Melanchthon and Tradition

Melanchthon was perhaps the most radical of the Reformers in his early willingness to exclude not only traditionary language but also older dogmas from the essentials of the faith. In the 1521 edition of his Loci communes, Melanchthon could polemicize against the introduction of non-biblical categories such as trinitarian vocabulary into the standard or basic loci of Christian theology, while the Schwabach Articles introduce the standard creedal vocabulary of the essence and persons of the Godhead, and the Augsburg Confession offers explicit reference to “the decree of the Nicene Synod,” which is “without doubt to be believed.” As subsequent editions of the Loci communes demonstrate, Melanchthon quickly recognized the need to offer an explicit and fully developed doctrines of the Trinity, grounded in examination of texts in both Testaments.

 

Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy; Volume 4: The Triunity of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 64.