Initia Reformationis. Wittenberg und die Frühe Reformation ed. by Irene Dingel et al.

Abstract

Reviewed by: Initia Reformationis. Wittenberg und die Frühe Reformation ed. by Irene Dingel et al. Kurt K. Hendel Initia Reformationis. Wittenberg und die Frühe Reformation. Edited by Irene Dingel, Armin Kohnle, Stefan Rhein, and Ernst-Joachim Waschke. Leucorea-Studien zur Geschichte der Reformation und der Lutherischen Orthodoxie, vol. 33. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2017. 445 pp. This volume is a collection of lectures presented at the XII. Frühjahrstagung zur Wittenberger Reformation, which took place in Wittenberg from March 17–19, 2016. Seventeen essays are organized into three sections, exploring 1) the piety and criticism of the church in the high and late Middle Ages, 2) the broader sixteenth-century context within which the Reformation movement emerged and expanded, and 3) particular aspects of the movement during its early years. It is likely that most readers of Lutheran Quarterly will be interested primarily in the essays in the first and third sections, although the chapters in the second section may spark interest inasmuch as they examine topics that are less familiar and provide information about the social, political, economic, and natural worlds within which the Wittenberg reform movement developed. The following essays may be of particular interest. In a carefully researched and nuanced study, Wolf-Friedrich Schäufele examines the criticism of the church in the high and late Middle Ages and concludes that medieval ecclesiastical critiques were primarily a self-critique by clerical leaders who sought to strengthen the church by reforming obvious abuses. Preserving ecclesiastical unity was a clear priority and reforms were pursued, in part, in order to achieve this goal. At the same time, [End Page 331] some voices were deemed to be heretical and resulted in schisms. These more radical voices at times anticipated the perspectives of sixteenth-century reformers. Temporal rulers, burghers, and peasants also voiced critiques. Their objective, however, was not to strengthen the church but to achieve political, economic, and social goals that threatened the institutional church. Schäufele concludes that medieval critiques were not a direct and certainly not the only cause of the Reformation. The new theological perspectives of Luther were the ultimate cause. Volker Leppin addresses the persistent debate regarding the nature and place of Luther's so-called evangelical discovery or tower experience in light of Luther's own comments. Leppin argues that Luther's evangelical identity emerged gradually. Leppin insists further that Luther's mention of the cloaca as the place of his discovery must be understood metaphorically. The Reformer used cloaca in his writings as a scatological description of the corruption of the papacy and the world. His point was, therefore, that he discovered the gospel in the midst of the corruption that was apparent in church and world. There was, therefore, also no tower experience. Irene Dingel addresses the question "How Lutheran was the Wittenberg Reformation?" She examines the early Wittenberg reform movement and its leaders and notes that, while Luther was clearly the chief Wittenberg reformer whose theology and personality impacted his colleagues, those colleagues, particularly Philip Melanchthon, also developed and transformed Luther's theology and reform proposals. The Wittenberg theology was, therefore, quite diverse. Nevertheless, that diversity did not result in schisms. Divisions and the emergence of competing camps occurred during the second half of the sixteenth century. Those divisions, fostered by a diversity of perspectives, especially the differences between Luther's and Melanchthon's theologies, were also given an impetus by the religious colloquies of the 1540s and 1550s which compelled the theologians to articulate their convictions in precise and clear ways. This tended to exacerbate differences. The quest for precision and the divisions that resulted were the impetus for the confessionalization of Lutheranism during the second half of the sixteenth century. Thus, as one answers the question of the Lutheran nature of the Wittenberg Reformation, it is appropriate to claim that during [End Page 332] the first decades of the sixteenth century it was Lutheran in the sense that it was identified with and closely related to the person of Luther. However, it was not Lutheran in a confessional sense until the latter half of the Reformation century. The essays are primarily historical, rather than theological studies. Their scholarly nature...