Paul Eber (1511–1569): Humanist und Theologe der zweiten Generation der Wittenberger Reformation ed. by Daniel Gehrt and Volker Leppin (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Paul Eber (1511–1569): Humanist und Theologe der zweiten Generation der Wittenberger Reformationed. by Daniel Gehrt and Volker Leppin Jason D. Lane Paul Eber (1511–1569): Humanist und Theologe der zweiten Generation der Wittenberger Reformation. Edited by Daniel Gehrt and Volker Leppin. Leucorea-Studien zur Geschichte der Reformation und der Lutherischen Orthodoxie (LStRLO). Band 16. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2014. 622 pp. This important collection of essays on the life and work of Paul Eber came together on the 500th anniversary of Eber’s birth (8 November 1511). An international conference, organized by Daniel Gehrt (Gotha) and Volker Leppin (Tübingen), met in Gotha to honor this gifted and enigmatic churchman with ground-breaking research from German and American scholars. Readers are invited to observe in Eber the intersection of scholarly, political, and congregational life in Wittenberg during the tumultuous second half of the sixteenth century. Perhaps more than anyone in the second generation of reformers, Eber was characteristically a man of Wittenberg, a close student of Melanchthon in politics, poetry, and theological tendencies, yet also one who bore the marks of Luther’s preaching and teaching. Luther’s influence on Eber can be seen most prominently in the English-language contributions: Robert Kolb’s essay, “Paul Eber as Preacher” and Gerhard Bode’s essay, “Preaching Luther’s Small Catechism.” Eber’s central place in Wittenberg, especially after the death of Melanchthon in 1560, makes him a critical figure for understanding the controversies, culture, and ecclesiastical life in the mid- sixteenth century. Readers will certainly find a thorough and extensive analysis of Eber as humanist and theologian, but more importantly they will discover through these essays the culture and controversies in which he operated. The volume functions as a handbook to Eber research and includes essays on five aspects of his life and work: his engagement in ecclesiastical culture, his education, his labors as a humanist, his contributions as a theologian and pastor, and the impression he and his work left to posterity. (An appendix also includes the most comprehensive bibliography of Eber’s published works to date.) Readers are invited to consider the complexities of Eber’s character and of Lutheran academic and ecclesial culture. The first [End Page 82]section evaluates Eber’s church politics and his efforts to bring concord and peace to the doctrinal controversies within Lutheranism. As Volker Leppin’s essay argues, Eber’s irenic character and gentle approach to disputes, such as the contention for the Lord’s Supper, often left him misunderstood by his peers and standing on the outside of the controversies looking in (63). Daniel Gehrt’s article, which sifts through the correspondence between the Universities of Wittenberg and Jena, advances the thesis that after Melanchthon’s death Eber held de factothe highest rank of any academic at the University of Wittenberg (125). The second section covers Eber’s academic training and teaching. Both Meinolf Vielberg’s article on Eber’s education, his rise within the university, and his philosophical lectures and Andreas Gössner’s article on Eber’s work on the theological faculty demonstrate how a professor of Latin grammar could also be a pastor, become a professor of physics, join the theology faculty, and be involved with all the theological controversies of his day. Although it was not the direct purpose of those essays, the historical account of Eber’s education and the breadth of his learning—something not entirely unique in the sixteenth century—may serve as a powerful apology in support of liberal arts curricula at modern universities. In sections three through five, essays on Eber’s poetry and hymn writing, his lectures in astronomy, his interest in history, and his correspondence with friends and colleagues paint a rich portrait of Wittenberg’s own theologian and humanist. Yet, as these essays admit, the portrait is not complete. In Lucas Cranach’s famous portrait of the vineyard, painted for Eber’s epitaph and still on display on the east wall in the Stadtskirchein Wittenberg, Eber is pruning vines next to Luther, who, with a long rake in hand, is pulling through a clump of weeds. Eber is thus remembered not only as one...