Confissão de Augsburgo: a confissão da fé em Cristo

Abstract

To what extent is the Augsburg Confession (AC) and its content a response of faith in Jesus Christ? This thesis intends to oppose the tendencies of research on the Lutheran confessionality only in festive jubilee moments of the Protestant Reformation. This descriptive bibliographic work has as main objective to investigate the Christocentricity of the AC. We will do so in three moments: when we describe the historical context in which the AC was written; when we investigate central theological aspects of the AC and at a last moment when we investigate Christocentric aspects of this Lutheran confession of faith. In the first chapter, we will analyze historical aspects of the Protestant Reformation as a religious response to a collective anguish, in the context of the writing and proclamation of the Confession in Augsburg. In addition, we will present central characters of this historical moment such as the main editor of the AC Philip Melanchthon, the reformer and friend Luther and the Emperor Charles V, who convened the Imperial Assembly where the Confession was presented. In the second chapter, it will be possible to know the structure of the AC, themes of divergence between Catholic and Lutheran theologians, attempts at negotiation and the search for unity, as well as essential theological themes. The third chapter, based on the discovery of justification by faith as a central theme of the Reformation, will present Christocentric aspects of the Augsburg Confession in correlation with some of Luther's writings. The Confession as an affirmation of the authority of Scripture, which bears witness to Christ alone. The Reformation and the Lutheran confession of faith brought to consciences tormented by the anguish of death the answer of God's grace and mercy. The AC represents an “act” and a “content”, simultaneously a response and an announcement. It is the proclamation of Christ, from whom the person receives salvation by faith, without merit of their own.