessions wish to divide the
Christian doctrine into logical or convenient parts, they
use the term “articles of faith.” or simply “articles.”
Sometimes they use the term “locus” instead of “article.”
It may be noted that the Tappert edition of the confes-
sions sometimes translates the singular forms doctrina
and Lehre with the plural “doctrines.” This may be
illustrated by the following passage:

Tappert Latin German

This is just about Haec fere summa. Dies ist fast die
a summary of the est doctrinae apud Summa der Leh-
doctrines that nos, ete. re. welche in un-
are preached and seren Kirchen ..
taught in our gepredigt und ge-
churches, etc. lehrt ist; ete.!5

The reader of the Lutheran Confessions cannot help
15 Augsburg Confession, VII, 2: Tappert, p. 32 (from the Latin).
Te Ibid.

17 Formula of Concord, Solid Deciaration, The Summary Form-
ulation, etc., 1—2; Tappert, p. 503.

18 Augsburg Confession, conclusion to Articles I—XXI, Tappert,
p.47. See also Apology IV, 5, where the Tappert edition (p. 108)
uses ‘doctrines’ to translate locos; the German text has Stiick. In
Apology IV, 2, the Tappert edition (p.107) uses ‘the main doctrine
of Christianity” to translate the Latin praecipuus locus doctrinae
christianae; the German text has dem héchsten fiirnehmsten Artikel
der ganzen christlichen Lehre.

noting that the Confessions, which present a summary
of what Lutherans believe and teach, are themselves
divided into articles, not so much to divide the doctrine
into its logical parts as to relate the religious issues of
the day to the one Christian doctrine.

The usage of the term “doctrine” as it is found in
the question “What Is a Doctrine?” does not come from
the New Testament or the Lutheran Confessions but
from the dogmaticians of the 17th century.

D. “Doctrine” in the Lutheran Dogmaticians

The Lutheran confessors stated as briefly as the situ-
ation permitted what was believed, taught. and confessed
in their churches. From the close of the confessional
period in 1580 to the beginning of the 18th century, Lu-
theran theologians like Chemnitz. Gerhard, Quenstedt,
Hollaz. and Baier carried out the task of explaining and
systematizing the Christian doctrine held and confessed
in the Lutheran Church. Their dogmatic works were
precisely written and sometimes numbered thousands
of pages.

With the growth of dogmatic materials, the dog-
maticians began to divide and classify them more and
more. Although they continued to employ “articles”
and “articles of faith’ as the major divisions of the
Christian doctrine, they also began to speak of “doc-
trines.” Quenstedt, for example, distinguishes between
“moral doctrines” and “doctrines of faith.” He writes:

The subjects with which the articles of faith are occupied

are ta pista, the credenda, the things to be believed as

such. For a distinction must here be made between the
historical and the dogmatical, and between the moral doc-
trines, which teach what is to be done or avoided, and the
doctrines of faith, which treat of what is to be believed
or not believed.19
Sometimes the terms “doctrine” and “article of faith"
were used interchangeably, although they never became
precise synonyms. In the understanding of the dogma-
ticians, all articles of faith are doctrines, but not all
doctrines are articles of faith. Gerhard explains that
not all matters contained in Scripture are articles of
faith, since the latter comprise “only those doctrines
the knowledge of which is necessary to salvation.” %

The use of “doctrines” to denote parts of the Chris-
tian doctrine continued to be employed in Lutheran
dogmatic theology. Heinrich Schmid, the early 19th-
century student of 17th-century Lutheranism, reflects
this usage. In his treatment of the Biblical material
concerning God, for example, he writes:

The chief design of the creation of man, and that of
revelation also, is, that God may be known. Theology,
therefore. must begin with the doctrine concerning God.

The doctrine concerning God may be divided into
(1) The doctrine of the existence, the nature, and the
attributes of God. (2) The doctrine of the particular
manner in which God subsists, i. e., the doctrine of God as
triune. (3) The doctrine of the works of God, ie., of

Creation. (4) The doctrine of the manner in which God
preserves His works and cares for them, i.e., the doctrine

19 Johann Andreas Quenstedt, Theologia Didactico Polemica
I, 241, as quoted in Heinrich Schmid, The Doctrinal Theology of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church, trans. Charles A. Hay and Henry E.
Jacobs (Philadelphia, 1899), p. 93.

20 Ibid., p. 94.