Sixteenth-century Reformation Research Articles

The Viral Reformer and the Virtual Body of Christ

Recent scholarship on sixteenth-century reformer Martin Luther has been increasingly interested in making connections between Luther’s use of the social media and networked communities of his day a...

Charnel practices in medieval England: new perspectives

ABSTRACTStudies of English medieval funerary practice have paid limited attention to the curation of human remains in charnel houses. Yet analysis of architectural, archaeological and documentary evidence, including antiquarian accounts, suggests that charnelling was more widespread in medieval England than has hitherto been appreciated, with many charnel houses dismantled at the sixteenth-century Reformation. The survival of a charnel house and its human remains at Rothwell, Northamptonshire permits a unique opportunity to analyse charnel practice at a medieval parish church. Employing architectural, geophysical and osteological analysis, we present a new contextualisation of medieval charnelling. We argue that the charnel house at Rothwell, a subterranean room constructed during the thirteenth century, may have been a particularly sophisticated example of an experiment born out of beliefs surrounding Purgatory. Our approach enables re-evaluation of the surviving evidence for charnel practice in England and enhances wider narratives of medieval charnelling across Europe.

The Spiritual Conquest of Marriage: How the Holy Office and Council of Trent Attempted to Reform the Laity of New Spain

The Council of Trent’s reform of marriage attempted to give the Church greater oversight over marriage and rein in popular misconceptions about the sacrament. In colonial Mexico, this shift in the definition of marriage coincided with the arrival of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. This article examines how the conjuncture of these two events impacted laity in New Spain, especially non Spaniards of mixed ancestry such as mestizos and mulatos. The keen interest shown by the Inquisition in reforming the morals of the laity coupled with the changes in the definition of marriage resulted in the prosecution of many non-Spaniards for crimes against the sacrament of marriage. Through an analysis of various cases against non-Spaniards, this article argues that the late sixteenth century reform of marriage represented a unique spiritual conquest. Unlike the spiritual conquest of indigenous subjects for whom Christianity represented a completely new religious system, the spiritual conquest waged by the Holy Office sought to correct long-standing misconceptions and wide-spread ignorance held by members of Hispanic society.

Permanent Revolution: The Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of Liberalism by James Simpson

Reviewed by: Permanent Revolution: The Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of Liberalism by James Simpson Clare Costley King'oo James Simpson. Permanent Revolution: The Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of Liberalism. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Pp. xv, 444. $35.00. It is an oft-repeated axiom that the Protestant Reformation inaugurated the modern liberal era in the West. In abbreviated form, the story, derived largely from nineteenth-century "Whig" historiography, goes something like this. When Martin Luther dared to assert that salvation [End Page 411] was effected by faith alone (sola fide), and that theology and ecclesiology were to be judged by the Bible alone (sola scriptura), he inspired a radical religious movement that would rapidly unfetter Europe from the repressive, fraudulent bondage of the medieval Church. By encouraging individual parishioners to read the Scriptures on their own, and by simultaneously suggesting that the devout—as members of a nonhierarchical priesthood of all believers—had a personal duty to evaluate every Christian creed and convention against biblical standards, Luther permitted, perhaps even facilitated, widespread dissent from established dogma. In conflict with the long-held authority of the papacy, the intellectual ground was thus prepared for the cultivation of modern liberalism, with its affirmation of individual rights (for example, the right to consent to governance) and its concomitant emphasis on individual responsibilities (for example, the responsibility to participate in the democratic process). James Simpson's new monograph, Permanent Reformation: The Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of Liberalism, challenges every major assumption behind this narrative. In eighteen thought-provoking chapters (organized into seven parts), Simpson looks afresh at both the origins and the outcomes of the Protestant Reformation. His principal body of evidence comprises the literature of England, both polemical and imaginative, produced from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the end of the seventeenth century, or, roughly, from the reign of Henry VIII to that of Charles II. This substantial and varied literary archive, Simpson demonstrates, tells an unsettling tale. Though it is frequently avowed that modern liberalism descends in a direct line from the Reformation, an honest analysis of the literature of the time reveals that the genealogical relationship between liberalism and evangelicalism (Simpson's preferred term for Protestantism) might be better understood as a collateral one. Far from fostering liberal principles, Simpson stresses, the evangelical reasoning developed by Luther and his fellow reformers (Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, William Tyndale) advanced a stark authoritarianism in theology and politics—an authoritarianism that in one way or another shaped the work of writers as diverse as Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, John Milton, and John Bunyan. Moreover, to acknowledge the authoritarian tendencies of sixteenth-century Reformation theology is to recognize that the proto-liberalism that emerged in the closing decades of the seventeenth century (evident, for instance, in the political philosophy of John Locke) was formulated in complete antithesis to the dominant [End Page 412] evangelical outlook. Modern liberalism, Simpson suggests, should not, therefore, be viewed as the anticipated, legitimate heir to the Reformation, but rather as Protestant Christianity's unexpected, and somewhat rebellious, younger sibling. In addition to positing that evangelicalism and liberalism share an adjacent, sibling-like relationship (and thus an inevitable sibling-like rivalry), Simpson makes a second, larger, but more provisional, claim about the recursive structures of assertion and denial in all modern revolutionary contexts. Here, he borrows the phrase "permanent revolution" from Marxist theory (with an explicit nod to Leon Trotsky), using it as shorthand for his model of continuous reformation-in-refutation. Simpson proposes that it takes a minimum of 150 years for the fallout of any revolution to settle. With regard to the momentous upheaval of the Protestant Reformation, that period began, he submits, in the early sixteenth century, when Luther first endeavored to redesign Christian salvation, shunning the conciliatory customs of the Roman Church (such as the sacrament of penance) in favor of a soteriology based solely on divinely gifted faith. It ended a century-and-a-half later with the outright rejection by proto-Enlightenment thinkers of the many difficult social and psychological consequences of that Lutheran substitution. Herein lies the irony: precisely because evangelical discourse...

