The Reformation and
Confessions
Conditions
in the sixteenth century were ripe for the composition of confessions. The
publications of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and other Reformation leaders had
brought momentous theological questions to the fore. When entire communities,
or just the leaders, turned to their teachings, an immediate demand arose for
uncomplicated yet authoritative statements of the new faith. The leading
Reformers were also deeply involved in the day-to-day life of the churches
where they sensed the uneasiness of the people, whether at the abuses of Rome
or at their own innovations. And they early on saw the necessity for brief
theological summaries that all could understand.
In
addition, the very nature of the Reformation and the very character of the
sixteenth century greatly stimulated the urge to write confessions. The
Reformers posed Scripture as the ultimate authority for all of life, even if
this undercut received Catholic tradition. They spoke of the priesthood of
believers and the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit, in spite of the fact
that these teachings called the pronouncements of Rome's infallible magisterium
into question. The Reformers also challenged Catholic influence in the state.
They proposed a new reading of history to support their own push for reform.
And they had a passion for restoring the NT purity of Christian belief and
practice. Yet every assault on an established belief and every challenge to a
traditional practice called for a rationale, a concise statement of the reasons
for change.
It
was not, however, merely in the religious sphere that change prepared the way
for newer confessions of faith. Europe in general was passing through a period
of rapid evolution. Virtually every support for traditional Roman Catholic
belief was then under fire. If the Reformers challenged Catholic interference
in the state and Catholic involvement in the economy, so too did monarchs of
the new nation-states question the church's traditional political role, and the
burgeoning class of merchants challenged its accustomed authority in the world
of trade. If Luther and Calvin called upon Rome to rethink its interpretation
of Scripture, so too did leaders of the Renaissance challenge other
intellectual traditions in art, political theory, literature, and history. If the
Reformation raised troubling questions in theology, so too had several
generations of academicians raised troubling issues in philosophy. In short,
the world of the sixteenth century needed new statements of Christian belief
not just to reorient Christian life, but to reposition Christianity itself
within the forces of early modern Europe.