Confessional writings of the Lutheran Church and other information essential to understanding the confessions.

The most up-to-date English commentary on the Formula of Concord, A Formula for Parish Practice provides helpful, concise descriptions of key theological debates and a unique weaving of historical and textual commentary with modern Lutheran experience. Covering the entire Formula of Concord the book includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter.

With clarity and authority, The Formula of Concord defines the doctrine of the Lutheran Church. This is a statement of what makes Lutheranism distinct from other denominations -- why the Church teaches what she teaches. Controversies and issues that trouble Christians are resolved here. Questions about what we "believe, teach, and confess" are answered here. The core of the Lutheran faith is pesented in the Epitome, a summary of the Church's twelve articles of faith, and in the Solid Declaration, a lengthier explanation of those articles. Together, these timeless documents provide readers with an overview of the Lutheran Confessions for the purpse of strengtheing their theology and conviction.

Galvanized by Erasmus' teaching on free will, Martin Luther wrote "De servo arbitrio", or "The Bondage of the Will", insisting that the sinful human will could not turn itself to God. In this first study to investigate the sixteenth-century reception of "De servo", Robert Kolb unpacks Luther's theology and recounts his followers' ensuing disputes until their resolution in the Lutheran churches' 1577 "Formula of Concord".