In the Lutheran symbolical books, there are two main threads concerning repentance. First of them is present mainly in “The Augsburg Confession”, its “Apology” and “The Smalcald Articles”, it is also confirmed in “The Formula of Concord”. It combines repentance with preaching the Law and Gospel. Preaching of the first leads to contrition, which, thanks to the preaching of the Gospel, is followed by faith. The second thread is present mainly in Luther’s Catechisms and “The Smalcald Articles”, as well as in “The Formula of Concord”. In it, repentance is considered to be an everyday actualisation of baptism in a believer’s daily life, in which the old, sinful Adam is removed and a new man comes into being. In both threads repentance is presented as the result of the Holy Spirit’s work in a man.
Confession, understood as confession and forgiveness of sins, is one of the most interesting phenomena of the church. The article presents the results of research concerning the confession at the time of the Reformation, theology of the Lutheran symbolical books in particular. The dynamics of Luther’s and Melanchthon’s theological reflection on the role, form and the person of the administrator of confession was shown. Confession’s functions as a necessary condition for preparing the believers for participation in the Lord’s Supper and a significant factor in pastoral work were also brought into focus. The author reminds that the Reformation restored the rite of general confession to the church, without resigning from the individual confession, the course of which was reconstructed based on the “Small Catechism” and Lutheran iconography from the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.