Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the worst thing to happen to Christianity in Europe since Constantine.
Category Archives: Church History
Reformed Theological Higher Ed: Its Birth in Zurich
Zwingli showed his ambition for an educated clergy by establishing a theological seminary as soon as funds were available, which was in the summer of 1525. A call was given to a teacher of Greek and Hebrew, and Zwingli himself took part in the work. The text-book was the Bible. Instruction began at eight o’clock in the morning. One teacher read the Hebrew text and translated it into Latin with a brief interpretation. Then Zwingli translated the same text from the Greek of the Septuagint into Latin. Leo Jud then commented in German upon what had been read, and explained in Latin. This theological seminary was attended not only by regular students but by the clergy of the city, and Leo Jud’s lectures by the people generally. Instruction from the Greek New Testament was given in the afternoon at three o’clock by Myconius. That Zwingli set up for himself a high standard is shown by his writings, and he was able to impress this standard upon others. He called his institute “The Prophecy.”.
The prayer uttered at the opening of each daily session was this:
Omnipotens sempiterne et misericors Deus, cuius verbum est lucerna pedibus nostris et lumen semitarum nostrarum, aperi et illumina mentes nostras ut oracula tua pure et sancte intelligamus et in illud quod recte intellexerimus transformemur, quo maiestati tuae nulla ex parte displiceamus: per Jesum Christum dominum nostrum. Amen.
And Amen. For more on the ‘Prophezei’, visit here. The work commenced 19 June, 1525. That’s the birthday of Reformed Theological Higher Education.
Der Erlebnisraum Lutherstadt Wittenberg: Genese, Entwicklung und Bestand eines protestantischen Erinnerungsortes
This arrived some time back for review:
Silvio Reichelts Arbeit untersucht den in Wittenberg gepflegten Umgang mit dem reformationsgeschichtlichen Erbe der Stadt unter den Bedingungen von fünf verschiedenen politischen Systemen.
Die analytische Tiefenbohrung im »historisch langen Bogen« von 1883 bis 2011 zeigt, wie der Erlebnisraum Lutherstadt Wittenberg als historischer Raum des Wissens, politischer Raum der Ideologie und sakraler Raum des Glaubens Erinnerung leiten, kanalisieren und kodieren konnte. Deutlich wird dabei, dass historische Erinnerung die Vergangenheit nicht einfach rekonstruiert, sondern sich vielmehr als permanenter Überschreibungsprozess charakterisieren lässt. Bewohner und Besucher machen sich mittels Erinnerung ein »Bild« von der Vergangenheit, ein Prozess, der stets an den Raum gebunden ist. Deshalb ist die Geschichte der in Wittenberg betriebenen Reformationserinnerung nicht nur eine des Schutzes und der Erhaltung eines historischen Stadtraums, sondern sie ist auch eine Folge von räumlichen Operationen, die der Formierung eines gewünschten Vorstellungshorizonts dienten. Wittenberg war seit dem 19. Jahrhundert einem ständigen Formenwandel unterworfen, der sich zwischen den Polen Authentizitätsanspruch, Geschichtswert und Vergegenwärtigungszweck bewegt hat.
Dieser Prozess war mit einer grundsätzlichen Bedeutungsverschiebung der Reformation verbunden: Während ihre sinnstiftende Bedeutung als religiöses Moment tendenziell schwand, nahm ihre erlebnisorientierte Wahrnehmung als beschauliches historisches Ambiente zu. Reichelts historischer Rückblick liefert wichtige Erkenntnisse für die gegenwärtig praktizierte Reformationserinnerung. Dies gilt sowohl für den Umgang mit den materiellen Zeugnissen der Vergangenheit als auch für die Kommemoration im Fest und die Ausgestaltung des Luthertourismus.
My review of this astonishingly interesting volume is here.
Gerd Theißen: Der Heidelberger Katechismus – Erinnerungen und Erkenntnisse
Watch Prof. Theißen’s lecture here.
Today With Zwingli
Thomas Wyttenbach was Zwingli’s teacher at the University of Basel. On the 15th of June, 1523, Zwingli wrote his former mentor and lifelong friend concerning the Eucharist the following fascinating sentence-
Eucharistiam illic edi puto, ubi fides est; in eum enim usum data est, ut mortis domini fructum, gratiam et donum cantemus, usque dum dominus veniat.
Zwingli’s breakthrough on the true meaning of the Lord’s Supper was, then, already achieved by early 1523. And in fact, as early as 1522.
