The Book of Concord

Commissioned in 1993, the print edition of this translation of The Book of Concord (which is the basis for the electronic version) brings a new generation of scholarship and sensitivities to bear on the foundational texts of Lutheran identity. The fifth English translation since 1851, the print edition succeeds that edited by Theodore Tappert published in 1959 by Muhlenburg Press.

A review of the text in light of a mountain of new scholarship and other factors dictated the new translation and apparatus, including changes in the English language over the past forty years, differences in the training and preparation of seminarians and pastors, limitations in the introductions and annotations to the various parts of the book, new knowledge of the history and theology of these very documents, and the occasional error in Tappert’s translation. Also included in this edition is the English translation of the Latin text of The Augsburg Confession.

Kolb and Wengert’s team of leading Reformation historians was augmented by consultation with one hundred other scholars and teachers who use The Book of Concord continually, and two other teams of scholars who have reviewed the translations.