Justification: post-750 development

Each tradition is measured against the patristic verdicts Q1–Q6. Quotations were checked against the online texts named below. Aquinas and Palamas were not quoted (to verify).

Back to justification

Catholic: Trent, Session VI (1547)

Source: Waterworth translation (1848), history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct06.html, verified.

• Ch. 7: “the instrumental cause is the sacrament of baptism, which is the sacrament of faith … lastly, the alone formal cause is the justice of God, not that whereby He Himself is just, but that whereby He maketh us just, that, to wit, with which we being endowed by Him, are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and we are not only reputed, but are truly called, and are, just”.
• Canon 9: “If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.”
• Canon 11: “…justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts … or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favour of God; let him be anathema.”
• Canon 24: anathema on denying that “the justice received is … increased before God through good works” and on calling works “merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained”.
• Against the fathers: close to Augustine’s main gloss (augustine-s1) and to Carthage canon 111 (councils-carthage-orange-s1). Baptism as instrumental cause matches Q4. “Not only reputed” keeps the declarative sense but subordinates it. Canon 9 is aimed at a sola fide that denies any disposition of the will. That is a narrower target than the sola fide of Hilary or Ambrosiaster, who meant “no works precede”. The increase of justification by works (canon 24) has no direct support in the fathers verified so far.
• Weighing: an Augustinian clarification, which sharpens the Q1/Q6 binary beyond the patristic evidence.

Orthodox: theosis; Confession of Dositheus (1672)

Source: Decree 13, crivoice.org/creeddositheus.html, verified (English).

• “We believe a man to be not simply justified through faith alone, but through faith which works through love, that is to say, through faith and works. But [the idea] that faith can fulfill the function of a hand that lays hold on the righteousness which is in Christ, and can then apply it unto us for salvation, we know to be far from all Orthodoxy.” Also: works are “fruits in themselves, through which faith becomes efficacious, and as in themselves meriting”.
• Theosis: Athanasius, Incarnation 54.3 (athanasius-s1). Palamas (Triads) not quoted (to verify).
• Against the fathers: the participatory and baptismal frame is patristic (Q4). But Decree 13 directly rejects the “hand” image of faith, and that sits awkwardly with Basil’s πίστει μόνῃ (basil-s1, secondary) and Chrysostom’s “looking for faith only” (chrysostom-s1). Dositheus is a 17th-c. reaction to Calvinism (Lucaris), and its language of works “meriting” is closer to Latin scholastic idiom than to the Greek fathers.
• Weighing: closest to the fathers in frame. On the instrument of faith, Dositheus rejects language that Greek fathers themselves used.

Lutheran

Sources: bookofconcord.org (Triglot English), verified.

• Augsburg Confession IV: “men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith … This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight. Rom. 3 and 4.”
• Formula of Concord, SD III.9: man “is justified before God, that is, absolved and declared free and exempt from all his sins, and from the sentence of well-deserved condemnation … without any merit or worth of our own, also without any preceding, present, or any subsequent works, out of pure grace”.
• Apology IV.103–104, audit of its patristic citation: it quotes Ambrose (ambrose-s1) and includes “he was justified after the laver [of Baptism]”. It does not suppress the baptismal context. Whether its wording matches Ambrose is to verify.
• Against the fathers: matches Q2 (no works precede: Clement, Chrysostom, Augustine 26.45, Hilary, Ambrosiaster). AC IV’s “faith God imputes for righteousness” follows Gen 15:6 and Irenaeus IV.16.2. FC III’s “absolved and declared” matches the lexical data (E1). It departs from the patristic blend by defining justification as declaration only (Q1, Q3).
• Weighing: strongest on Paul’s vocabulary; a development in its sharp distinction.

Presbyterian

Source: Westminster Confession XI.1, opc.org/wcf.html, verified.

• “Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them”.
• Calvin, Institutes III.11 not quoted (to verify).
• Against the fathers: “pardoning their sins” and “accounting … righteous” match Ps 32/Rom 4 and the forensic strand. “Not by imputing faith itself” differs in wording from AC IV and from Irenaeus’s “it was imputed unto him”. “Not by infusing” explicitly rejects Augustine’s main gloss. The imputation of Christ’s “obedience” goes beyond the exchange language of Diognetus 9 (Q6).
• Weighing: the most precise on Q6, and the furthest from Augustine on Q3.

