“The conception of the Evangelical Lutheran church proceeds from the inward spiritual essence of the church, as a communion of faith, love, the Holy Ghost, knit together by means of the word of God and the sacraments, but which also forms itself into a body in an outward manifestation.

“In this outward manifestation, she is to be recognized by word and sacrament, as the outward conditions of what is within, and by confession, whose purity and unity, as in the case of word and sacrament, suffice for the true unity of the church.

“Thus there is a visible-invisible, an invisible-visible church, of which the visible is the manifestation, as the condition of the invisible.” — Heinrich Guericke

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate: Some subject matter knowledge helpful.

Book Contents

• Of The Church In General: The Lutheran View, Romish, Reformed.
  • Translator’s note.
  • The Roman and Greek View
  • Zwingli and Calvin
  • The Arminian and Socinian Views
  • Mennonites and Quakers
  • The Swedenborgian View

Publication Information

• Lutheran Library edition first published: 2020
• Copyright: CC BY 4.0