The Encyclopedia of Protestantism: Volume 2 D–K
References and Further Reading
Eells, Hastings. The Attitude of Martin Bucer Toward the Bigamy of Philip of Hesse. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1924; London: Oxford University Press, 1924.
Ellingsen, Mark. The Cutting Edge: How Churches Speak on Social Issues. Geneva, Switzerland: WCC Publications and Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, for the Institute for Ecumenical Research, Strasbourg, France, 1993, esp. pp. 80–86.
Guerry, Edward B. The Historic Principle of the Indissolubility of Marriage: According to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Anglican Communion. Sewanee, TN: University Press, University of the South, 1953.
Johnson, James Turner. A Society Ordained by God: English Puritan Marriage Doctrine in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Abingdon Press, 1970.
Kingdon, Robert M.
Adultery and Divorce in Calvin’s Geneva. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Phillips, Roderick. Putting Asunder: A History of Divorce in Western Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Safley, Thomas Max. Let No Man Put Asunder: The Control of Marriage in the German Southwest. A Comparative Study, 1550–1600. Kirksville, MO: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1984.
Winnett, Arthur Robert. Divorce and Remarriage in Anglicanism. London: Macmillan, 1958.
See also doctrinal statements posted on denominational websites.
KAREN B.WESTERFIELD TUCKER
Doctrine, meaning teaching, is an elastic term: its range of use extends from the most solemn determination of ecumenical councils concerning indispensable dogma (“the doctrine of the Trinity”) through a body of tenets and beliefs characteristic of one ecclesiastical community (“reformed doctrine”) to the views of a single theologian on a particular topic (“Pannenberg’s doctrine of the last things”).
The sixteenth-century reformers sought to purify the Western Church from inherited accretions and distortions, and to concentrate, correctively and positively, on the essentials of the Gospel. In the face of tradition their formal principle of doctrine was Scripture, even though “sola Scriptura” as a formula may belong to later generations of Protestant ORTHODOXY. In the face of SALVATION as human achievement, the Reformers’ material principle of doctrine was salvation as divine gift, solely on the merits of Christ (propter Christum solum), sheerly by GRACE (sola gratia), received through FAITH alone (sola fide); these are the “exclusive particles” of which the Lutheran Formula of Concord (1580) speaks in connection with “the righteousness of faith before God” (Epitome, III.7; Solid Declaration, III).
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