Alle drey Ding vollkomen sind! On the Meaning of Naming the Church after Holy Trinity According to Josua Wegelin, Preacher in Pressburg, Anno 1640

Wojciech Gruk

doi:10.3311/ppar.10125

Abstract

Based on two erudite occasional prints from 1640, commemorating the consecration of the new Lutheran church in Bratislava, the article concerns the meaning of a church name in the mid-17th century Lutheran religious culture. The issue is set and discussed in the broader context of Lutheran theology regarding places of cult: what is a Lutheran place of cult, what is its sacredness, what is the relationship between church architecture and the worship space it determines. From the perspective of cultural studies, the article provides an insight into the process of imposing the architecture with symbolic meaning.

Highlights

On the 21st December 1638, the new and at the time, the only Lutheran church in Bratislava was dedicated to the Holy Trinity
The first volume contains a detailed description of the three-day celebration (Wegelin, 1640a), while the second contains the text of a dedication sermon (Wegelin, 1640b)
3 Signified: Lutheran place of cult If the church name is a symbol of the place of cult what does it signify, that is, what is the place of cult? For Wegelin it consists of two spheres: material, which is the church building and its furnishing, and spatial, which is abstract and spiritual

Summary

Introduction

On the 21st December 1638, the new and at the time, the only Lutheran church in Bratislava was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Wegelin devoted his dedication sermon to the explanation of this issue He understood the church name as a powerful symbol, full of important connotations, the meaning of which the faithful had to be taught. Following his arguments, the aim of the article is to reconstruct the meaning of the church name in 17th-century Lutheran culture. Note that Wegelin clearly distinguishes between the name of a church and the place of cult The latter must be dedicated exclusively to the cult of God, its name need not necessarily allude to this fact. A Lutheran church can be named after any of the saints as long as the faithful are conscious of whose cult it is dedicated

Signified

Conclusion