Epitomes as Interpretations, Teaching Tools, and Rules of Faith

Abstract

Abstract:The genre of the epitome, a digest or summary of a larger work or body of information, served all late medieval and early modern academic disciplines as a form for conveying material in a form easier to learn, master, and put to use. Epitomes served the Wittenberg Reformation in this way. This essay examines different types of this genre. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, the Epitome of the Formula of Concord, and the index of Johann Aurifaber’s printed edition of Luther’s Tischreden, designed as other indices of the time to guide readers to the proper use of the document, can serve as examples of how the authors of these three documents strove to provide a basic guide to proper biblical teaching for application in the life of the church. Epitomes were thus not mere summaries, but had a theological and at the same time didactic purpose.