Old Believers' Statements on the Confessio Augustana (1530-1560). Attempts at Consensus and Confession-Building Demarcation Processes between the Imperial Diet of Augsburg and the Council of Trent

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Ulli Roth; Professor Dr. Klaus Unterburger
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology ; Protestant Theology ; Early Modern History
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 537442638

The Confessio Augustana, which was presented to the Emperor at the Imperial Diet on 25 June 1530 in the name of the Elector of Saxony and other estates, has developed into the most important identity-forming confessional document of Lutheranism (and other Protestant churches) to this day. Initially, it was a consensus document intended to preserve the unity of faith with the "catholic" part at the Imperial Diet; later, however, the updating of the CA and the recourse to it also served the purpose of confessional demarcation. Its interpretation and updating, however, developed in dialogue and debate, especially with the "catholic" theologians, who have repeatedly commented on it since 1530. However, these statements have rarely been used by researchers and have never been comprehensively evaluated. Not only can they be used as a seismograph to more precisely outline the processes of Catholic confessional formation and to trace the development of central theological loci in the history of theology in the period up to the Council of Trent, but they can also be used as a basis for the development of theology in the period up to the Council of Trent. Furthermore, they offer important material that provides the counterpart to the continuation and interpretation of the CA by Melanchthon and Luther and in Protestantism as a whole. In addition, they are particularly interesting in terms of ecumenical history, since in a phase in which the parties had not yet finally solidified into sharply contoured, opposing blocs, consensus and ecclesiological ideas of unity, misunderstandings, church-dividing and conversely tolerable differences were at least indirectly negotiated in them. In order to finally make these important texts, some of which are unprinted, some in early modern prints and in scattered editions, available to researchers in a convenient to evaluate these texts, the project would like to carry out a professional edition (Latin/German) of the theological reports and a scientific study that does not only evaluate individual aspects or individual texts. Both publications should close an important research gap and help to better understand the processes of confessional formation in general, but especially the pre-Tridentine Catholic theology. Likewise, the research project will help to better understand the Confessio Augustana and ist early interpretation and continuation in Lutheranism, as the position of the “catholic” participants in the discourse will come into view.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants