A Christian and Necessary Defense against the Slander of the Flacians

The controversy over good works was among the most bitter disputes to divide the Lutheran Church after the death of Martin Luther.

At the Altenburg Colloquy of 1568–1569, theologians who shared the same confession nevertheless confronted one another as adversaries, disputing how the necessity of good works could, and could not, be expressed without compromising justification by faith alone.

This volume presents both sides of that conflict. Johann Wigand, Johann Friedrich Coelestin, and Timotheus Kirchner set forth the accusations of the Jena theologians. Nicolaus Selnecker answers them in his Christian and Necessary Defense, together with his reply to Coelestin and additional materials preserved in the original edition.

Selnecker, later one of the principal authors of the Formula of Concord, defends his doctrine, reputation, and fellow churchmen against charges of Majorism and error. His vigorous response reveals the theological substance and personal cost of the struggle to preserve Lutheran unity.

Presented in English with a substantial historical introduction and explanatory annotations, these writings allow readers to hear the disputants in their own words and to see more clearly the crisis from which the Formula of Concord emerged.