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

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...

Pollen, Plague & Protestants: The Medieval Monastery of Þingeyrar (Þingeyraklaustur) in Northern Iceland

ABSTRACT Until recently, Icelandic monasticism has been considered remote from European monasticism and that it had little impact upon medieval Icelandic society. Focussing upon a monastic site in northern Iceland (Þingeyraklaustur), palaeoecological data is utilised to explore the role of Icelandic monasticism with regard to land use in order to discern whether or not the aforementioned conventions hold true. In particular, are changes in land use associated with the eleventh century revival of European monasticism apparent in Iceland? Further consideration is given to changes in land use arising due to the challenges of plague, Reformation, and the prevailing climate regime for the Medieval period in Iceland. At Þingeyraklaustur, the clearance of Betula seems to be associated with the foundation of the monastery in the early twelfth century. The impact of plague is observed in the recovery of Betula during the fifteenth century. On both counts, events at Þingeyraklaustur reflect those encountered in the palaeoecological archive for monasteries elsewhere in Europe. Overall, there is a broad transition from dwarf shrub wetland to a grassland dominated landscape from the time of Iceland’s settlement, through the monastic period (AD 1133–1551), and beyond the sixteenth century Reformation into the eighteenth century.

루터의 개혁 운동의 정신적 동력 : 묵시적 종말사상과 예언자적 사명의식

루터의 개혁 운동의 정신적 동력 : 묵시적 종말사상과 예언자적 사명의식

REFORMASI DAN MAKNA KEHIDUPAN SEKULER

This article is a short historical survey of the emancipation of the meaning of non-ecclesiastical occupations and life ('secular life'), from the time of Eusebius to the sixteenth century Reformation. Here the theology of vocation proposed by Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Geert Grote of the Devotio Moderna, the Renaissance, Luther and Calvin, are being surveyed and analyzed, especially on their influences in the way people saw the 'secular life'. A special focus is given to the influence of Luther's and Calvin's theological views in elevating non-ecclesiastical life-spheres to be on the same level as respectable and as sacred as ecclesiastical life-spheres.?

