Editor’s Introduction
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
This volume contains two commonplaces: On the Gospel and On Repentance. Both were published in 1613 together with Johann Gerhard’s commonplaces On the Law of God, On the Ceremonial and Forensic Laws, and On Justification through Faith.1 Gerhard’s commonplaces on Law and Gospel—as with the entirety of his Theological Commonplaces—can be traced to his participation in formal disputations.2 Beginning on February 5, 1607, Gerhard held monthly disputations in Coburg on theological topics, and in advance of each disputation, the list of theses was printed. The disputations on the Gospel and on repentance were held on January 19 and March 22, 1609.3 It appears that the disputations were put into print in a collection: Gerhard’s Succinct and Select Aphorisms.4 Thus the disputations and the printed collection of that material is a stage in the development of the Theological Commonplaces.