Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-332) and indexes.

Introduction: The Book of Concord, a confessing of the faith -- Part 1. The ecumenical creeds. A history of the ancient creedal texts : Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian -- The theological contributions of the ancient creeds -- Part 2. The Wittenberg confessions, Luther's and Melanchthon's confessions of the faith. Luther's Small and Large catechisms -- The Augsburg confession -- The Apology of the Augsburg confession -- The Smalcald articles and the Treatise on the power and primacy of the Pope -- Part 3. The Formula of Concord. Theological tensions among Luther's followers before his death -- The "culture of controversy" : the Smalcald War, the "Interims," and the adiaphoristic controversy -- The Majoristic and "antinomian" controversies -- The synergistic controversies, the controversy over original sin, and the doctrine of election in the late Reformation -- The Osiandrian controversy over the righteousness that avails before God -- The controversies over the Lord's Supper and christology -- Efforts at attaining concord, 1552-1569 -- Jakob Andreae's drive for Lutheran unity and the composition of the Formula of Concord and the Book of Concord -- Reactions to the Formula of Concord in the 1580s.