A Reforma do Século XVI e suas implicações para a atualidade: da prática da excomunhão aos gestos de reconciliação

O artigo faz uma análise da Reforma do século XVI centrado em três elementos que estão na origem das questões teológicas e pastorais do processo reformatório: a prática das indulgências, as 95 Teses de Lutero e a bula Exsurge Domine do papa Leão X. Aponta para uma nova compreensão desses elementos dentro de dois horizontes: os resultados das novas pesquisas sobre a pessoa e o ensino de Lutero; e o atual contexto do diálogo católico- -luterano. A partir disso, mostra elementos da Reforma que podem ser acolhidos como herança comum para católicos e luteranos em nossos dias e pergunta pela possibilidade de uma revisão da excomunhão de Lutero, de modo a favorecer os esforços por uma comunhão na fé entre católicos e luteranos.

The Sixteenth Century Reformation's Context and Content: Highlighting the Pivotal Role of Freedom of Freedom of Conscience

The Sixteenth Century Reformation's Context and Content: Highlighting the Pivotal Role of Freedom of Freedom of Conscience

Calvin's only prayer: piety and pastoral care in early Reformed thought and practice

Abstract Many of the sixteenth-century Reformers were pastors before being anything else. Despite this, it can be easy for us to miss the extent to which practices of piety dominated their personal and theological lives. In this article we will briefly detail the emphasis early Reformed authors placed on piety and pastoral care. We will identify this trait in the works of Ursinus and Bullinger, after which we will focus specifically on Calvin's treatise On the Christian Life.

‘Music of the Soul’ (animae musica): Marsilio Ficino and the Revival of musica humana in Renaissance Neoplatonism

ABSTRACTFicino explained the relationship between music, the soul and body along with the cultivation of singing as an integral part of intellectual and spiritual exercise – as the ‘contemplation of the divine.’ This article elucidates the musica humana which underlies the Platonic theology of music reclaimed by Ficino, in terms of the animae musica that exists in reason alone. It explains how the animae musica was perceived and pursued by Ficino, drawing upon his theory of the music-spirit (spiritus) relationship. It argues that the musica humana, which consists only in the voice, is embodied when the animae musica is imitated by the music involving speech (sermo), which the Platonists find in the gravis musica that is vocal, poetic and modulated. It then explains why as a human imitation of divina musica, vocal music in various metres, especially metrical psalmody, lies at the core of the sixteenth-century reform of sacred music.

Die gestaltes van Philipp Melanchthon se Spreukekommentaar

This article argues the following thesis: The distinctive characteristics of Philipp Melanchthon’s Explicatio Proverbiorum Salomonis (1525 and following years) and the differences between the several editions or versions of it can only partly be explained by the origins of the book in Melanchthon’s teaching activities during the ferment at German universities in the course of the sixteenth century Reformation. Both the peculiarities of the commentary itself and the way several differing versions of it were tolerated alongside one another only become explicable when a theological consideration is brought into the equation. On the one hand this resides in the view of Holy Scripture shared by Melanchthon and Martin Luther, and on the other hand in the humanist notion of context that Melanchthon’s exegetical work had in common with that of John Calvin.

The Protestant Reformers and the Jews: Excavating Contexts, Unearthing Logic

This article highlights the important initial tasks of excavating the pertinent contexts of the sixteenth-century Protestant reformers and discerning what is at stake for them (i.e., “unearthing logic”) in order to analyze their views of and teachings about Jews and Judaism. Pertinent contexts include the immediate contexts to which Luther and Calvin responded (e.g., Jewish “blasphemy” and/or Christian Hebraism), as well as attending to the significant theological frameworks in which they each operated. Equally important is activity of sifting through the discrepancies in the secondary literature’s depictions of Luther and Calvin’s place in the history of Christian-Jewish relations. The article highlights biblical interpretation—particularly the defense of Scripture’s perspicuity—as the distinctive locus of the reformers’ angst concerning Jews and Judaism. In conclusion, the author offers some lessons from church history for discerning what Christian faithfulness might look like in response to this troubling history.