Vale iterum, imo perpetuo
says Zwingli as he signs the letter and sends it off to Biel where Wyttenbach then lived
On the Mid June, 1525, Protests Against Zwingli
When the Zurich council ordered the re-baptizers to allow their infants to be baptized according to custom and practice and with Zwingli’s theological support, they (the anabaptists) refused. That’s when all hell broke loose- literally- as the rebaptizers took to the streets in riot. Schaff tries to put a sweet spin on it, writing
The Anabaptists refused to obey, and ventured on bold demonstrations. They arranged processions, and passed as preachers of repentance, in sackcloth and girdled, through the streets of Zurich, singing, praying, exhorting, abusing the old dragon (Zwingli) and his horns, and exclaiming, “Woe, woe unto Zurich!”
But he doesn’t tell the whole grimy story. Oskar Farner does a far better job, devoting not merely a sentence to the uprising but several pages (see his magisterial biography,Huldrych Zwingli, Bd, 4, S. 144ff). Farner cites numerous sources and paints a bit more violent of a picture. Men, women and children from Zollikon (a suburb of Zurich) marched to the city clothed in sackcloth and screaming as they went ‘woe, woe to Zurich; as Jonah preached, 40 days and the city will be destroyed’! Why, because the ‘Great Dragon’ Zwingli was there. They threw eggs and rocks at his home and caused damage in other parts of the city as well.
Zwingli’s response? ‘Sedition!’ Why? because the Peasants War was on everyone’s mind and what had happened and was even then happening in Germany surely shouldn’t be allowed to happen in Zurich! The authorities acted with haste to crush the uprising. And crush it they did. There would be no Peasant’s War in Switzerland, thanks to the wise action of the Zurich Council.
Indeed, the fact that the leaders of the movement alone were arrested shows the great self control of the Council. What was happening across the border must have terrified everyone. The restraint of the Council truly is remarkable on that count.
The Newest Volume in the Reformation Commentary on Scripture is Out
The series is brilliant. This new addition doubtless will be too.
Reformation commentators found the main themes of these Pauline letters deeply applicable to their circumstances, and volume editor Graham Tomlin urges that they are just as relevant to our own: Philippians overflows with thanksgiving in the midst of persecution and trials; Colossians defends the superiority of Jesus as Lord over all principalities and powers. For the Reformers as well as for Paul, all goodness and grace flows from Christ in whom “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col 1:19), the Son who “made himself nothing” (Phil 2:7) in order to bring many daughters and sons to glory.
This volume assembles a diverse chorus spanning place, time, and confessional differences: from Italian Reform-minded Catholic Gasparo Contarini and German Lutheran Martin Chemnitz, to Dutch Anabaptist Menno Simons, to French Reformed Theodore Beza and English Puritan Richard Sibbes. Scholars and pastors alike will find many fruitful insights from these and a number of other significant figures–most of whom enjoy fresh translations from the original, many for the first time in English.
Ridding Zurich’s Churches of their Idols
Zwingli’s reforming efforts were in full swing in June of 1524 and the images which besotted the city’s churches were removed at the order of the Magistrates. As Philip Schaff notes
In the presence of a deputation from the authorities of Church and State, accompanied by architects, masons and carpenters, the churches of the city were purged of pictures, relics, crucifixes, altars, candles, and all ornaments, the frescoes effaced, and the walls whitewashed, so that nothing remained but the bare building to be filled by a worshiping congregation. The pictures were broken and burnt, some given to those who had a claim, a few preserved as antiquities. The bones of the saints were buried. Even the organs were removed, and the Latin singing of the choir abolished, but fortunately afterwards replaced by congregational singing of psalms and hymns in the vernacular (in Basle as early as 1526, in St. Gall 1527, in Zurich in 1598). “Within thirteen days,” says Bullinger, “all the churches of the city were cleared; costly works of painting and sculpture, especially a beautiful table in the Waterchurch, were destroyed. The superstitious lamented; but the true believers rejoiced in it as a great and joyous worship of God.”
Schaff also remarks
The same work of destruction took place in the village churches in a less orderly way. Nothing was left but the bare buildings, empty, cold and forbidding.
Though ‘cold and forbidding’ is a bit of an overstatement. Bullinger’s Reformationsgeschichte contains a couple of engravings – reproduced here for your viewing pleasure:
The ‘good’ people of Zurich weren’t too happy with Zwingli about it all and in the middle of the month of June, 1524, they organized a demonstration, marched to his house, surrounded it, tossed eggs and stones at it, and chanted ‘down with the great devil!’ The Magistrates sent soldiers to disperse the crowds and that was essentially the end of the ‘Drive Zwingli Out of Town’ movement.
