History
Complete Confessions of Faith
Complete guide to Protestant confessions — Lutheran, Reformed, Presbyterian, Anglican.
Complete Confessions of Faith.
A confession of faith is a formal doctrinal document expressing the beliefs of a church or community. The great Protestant confessions of the 16th and 17th centuries form the doctrinal basis of the major denominations.
| Confession | Date | Tradition | Key Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Augsburg Confession (CA) | 1530 | Lutheran | 2 marks of the Church (art. VII), justification, sacraments. Melanchthon. |
| Helvetic Confession I | 1536 | Swiss Reformed | First Swiss Reformed confession — basis for later Reformed confessions. |
| Gallican Confession | 1559 | French Reformed | Calvin's influence. Basis of the French Reformed Church. |
| Belgic Confession | 1561 | Dutch Reformed | Guido de Brès. TULIP, Reformed ecclesiology. |
| Heidelberg Catechism | 1563 | Reformed (Palatinate) | Q&A format. Comfort in life and death. Widely used worldwide. |
| Westminster Confession | 1647 | Presbyterian | Scottish/English Presbyterianism. TULIP + covenant theology. |
📜 CA VII
What are the two marks of the true Church per CA VII?
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Pure preaching of the Gospel + correct administration of the sacraments. Unity of rites is NOT necessary. Augsburg, 1530.
📖 Heidelberg
What is the Heidelberg Catechism (1563)?
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Reformed confessional document in Q&A format from the Palatinate. Key question: "What is your only comfort in life and death?" — Answer: belonging to Christ.
🏛 Westminster
What is the Westminster Confession (1647)?
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Confession of Scottish/English Presbyterianism. TULIP + covenant theology. Basis of world Presbyterianism.
Pour définir la foi réformée, instruire les fidèles, et unifier les Églises doctrinalement. Normatives mais secondaires — soumises à l'Écriture.
Complete Confessions of Faith
1 questions
Q1/1
What is the first Lutheran confession?
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The Augsburg Confession (CA, 1530) is the first systematic Lutheran confession.Score
Foundational distinction: ancient symbols and Protestant confessions
The history of normative texts of the Christian faith is structured around a foundational conceptual distinction that must be understood to avoid confusing two very different literary and theological genres:
The two categories not to be confused
- The ancient ecumenical symbols (the first creeds of faith) — produced in the first four centuries of the Church (2nd–5th c.) before any structuring schism. They are received in common by Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and the vast majority of Protestants. They are christological and trinitarian texts, structured around the baptismal profession of faith. They are not confessional in a denominational sense but ecclesial in a universal sense.
- Apostles' Creed (final form 8th c., roots 2nd–4th c.)
- Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (325, completed 381)
- Athanasian Creed or Quicumque vult (5th–6th c.)
- Definition of Chalcedon (451) — christological key
- The Protestant confessions of faith — produced from the 16th century Reformation to define the specific doctrinal identity of each Protestant tradition vis-à-vis Catholicism and other Protestant branches. These are denominational texts in a strong sense, binding only on the Churches that receive them.
- Lutheran confessions (1530–1580) — Augsburg, Apology, Smalcald Articles, Small and Large Catechism, Formula of Concord 1577; gathered in the Liber Concordiae (1580)
- Reformed confessions — Helvetic (1536, 1566), Gallican (1559/1571), Belgic (1561), Heidelberg (1563), Dort (1618–1619), Westminster (1647)
- Anglican confessions — XXXIX Articles (1571), Catechism of the Book of Common Prayer
- Anabaptist confessions — Schleitheim (1527), Dordrecht (1632), London Baptist Confession (1689)
- Methodist confessions — XXV Articles of John Wesley (1784)
Structural distinction: the ancient symbols are texts that are ecclesiologically universal — they define what a Christian is tout court. The Protestant confessions are ecclesiologically particular texts — they define what a Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Anabaptist or Methodist Christian is. Protestant theology therefore receives two different corpora: ancient symbols as norma normata (valid for all, subject to Scripture) and Protestant confessions as norma normata particularis (valid only for their tradition).
📚 Further reading
Key references
📚 Key Theological Terms
Sola Scriptura
lat. — Scripture alone
Scripture is the supreme norm for doctrine and practice — self-sufficient and clear. Against the Catholic co-normativity of Scripture and Tradition.
Rm 15:4 ; 2 Tim 3:16Justification
Gk. δικαίωσις
The act by which God declares the sinner righteous through faith in Christ. The theological heart of Protestantism. Forensic (Protestant) vs. transformative (Catholic).
Rm 3:28 ; Gal 2:16Grace
lat. gratia
God's free favor toward sinners. Sola gratia: salvation is entirely God's gift, not human merit. Eph 2:8-9.
Eph 2:8-9 ; Rm 11:6Bibliography / Bibliographie / Bibliografia
Reformation confessions -- primary sources
- Augsburg Confession (1530). BC.
- Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1531). BC.
- Smalcald Articles (1537). BC. LW 41.
- Formula of Concord (1577). BC.
- Heidelberg Catechism (1563). Schaff III.
- Second Helvetic Confession (1566). Schaff III.
- French Confession (La Rochelle, 1559). Schaff III.
- Scots Confession (1560). Schaff III.
- Belgic Confession (1561). Schaff III.
- Canons of Dort (1619). Schaff III.
- Westminster Confession (1647). Schaff III.
Catechisms
- Luther's Small Catechism (1529). BC.
- Luther's Large Catechism (1529). BC.
- Calvin. Catechism of Geneva (1542/1545). CO 6.
- Roman Catechism (1566).
- Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992).
- Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms (1648).
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