The Logikē Latreia of Romans 12: 1 and Its Interpretation Among Christian Humanists

AbstractScholars have debated whether the sentiment of sixteenth century reformers against material forms of worship derived from certain Neo-Platonic ideas proliferating in parts of Europe and disseminated by Erasmus or from strictly Scriptural principles that were initially formulated by the Old Testament prophets and given fuller expression in the New. This essay studies the reformers′ interpretation of the phrase logikē latreia at Romans 12:1, as well as other key passages. It concludes that, whether consciously or subconsciously, the reformers borrowed language concerning the material-spiritual dichotomy of worship, not directly from Neo-Platonists, but from a commonplace used by numerous Roman writers. Early Church Fathers had long ago turned the same commonplace against pagan rivals, but now the reformers were employing it against the Catholic Church itself.

Reforming the Monastery: Protestant Theologies of the Religious Life by Greg Peters, and: Mysticism and the Spiritual Quest: A Crosscultural Anthology ed. by Phyllis Zagano

Reviewed by: Reforming the Monastery: Protestant Theologies of the Religious Life by Greg Peters, and: Mysticism and the Spiritual Quest: A Crosscultural Anthology ed. by Phyllis Zagano minlib dallh Greg Peters, Reforming the Monastery: Protestant Theologies of the Religious Life. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014. Pp. 178. $22.00, paper. Mysticism and the Spiritual Quest: A Crosscultural Anthology. Edited by Phyllis Zagano. New York and Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2013. Pp. 448. $27.95, paper. The suppression of monastic orders during the sixteenth-century Reformation gives the impression that monasticism disappeared in Protestant and Reformed churches. There is no doubt that the foremost Reformers, such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli, severely criticized medieval monasticism and rejected monastic vows, particularly chastity. In his book, however, Peters contends that magisterial Reformers did not advocate a total abolition of monastic orders, and a good number of Protestant theologians have argued for a reformed monastic life. Peters offers a survey of the thought of major Reformers in support of a monastic life congruent with the gospel. The book has the merit of keeping track of the debates in Reformed churches from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. The author includes the Anglican tradition, Lutherans, the American Evangelical churches, and other Reformed churches. Even William Carey, a pioneering Baptist missionary to India, is mentioned. Readers will appreciate the theological and pastoral acumen of the sixteenth-century Reformers, as well as the insights of such modern theologians as Karl Barth (arguably the most important Protestant theologian since Schleiermacher), the Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Henry Newman and Edward Pusey (the leading voices of Tractarianism or the Oxford Movement), and American Evangelical Donald Bloesch. Unfortunately, Protestant theologies of monasticism examined in this book make little or no reference to mysticism (not even included in the index). Thus, the book fails to account for the connection between mysticism and monasticism and subsequently does not deal with the essence, nature, development, [End Page 344] and fundamental characteristics of Christian mysticism. Historically, in both the Eastern and Western churches, the monastic orders were the nursery of Christian mystical traditions. Unlike Peters's book, Zagano edited and contributed a chapter to a volume that is devoted entirely to the mystical traditions of major religions in both West and East. The book offers a basic introduction that is useful to beginners interested in the mystical traditions of Hinduism, Chinese religions, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Instructors of world religions will find the book helpful in teaching courses such as Mysticism and Spirituality, or Spirituality: East and West. In addition, readers are offered a selected number of primary texts, encouraging comparative reading of scriptures, mystical poems, and treatises. Zagano's book could be a textbook or recommended volume for undergraduatestudentsandreaderswhoarelookingforaquickandgeneralcross-cultural introduction to mysticism in Eastern and Western faith traditions. Zagano recognizes that the book is not "a text in comparative religions or in comparative theologies, but rather one that demonstrates the means by which various religions come to an understanding of the spiritual quest and of mysticism within their respective traditions." Experts in various traditions write the introduction to each mystical tradition and to the selected primary texts and mystics, helping to situate mystical authors and their works in their respective historical and cultural milieus. Nonetheless, seasoned scholars of comparative mysticism might find the book lacking in depth and rigor. It is impossible to do an in-depth cross-cultural survey of six major mystical traditions in one book. E.g., the mystical tradition of Christianity that Zagano penned fails to mention a single mystic from the early Eastern churches, who were the first Christian mystical theologians and who wrote important mystical treatises of the Christian tradition. Also, the absence of a serious analysis of the development of each mystical tradition deprives readers of the riches and crises of these traditions. Both books, despite their shortcomings, will be welcomed by readers interested in the survival of monasticism in Reformed and Protestant theologies, as students of the mystical and spiritual traditions of major world religions are given a quick survey of six traditions. Finally, Peters's book is a valuable contribution to the debate in Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches with...

