# Body of Doctrine

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Key figuresMissionaries
John Campanius
Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg
Hans Egede
Johann Heinrich Callenberg
Johann Phillip Fabricius
Paul Henkel
John Christian Frederick Heyer
Karl Graul
Martti Rautanen
Wilhelm Sihler
F. C. D. Wyneken
Hans Paludan Smith Schreuder
Lars Olsen Skrefsrud
Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen
Onesimos Nesib
Paul Olaf Bodding
Johann Flierl
Christian Keyser
Jens Christensen
Bible Translators
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Kjell Magne Yri
Onesimos Nesib
Aster Ganno
Kristian Osvald Viderø
Jákup Dahl
Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg
Johann Phillip Fabricius
William Tyndale
John Rogers
George Constantine
Jozef Roháček
Johannes Avetaranian
Guðbrandur Þorláksson
Ludvig Olsen Fossum
Hans Egede / Paul Egede
Otto Fabricius
Nils Vibe Stockfleth
Olaus Petri / Laurentius Petri
Martti Rautanen
Primož Trubar
Jurij Dalmatin
Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen
Sebastian Krelj
Mikael Agricola
Norwegian Bible Society
Swedish Bible Society
Samuel Ludwik Zasadius
Stanislovas Rapolionis
Laurentius Andreae
Hans Tausen
Olaf M. Norlie
Jonas Bretkūnas
Hans Paludan Smith Schreuder
Antonio Brucioli
Mikołaj Jakubica
Matthias Bel
Johann Ernst Glück
William F. Beck
Theologians
Martin Luther / Katharina von Bora
Philip Melanchthon
Johannes Bugenhagen
Johannes Brenz
Justus Jonas
Hans Tausen
Laurentius Petri
Olaus Petri
Mikael Agricola
Matthias Flacius
Martin Chemnitz
Johann Gerhard
Abraham Calovius
Johannes Andreas Quenstedt
Johann Wilhelm Baier
Philipp Spener
David Hollaz
August Hermann Francke
Henry Muhlenberg
Lars Levi Laestadius
Charles Porterfield Krauth
C. F. W. Walther
Søren Kierkegaard
Albrecht Ritschl
Wilhelm Herrmann
F. W. Stellhorn
Rudolf Otto
Ernst Troeltsch
Rudolf Bultmann
Paul Tillich
Hermann Sasse
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Robert Jenson :
vte :
Body of Doctrine (Latin: Corpus doctrinae) in Protestant theology of the 16th and 17th centuries is the anthology of the confessional or credal writings of a group of Christians with a common confession of faith.
It was a term first used by Philipp Melanchthon, a collection of whose confessional writings was published as the Corpus Doctrinae Philippicum or the Corpus Doctrinae Misnicum. Melanchthon had conceived the notion of assembling his most important theological writings, along with the ecumenical creeds, into a single book called a corpus doctrinae, or body of doctrine. The Leipzig printer, Ernst Vögelin, published it with Melanchthon's preface around the time of the reformer's death in April 1560.
These writings were used as the normative proclamation and teaching of that group or denomination of Christians. For Lutheranism in the mid—16th century these anthologies were formulated for the various duchies and principalities of the Holy Roman Empire. They were the prototype of the Book of Concord, which historically is considered by Lutherans to be their definitive Body of Doctrine. However, because some of the corpera doctrinæ were considered to be faulty and to avoid confusion of the Book of Concord with the Corpus doctrinæ Philippicum, the compilers of the Book of Concord deliberately refrained from using the designation corpus doctrinæ for it.