Presbyterian: additional cells (nine-tradition expansion)

• Q1 (fathers 2/4; Scripture n/a/4): WCF XI.1: ’not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous'.
• Q5 (fathers 4/4; Scripture n/a/4): WCF XVI: works are fruits and evidences.

Oriental Orthodox

Sources: Oriental Orthodox confessional sources. Classic formulations only.

• Q1 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 2/4): Participatory, non-forensic framing in the liturgies and Severus (to verify; sources thin).
• Q2 (fathers 3/4; Scripture 2/4): Grace and cooperation (to verify; sources thin).
• Q3 (fathers 2/4; Scripture n/a/4): Pre-Augustinian Greek line (to verify).
• Q4 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 4/4): Baptism for remission in the non-Chalcedonian rites (to verify).
• Q5 (fathers 2/4; Scripture 2/4): Faith and works together toward final salvation (to verify).
• Q6 (fathers 2/4; Scripture 2/4): No imputation category (to verify).

Anglican

Sources: Anglican confessional sources. Classic formulations only.

• Q1 (fathers 2/4; Scripture 4/4): Art. XI: ‘accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord’.
• Q2 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 4/4): Art. XI ’not for our own works or deservings’; Art. XIII works before grace ‘are not pleasant to God’.
• Q3 (fathers 2/4; Scripture n/a/4): Art. XI forensic, but the Homily of Salvation (to verify) cites Augustine at length.
• Q4 (fathers 3/4; Scripture 4/4): Art. XXVII: ‘as by an instrument … the promises of forgiveness of sin … are visibly signed and sealed’.
• Q5 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 4/4): Art. XII: good works ‘spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith’.
• Q6 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 3/4): Art. XI: accounted righteous ‘only for the merit of our Lord’.

Reformed Baptist

Sources: Reformed Baptist confessional sources. Classic formulations only.

• Q1 (fathers 2/4; Scripture 4/4): 1689 11.1: ’not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous’ (forensic, separated from renewal).
• Q2 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 4/4): 1689 11.1: ’not for anything wrought in them, or done by them'.
• Q3 (fathers 1/4; Scripture n/a/4): Same as Presbyterian: separates ‘reckoned’ from ‘made righteous’ (1689 11.1).
• Q4 (fathers 1/4; Scripture 2/4): 1689 29.1: baptism a ‘sign of his fellowship with him … remission of sins’ (sign, not instrument).
• Q5 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 4/4): 1689 16.2: works ’the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith’.
• Q6 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 3/4): 1689 11.1: ‘imputing Christ’s active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death’.

General Baptist

Sources: General Baptist confessional sources. Classic formulations only.

• Q1 (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): SC 1660 art. 6: faith ‘accounted unto them for righteousness’, joined to a resolve of ‘subjection to all his Commandments’.
• Q2 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 4/4): SC 1660 art. 6: ’the way set forth by God for men to be justified in, is by faith in Christ’.
• Q3 (fathers 2/4; Scripture n/a/4): SC 1660 art. 6 joins ‘accounted’ with resolve of obedience.
• Q4 (fathers 2/4; Scripture 3/4): SC 1660 art. 5: ‘Baptizes in his name for the remission of Sins’.
• Q5 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 4/4): SC 1660 art. 14: without holiness the profession is ‘of no effect’; works as fruit.
• Q6 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 3/4): Orthodox Creed: Christ’s ‘Mediatoral Righteousness … is imputed, reckoned, or made over to us’ (OCR-verified); SC 1660 art. 6.

Anabaptist

Sources: Anabaptist confessional sources. Classic formulations only.

• Q1 (fathers 4/4; Scripture 2/4): Dordrecht VI: through faith ‘we obtain forgiveness of sins, are sanctified, justified, and made children of God, yea, partake of His mind, nature, and image’.
• Q2 (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): Dordrecht VI: ceremonies avail nothing ‘without faith, regeneration’; strong stress on reformation of life.
• Q3 (fathers 3/4; Scripture n/a/4): Dordrecht VI: ‘justified, and made children of God’ together.
• Q4 (fathers 1/4; Scripture 2/4): Dordrecht VII: baptism follows regeneration, ’to the burying of their sins’.
• Q5 (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): Dordrecht VI: ‘genuine fruits of repentance’; obedience emphasised.
• Q6 (fathers 2/4; Scripture 2/4): No imputation language in Dordrecht or Schleitheim.