Music and the Aesthetic in Worship and Collective Singing: England since 1840

The article surveys the course of the tension within Christianity over the role of the aesthetic in music for worship and in religious music more widely, from Augustine to the present day. It outlines the recurrent features of debate. It then focuses specifically on England, beginning with the tension over the aesthetic in music during the sixteenth century Reformation and in the two subsequent centuries. It looks at major changes, such as the autonomy of the aesthetic, associated with nineteenth century romanticism. The main section of the article traces debates over both church music and mass collective singing, in part as they bear on the construction of national identity. The article concludes with developments in Evangelicalism and in spirituality in a secular society.

The Theology of Images in the Reformation

Church history has shown that the Gospel has been communicated and transmitted to people through artistic and technological media or ways such as architecture, music, paintings, calligraphy, drama, sculpture, movies, stained glass, etc. Moreover, in modern society, the visual image is increasing in positive value and meaning so that modern churches have used visual images such as films, pictures, and dramas as aids for preaching or worship. This contemporary circumstance calls for the pursuit and development of the positive theology of the image in Protestantism for our contemporary Protestant churches. However, the majority of Protestant churches and minsters seems to assume that there is only a negative perspective toward visual images in the theology of the Reformation. This assumption presents an obstacle to pursuing and finding a positive theology of images in order to use visual images for devotion and worship in Protestantism. With this context as a foundation, the objective of this study is to find a positive perspective of visual images in Protestant theologies. To this end, this article addresses the abuse of images in the late medieval period and then analyses three reformers’ perspective of image: Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, Martin Luther, and John Calvin. The first was the official initiator of the iconoclasm in the sixteenth–century Reformation and the latter two reformers have still exerted influence on our contemporary Protestant churches. This is the reason why I choose these three among the sixteenth–century reformers.

The Muses in Mourning: Identity and Classicism in Calvinist Heidelberg

Abstract This paper explores the attitude of sixteenth-century Protestant reformers towards Renaissance humanism and classical learning by examining an eclogue composed in Doric Greek by the Heidelberg arts professor Simon Stenius. Reading Stenius’ eclogue against his classical models, Theocritus (Idylls 1 and 7) and Homer’s Phaeacian narrative (Odyssey, Bks 5–7), it points out the meaning involved in the way Stenius characterizes the dismissal of the Calvinist faculty from Heidelberg upon the accession of the unsympathetic Ludwig VI. It notes how Stenius uses the pastoral genre to infuse his own work with an air of displacement and how he transposes the image of the shipwrecked Odysseus onto his own exiles in order to imply their loss of identity. When this loss of identity is soon given further definition by the ecphrasis of a rustic cup which inverts the cup described in Theocritus Idyll 1, Stenius’ attitude to classical learning is revealed: The cup not only signifies a silencing of the Muses, but – most importantly – it joins the Muses together with the Heidelberg Protestants in a mutual association of mourning. The sum total is the location of the voice and identity of the Heidelberg Calvinists within the highest registers of classical literature.

Luther and the Law in the Lutheran Church of Uganda

This article investigates the role of the Law in the Lutheran Church of Uganda. It investigates how the Law is understood and lived among Lutherans in Uganda. Luther, the sixteenthcentury Reformer, understood and interpreted the Law in terms of the social and cultural context of his time. Luther’s background is very different and so much removed from the African context in which the Ugandan Lutherans find themselves today. Therefore, can the Lutheran Church of Uganda have the same understanding and interpretation of the Law as the Reformer? Is Luther’s sixteenth-century European understanding of the Law applicable to the current Lutherans in Africa, specifically in the Lutheran Church of Uganda? This article examines the social and cultural context of Lutherans in Uganda and determines how it affects their understanding and interpretation of the Law. The article aims to demonstrate that the social and cultural context of the people plays an important role in the way the Christian life is conducted. This article appeals to Paul’s situation in Galatians to prove this point.