Schaff observes concerning Zwingli’s attitude towards images
It should be remarked also that he was not opposed to images as such any more than to poetry and music, but only to their idolatrous use in churches. In his reply to Valentin Compar of Uri (1525), he says, “The controversy is not about images which do not offend the faith and the honor of God, but about idols to which divine honors are paid. Where there is no danger of idolatry, the images may remain; but idols should not be tolerated. All the papists tell us that images are the books for the unlearned. But where has God commanded us to learn from such books?” He thought that the absence of images in churches would tend to increase the hunger for the Word of God.
This is patently correct.
Fun Facts From Church History: Calvin’s Advice to a Depressed Woman
On 7 June 1553 Calvin writes
“Although I am not so devoid of pity as not to feel deeply moved at seeing you in still closer confinement, yet I cannot cease to exhort you to arm yourself so much the more with constancy, as the trial becomes more terrible; since when Satan and the enemies of the faith press us most without, then is the time for us to use the grace of God. St. Paul glories that, though he was in prison and in chains the doctrine which he preached was not bound, but free and operative. And indeed as the truth of God, far exalted above the world, reaches even up to heaven, it cannot be subjected to the pleasure and tyranny of men. However then the devil may labor to oppress us with troubles, let our hearts expand so much the more through faith, that we may the better repel his attacks. Our Lord has lately afforded us many examples, and still gives us them daily in various places. They ought to shame us; for if we faint at the stroke of the rod, while others tremble not at death, how shall we be able to excuse our slothfulness?
You have thought it impossible to sustain such severe struggles in your house; but you know that the Son of God has given us warnings, in order that nothing of this kind, we being thus prepared, may shake our resolution. And reflect still further, that this is not the end, but that God is now only gently trying you, He himself bearing your weakness, and being ready so to do till you have become sufficiently strong to endure his inflictions. But, whatever may happen, allow not yourself to be depressed either through negligence or despair.
Many are conquered because, while flattering themselves, they suffer their zeal to grow cold; others, on the contrary, are so terrified not to find in themselves the strength which they hoped to possess, that they sink and give up all for lost. What should we do then? Let us animate ourselves by the consideration of God’s promises, which will serve us as a guide and raise our thoughts to heaven, that we may learn to despise this vain and transitory life; and let us again meditate on his threatenings, that they may inspire us with dread of his judgments. If you feel not your heart moved as it ought to be, seek help from him, without whom we can do nothing; strive to overcome your coldness and weakness, till you discover traces of improvement.
“Much foresight is necessary in this labor. On the one side, you ought unceasingly to sigh, and to cherish such sorrow of heart for your condition, and such anguish for your wretchedness, as to leave you no rest; and, on the other, you should not doubt but that God, however little appearance there may now be of it, will give you strength in due time. It must not discourage you to behold the poor church of God so suffering, and the pride of its enemies increasing with their cruelty. Rather wonder that this is so new to you; for the thought should never have been absent from your heart, that we ought to become more and more like the image of the Son of God, and to bear patiently the reproach of his cross till the day of our triumph come.
Neglect not this, but let it serve for your encouragement in the fulfilment of your course, for you will have still further trials to endure. If I hear that you are deprived of the little freedom left you, but do not cease to preserve a right disposition, nor prove unfaithful to Him, who so well deserves that his honor should be worth more to us than all besides, then will my joy be more complete. But even now do I rejoice in the good confidence which I have in you. Do not therefore distress me by deceiving this hope, still looking as you should ever do to our good God, and our Lord Jesus, who has shown how dear we are to Him, by offering up himself for our redemption.
So bear yourself therefore as to shame Satan and his ministers, who have hoped to trample your faith in the dust. But since such a victory requires a greater strength than you possess, flee to our good Lord Jesus, who is made to us of God for righteousness, that in him we may be able to do all things. I on my part will pray God that it may please Him so to pour the grace of his spirit into your soul, that you may experience what it is to be strengthened by God and to glorify him. I will beseech him to take you into his holy keeping, and to defend you against the rage of the wolf and the cunning of the fox; wherefore I commend myself in humility to your benevolence and your prayers.”
