Theological Recoveries

he Reformation was not merely a response against clerical abuses but a profound recovery of several core doctrines of the Christian faith.

The Reformers did not regard these doctrines as novelties. They insisted they were reclaiming what the apostles had taught and the early church had confessed, long buried beneath centuries of accretion. Once recovered, those doctrines had to be worked out, defended, and debated, and Protestants did not always agree among themselves. The first list below gathers the recoveries; the second gathers the controversies that followed from them.

Table of Contents

Doctrines the Reformers recovered from Scripture:

  1. The Five Solas
  2. The Authority of Scripture
  3. Justification by Faith Alone
  4. Law and Gospel
  5. Theology of the Cross
  6. Union with Christ and the Double Grace
  7. The Priesthood of All Believers
  8. Vocation
  9. The Primacy of Preaching
  10. The Sacraments
  11. Church Discipline
  12. Gospel Missions

Debates and controversies, within the Reformation and after it:

  1. Lutheran versus Reformed
  2. The Freedom of the Human Will
    1. The Bondage of the Will (Luther, 1525)
    2. Free or Fettered?
  3. Sovereignty and Responsibility
  4. Arminianism
  5. Calvinism and Arminianism
  6. Atonement Differences
  7. The Five Points of Calvinism

Legacy Next: Law and Gospel