Claus Harms - 95 Theses

Those who know much of anything about 19th century Lutheran Church History know that this work is the initial flowering of the renewal of confessional Lutheranism.  It deliberately is patterned after and echos Martin Luther's 95 of three hundred years earlier, and Pastor Harm's call for confession was heard by many.  It is a clear call to return to Lutheran destictives, especially against Rationalism and the government forced union between Lutheran and Reformed.  Most of the detailed critique is against Rationalism, as well as a bible version that frankly, I had never heard of before.  With regard to the Lutheran vs. Reformed discussion, his primary message seems to be that there are differences rather than any detailed discussion of these differences.  But this is the wake up call without which it would be very difficult to understand much of Lutheranism since then.

The Source of this translation is the Lutheran Wiki at http://www.lutheranwiki.org/The_95_Theses_of_Claus_Harms ,  I have done some light editing of spelling and capitalization to something that makes better sense to me.  I have not consulted any German versions to check how faithful the translation is, but rather am just presenting it as given there.

As a side note, I recommend that you check out the Bethel Confessions hosted there.  Copyright prevents me from making and distributing editions of them, however.

SDG

Ken McGuire