Prepared By Grace, for Grace: The Puritans on God’s Ordinary Way of Leading Sinners to Christ
This arrived for review today. The publisher opines
Few teachings of the Puritans have provoked such strong reactions and conflicting interpretations as their views on preparing for saving faith. Many twentieth-century scholars dismissed preparation as a prime example of regression from the Reformed doctrine of grace for a man-centered legalism. In Prepared by Grace, for Grace, Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley make careful analysis of the Puritan understanding of preparatory grace, demonstrate its fundamental continuity with the Reformed tradition, and identify matters where even the Puritans disagreed among themselves. Clearing away the many misconceptions and associated accusations of preparationism, this study is sure to be the standard work on how the Puritans understood the ordinary way God leads sinners to Christ.
It’s probably best to leave to history whether something is going to become a standard work. When my review is done I’ll post it here and I’ll let you know if I agree with the publisher about the importance of the book.
The 1% in Norway
Did you know that only 1% of the population of Norway attends church? And yet, in that irreligious land, the Bible has become the best selling book thanks to a new translation.
A new bible translation has become a surprise bestseller in Norway, where only one percent of the population regularly attends church:
It may sound like an unlikely number one best-seller for any country, but even more so in secular Norway.
Yet the Bible, printed in a new Norwegian language version, has outpaced Fifty Shades of Grey to become Norway’s most popular book, catching the entire country by surprise.
The sudden burst of interest in God’s word has also spread to the stage, with a six-hour play called “Bibelen,” Norwegian for “the Bible,” drawing 16,000 people in a three-month run that recently ended at one of Oslo’s most prominent theaters.
Officials of the Lutheran Church of Norway have stopped short of calling it a spiritual awakening, but they see the newfound interest in the Bible as proof that it still resonates in a country where only one percent of the five million residents regularly attends church.
Up next, Britain will experience a great revival to equal the Great Awakening. Stay tuned.
Related Articles
- Bible becomes unlikely top-seller in secular Norway (cbsnews.com)
- Bible’s Strong Comeback Surprises Secular Norway (abcnews.go.com)
Antonio Lombatti’s Further Thoughts on Priestly Celibacy
In Bible and Interpretation, Antonio, in part, notes-
Following up on my first op-ed on the mandatory celibacy of priests (Mandatory Celibacy of Priests: A Fertile Source of Impurity), I’d like to give you an idea on some of the popes who were trying to enforce celibacy on the clergy in the Middle Ages.
It’s a good read.
Fun Facts From Church History: Wives Should Consider their Husbands God’s Gift
On 6 June, 1538(?) Luther remarked to his supper company during a discussion of preachers that he liked and didn’t like-
Master Mörlin pleased me very much [when he preached]. He instructed the common people about the duties of wives and maidservants. A wife, he said, should think that she’s in a holy estate and that her husband is a gift of God; a maidservant should also think that her estate is holy and that her work is holy. The people can take this home with them, but nobody understands a sermon that is turgid, deep, removed from life.
Indeed, ladies, take this home with you! That husband of yours, he’s God’s gift… and when he says so, it’s the truth!
Timothy George is a Columnist Now for ‘First Things’
Here’s the glad tidings. And here’s his first piece. Timothy is a delightful person and a very good historian.
On Pentecost Sunday all hell broke loose in Rome. Following Mass that day, the unpredictable Pope Francis laid hands on a demon-possessed man from Mexico and prayed for him. The YouTube video of this encounter was flashed around the world, and the story caught fire: Is Pope Francis an exorcist? The Holy Father’s Vatican handlers were quick to deny such. The pope simply offered a prayer of deliverance for the distraught man, it was said. Exorcism in the Catholic Church is a sacramental, a sacred act producing a spiritual effect, which must be done according to the officially prescribed Rite of Exorcism. And yet what the pope did on Pentecost Sunday in St. Peter’s Square was more than a simple prayer for someone to get better. It looked for all the world like a real act of spiritual warfare.
And a lot more. We expect good things from this.
A Forthcoming Volume That Looks Fantastic! Theologische Köpfe aus 20 Jahrhunderten: Christliche Denker im Porträt
By Matthias Freudenberg- Theologische Köpfe aus 20 Jahrhunderten: Christliche Denker im Porträt.
Welche Faktoren haben die Geschichte des Christentums vorangetrieben oder zumindest maßgeblich beeinflusst? Neben der kirchlichen, politischen, gesellschaftlichen und kulturellen Atmosphäre einzelner Epochen ist es eine Vielzahl von theologischen Köpfen, die als treibende Kräfte und Impulsgeber des Christentums gewirkt haben.
