Philologia Sacra und Auslegung der Heiligen Schrift: Studien zum Werk des lutherischen Barocktheologen Salomon Glassius (1593–1656) by Armin Wenz

Abstract

Reviewed by: Philologia Sacra und Auslegung der Heiligen Schrift: Studien zum Werk des lutherischen Barocktheologen Salomon Glassius (1593–1656) by Armin Wenz Benjamin T. G. Mayes Philologia Sacra und Auslegung der Heiligen Schrift: Studien zum Werk des lutherischen Barocktheologen Salomon Glassius (1593–1656). By Armin Wenz. Historia Hermeneutica, Series Studia 20. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2020. 892 pp. Salomon Glassius (1593–1656), a student of Johann Gerhard (1582–1637), served as a theology professor at Jena and then, for most of his career, a church superintendent. He is remembered for his extensive hermeneutical work, Philologia Sacra (1623–1636, with expanded editions thereafter), in which not only the literal sense of scripture is affirmed, but also the "mystical sense," which includes typology and allegory as senses of scripture beside the literal sense, intended by the primary author of scripture (God). Beyond this, Glassius published numerous sermons and expositions of the person and work of Christ from the Old Testament. Armin Wenz covers Glassius' understanding of "holy philology," a devotional-pious approach to academic exegesis, the doctrine of scripture, style, grammar, rhetoric, and hermeneutics, including the literal and mystical senses of scripture. Thereafter, chapters summarize Glassius' exegetical writings and the many metaphors, types, and allegories of scripture expounded by him. Finally, Wenz considers Glassius' place in reception history and contemporary hermeneutics and biblical studies. Wenz deals more with the contemporary usefulness and defensibility of Glassius' theology than with Glassius' place within the flow of seventeenth-century Lutheran exegesis. Not only does he describe what was, he also searches for the applicability and usefulness of Glassius' exegesis for learned Christian handling of the biblical texts as the Word of God. [End Page 94] Glassius sets forth the same doctrine as does Johann Gerhard with regard to scripture's canonization, inspiration, clarity, perfection/sufficiency, efficacity, and authority. For example, both Glassius and Gerhard include James, Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation in the canon as apostolic and inspired, in respectful disagreement with Luther. Yet Wenz shows how Glassius presents scripture not just as the divinely-inspired revelation of God's will and work, but as much more. For Glassius, the incarnation of the Son of God shows that created language and metaphors can be used about God; the condescension in the incarnation and God's sacramental communication with his people are expressed through a plethora of metaphors and types (184). "[T]he scripture of the Old and New Testaments is the canonical document handed down in the Israelitic people of God and in the New Testament church of Jews and Gentiles in human speech, and is the sacramental medium of testamentary, divine self-obligation and appropriation of salvation. This mediality is constitituted by the triune God as author of scripture accommodating himself into the variety of scripture's words and images, in such a way that the divine properties and attributes are to be ascribed or really imparted also to scripture and its words, without scripture thereby becoming identical with God" (788, my translation). This view of the biblical text then requires a certain handling of it: "The starting point and criterion of the exegetical methods is … the perception of the trinitarian contextuality of the biblical texts with their various canon-internal relations and external, sacramental effects" (824, my translation). Wenz is a pastor, and he highlights the pastoral aspects of Glassius' hermeneutics—exegesis is for preaching and the individual pastoral care of souls. This book can be useful to preachers also as a catalog of biblical imagery, typology, and allegory. Wenz has organized and described all the biblical imagery used by Glassius, drawn from all his works. Due to many untranslated Latin quotations and Wenz's intricate German academic writing style, some potential readers may be turned away from this book. I hope that is not the case, since Glassius is worth knowing, and Wenz knows him better than anyone. [End Page 95] Benjamin T. G. Mayes Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Indiana Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.