vigorous foes in the statement of her doctrines,
Rome and Reform. The antinomian and synergistic controversies, Osiander,
Major and Flacius, the Philippists and the Crypto-Calvinists are names
that still remind us of the theological carnage of the sixteenth
century.

In the seventeenth century came the reign of the dogmaticians. The
eighteenth century was the age of Pietism and this was followed by
Rationalism. The scope of this Introduction does not require us to
explain the significance of these movements. Students of Church History
are familiar with them.

The revival of spiritual life at the beginning of the nineteenth century
brought with it also a revival of church consciousness and a restoration
of the confession of the church. Both in Europe and in America the
attempt has been made to secure the unity of the church on the basis of
subscription to the various Symbols included in the Book of Concord.
These Symbols, besides the Ecumenical Creeds and the Augsburg
Confession, are Melanchthon's Apology, that is Defence of the Augsburg
Confession, Luther's two Catechisms, the Smalcald Articles and the
Formula of Concord. The later Confessions supplement and explain the
statements of the Augsburg Confession. As such they are valuable
exponents of Lutheran teaching. Many of our churches in Europe as well
as in America require of their ministers subscription to these
Confessions. At the same time it is also true that many churches, whose
Lutheranism cannot be impugned, find in the Augsburg Confession an
adequate expression of their doctrinal position.

According to the Confessors of Augsburg: "For the true unity of the
church it is sufficient to agree concerning the doctrines of the
Gospel."

It would seem, therefore, to be in harmony with the spirit of
Lutheranism to make "the confession of the churches" rather than "the
Confessions of the Church" the bond of union. Underneath the Confessions
there are distinctive principles differentiating us from the sacerdotal
churches on the one hand and from the Reformed churches on the other
hand.

The soul of the Confessions is the confession, and this soul we may
recognize amid all the changes that take place in the course of time
and the progress of thought. It reveals itself in innumerable forms, in
sermons and in sacred song, and above all in the sanctified lives of
those who confess the faith.

In conversation with an eminent teacher in one of our most conservative