Dieses Buch beleuchtet die Biografie und das theologische Werk von 15 ausgewählten theologischen Köpfen aus dem 1. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert. In einer gut verständlichen Darstellung wird der Bogen gespannt von Paulus über Origenes, Augustin, Anselm von Canterbury, Hildegard von Bingen, Thomas von Aquin, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, Philipp Melanchthon, Johannes Calvin bis zu Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher, Albert Schweitzer, Karl Rahner, Dietrich Bonhoeffer und Karl Barth.
Die Begrenzung auf Porträts dieser Theologen kennzeichnet zugleich den exemplarischen Charakter des Buches: Nicht um Vollständigkeit und lexikalische Ausführlichkeit bemüht, stehen die dargestellten theologischen Köpfe auch für die Epochen, in denen sie gelebt haben. Auf erzählende Weise werden die Wechselwirkungen zwischen den einzelnen Theologen und den Herausforderungen ihrer Zeit veranschaulicht. Im Horizont des Reformationsjubiläums im Jahr 2017 wird zugleich der Blick und das Verständnis für die Vielgestaltigkeit des Christentums eröffnet. Als deren Wirkung können einerseits Protestanten etwa durch die Wahrnehmung von Thomas von Aquin und Karl Rahner sowie andererseits Katholiken etwa durch die Neuentdeckung Johannes Calvins und Karl Barths wesentliche Einsichten für ihr eigenes Christsein entdecken. Insofern versteht sich das Buch auch als eine Anregung, die Vielfalt des Christentums und ihre Ökumenizität wertzuschätzen.
Can anything be more fantastic? Freudenberg is a great writer and this should be a very fine book. Other books by the publisher are listed in their new catalog.
Fun Facts From Church History: The Practical Consequences of Reform in Geneva
From the first establishment of the Reformation in Geneva, the observance of all holidays, with the single exception of the Christian Sabbath, was abolished. This cannot be imputed to any indifference to either prayers or preaching. Besides the ordinary hours of public worship, there was a sermon appointed every Lord’s Day at four o’clock in the morning for servants.
[That would be some duty to draw wouldn't it? The 4 a.m. sermon...]
The establishment of the Reformation was accompanied by laws against vice and profaneness. Proclamation was made against whoredom and blasphemy, and innkeepers were prohibited from allowing profane swearing, or playing at cards or dice, and from giving drink to any person during sermon, especially on Sunday, or after nine o’clock at night.
[Oh for the good old days.]
Amy Cortet, the lieutenant of the city, was confined for three days on bread and water, and afterwards deprived of his office, for keeping a concubine.*
[Oh for the days when politicians and officials were actually punished for perversity].
____________________________
*W. Ferguson, W., The Early Years of John Calvin (p. 170).
Ben Myers Won’t Mention It, But I Will… It’s That Day Again!
It’s the anniversary of the Theological Declaration of Barmen!
Furthermore
The ‘Barmen Declaration’ was promulgated on the 31st of May, 1934. It was the Church’s response to the aggressive secularism of the German Christians and Nazis. You can read an English translation here.
Though signed by many, it was Karl Barth who wrote the lion’s share of the text, while the Lutherans were taking their afternoon nap.
On the 50th anniversary of the Declaration, TVZ published a brilliant little (virtually unknown, it seems) volume titled Texte zur Barmer Theologischen Erklärung (second edition, 2004) which contains various essays by Barth which he published over the course of his life on the Declaration. It’s fantastic.
These lines in particular resonate today-
We reject the false doctrine, as though the State, over and beyond its special commission, should and could become the single and totalitarian order of human life, thus fulfilling the Church’s vocation as well.
We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church, over and beyond its special commission, should and could appropriate the characteristics, the tasks, and the dignity of the State, thus itself becoming an organ of the State.
Americans need to take those theological truths seriously. The State cannot be the Church, and the Church cannot be the State. As I wrote last year on the Anniversary of the Declaration, more than ever before, the Christian Church needs to affirm the truths expressed in this brilliant document.
