emphasis which she was compelled to place upon distinctive doctrine as a
bond of fellowship accounts for the maintenance of standards which were
not required in the early history of our Church when the seventh article
of the Augustana was presented.

Those were famous battles which were fought in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries in defence of the Lutheran position. Our Church
had to contend with two 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