And finally
The anniversary of the Barmen Synod and the Theological Declaration that sprang from it is upon us. More than ever, the Church needs to reaffirm it’s message. It has too long, especially in the United States, bowed at the altar of government support even when the government has acted contrary to both the Gospel and its own purpose. The Church must remind itself that it is never an arm of the State. Once that is what it becomes, it betrays its Lord its Calling and its Mission
The opening of the Declaration asserts
The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church met in Barmen, May 29-31, 1934. Here representatives from all the German Confessional Churches met with one accord in a confession of the one Lord of the one, holy, apostolic Church. In fidelity to their Confession of Faith, members of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches sought a common message for the need and temptation of the Church in our day. With gratitude to God they are convinced that they have been given a common word to utter. It was not their intention to found a new Church or to form a union. For nothing was farther from their minds than the abolition of the confessional status of our Churches. Their intention was, rather, to withstand in faith and unanimity the destruction of the Confession of Faith, and thus of the Evangelical Church in Germany. In opposition to attempts to establish the unity of the German Evangelical Church by means of false doctrine, by the use of force and insincere practices, the Confessional Synod insists that the unity of the Evangelical Churches in Germany can come only from the Word of God in faith through the Holy Spirit. Thus alone is the Church renewed.
And it asserts-
We confess the following evangelical truths:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14.6). “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. . . . I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved.” (John 10:1, 9.)
Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.
-We reiect the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation.
“Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” (1 Cor. 1:30.)
As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so, in the same way and with the same seriousness he is also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.
-We reiect the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords–areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body [is] joined and knit together.” (Eph. 4:15,16.)
The Christian Church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in Word and sacrament through the Holy Spirit. As the Church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance.
-We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions.
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men excercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant.” (Matt. 20:25,26.)
The various offices in the Church do not establish a dominion of some over the others; on the contrary, they are for the excercise of the ministry entrusted to and enjoined upon the whole congregation.
-We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church, apart from this ministry, could and were permitted to give itself, or allow to be given to it, special leaders vested with ruling powers.
“Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (1 Peter 2:17.)
Scripture tells us that, in the as yet unredeemed world in which the Church also exists, the State has by divine appointment the task of providing for justice and peace. [It fulfills this task] by means of the threat and exercise of force, according to the measure of human judgment and human ability. The Church acknowledges the benefit of this divine appointment in gratitude and reverence before him. It calls to mind the Kingdom of God, God’s commandment and righteousness, and thereby the responsibility both of rulers and of the ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the Word by which God upholds all things.
-We reject the false doctrine, as though the State, over and beyond its special commision, should and could become the single and totalitarian order of human life, thus fulfilling the Church’s vocation as well.
- We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church, over and beyond its special commission, should and could appropriate the characteristics, the tasks, and the dignity of the State, thus itself becoming an organ of the State.
“Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matt. 28:20.) “The word of God is not fettered.” (2 Tim. 2:9.)
The Church’s commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in delivering the message of the free grace of God to all people in Christ’s stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and work through sermon and sacrament.
-We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church in human arrogance could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans.
Dokumente der Berner Reformation: Disputationsthesen, Reformationsmandat, Synodus
Um ihrer Identität willen beziehen sich Kirchen immer wieder auf Texte aus ihrer Geschichte, vor allem aus ihrer Gründungsgeschichte. Sie sind sich bewusst, dass in diesen Dokumenten grundlegende Entscheidungen festgehalten sind, die für ihr Selbstverständnis nach wie vor relevant sind. Im Gespräch mit diesen Texten kann für die eigene Gegenwart geklärt werden, wie Kirchen ihren Auftrag wahrnehmen und wie Christen ihr Glauben und Leben ausgestalten können.
In diesem Buch werden die drei zentralen Dokumente der Berner Reformation, die Disputationsthesen, das Reformationsmandat und der Synodus, welche die Berner Kirche geprägt und ihr ein unverwechselbares Profil gegeben haben, in zeitgemässer Übersetzung zugänglich gemacht. Sowohl die Disputationsthesen als auch der Berner Synodus haben der reformatorischen Theologie wichtige Einsichten vermittelt, manche ihrer Formulierungen gehören zu den Perlen der Reformation.
Fantastic. Primary sources are so indispensable. This is exactly the sort of thing we need more of.
Ok, This is Serious
May 21-31, 2014, the Refo500 Train connects the most important places of the Calvinistic and Lutheran Reformation in Europe. Starting from Lutherstadt Wittenberg, the train includes visits to Eisleben, Nordhausen, Wartburg Castle, Heidelberg, and Zurich before reaching Geneva for the commemoration of John Calvin, on the 450th anniversary of his death. Strasbourg and Leuven will be additional stops before the final destination: Dordrecht. Join us for this unique experience and reserve your seats now!
I’d just like to point out that my birthday is coming up. And if you all pitch in a couple of dollars… well I think you see where this is going. Send along your love offering via Paypal.
