Lutheran scholasticism
Encyclopedia
Lutheran scholasticism was a theological method that gradually developed during the era of Lutheran Orthodoxy
. Theologians used the neo-Aristotelian form of presentation, already popular in academia, in their writings and lectures. They defined the Lutheran faith and defended it against the polemic
s of opposing parties.
writes of the scholastic method:
aimed at an exhaustive treatment of theology, supplementing revelation by the deductions of reason. Aristotle
furnished the rules according to which it proceeded, and after a while he became the authority for both the source and process of theology.
. Around the time he became a monk, Luther sought assurances about life, and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing particular interest in Aristotle
and the scholastics William of Ockham
and Gabriel Biel
. He was deeply influenced by two tutors, Bartholomaeus Arnoldi
von Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter, who taught him to be suspicious of even the greatest thinkers, and to test everything himself by experience. Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying, offering assurance about the use of reason
, but none about the importance, for Luther, of loving God. Reason could not lead men to God, he felt, and he developed a love-hate relationship with Aristotle over the latter's emphasis on reason. For Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, he believed, and Scripture therefore became increasingly important to him.
Martin Luther held that it was "not at all in conformity with the New Testament to write books about Christian doctrine." He noted that before the Apostles wrote books, they "previously preached to and converted the people with the physical voice, which was also their real apostolic and New Testament work." To Luther, it was necessary to write books to counter all the false teachers and errors of the present day, but writing books on Christian teaching came at a price. "But since it became necessary to write books, there is already a great loss, and there is uncertainty as to what is meant." Martin Luther taught preaching and lectured upon the books of the Bible
in an exegetical manner. To Luther, St. Paul was the greatest of all systematic theologians
, and his Epistle to the Romans
was the greatest dogmatics textbook
of all time.
scarcely began to lecture on Romans before he decided to formulate and arrange the definitions of the common theological terms of the epistle in his Loci Communes
.
, Mathias Haffenreffer
, and Leonhard Hutter
simply expanded upon Melanchthon's Loci Communes. With Chemnitz, however, a biblical method prevailed. At Melanchthon's suggestion he undertook a course of self-study. He began by carefully working through the Bible in the original languages while also answering questions that had previously puzzled him. When he felt ready to move on, he turned his attention to reading through the early theologians of the church slowly and carefully. Then he turned to current theological concerns and once again read painstakingly while making copious notes. His tendency was to constantly support his arguments with what is now known as biblical theology
. He understood biblical revelation to be progressive—building from the earlier books to the later ones—and examined his supporting texts in their literary contexts and historical settings.
of Roman Catholicism.
began among Roman Catholics, for example, the universities Padua
and Coimbra. However, it spread to Germany by the late 16th century, resulting in a distinctly Protestant system of metaphysics
associated with humanism. This scholastic
system of metaphysics held that abstract concepts
could explain the world in clear, distinct terms. This influenced the character of the scientific method.
Jacopo Zabarella
, a natural philosopher
from Padua, taught that one could begin with a goal in mind and then explain ways to reach the goal. Although this was a scientific concept that Lutherans did not feel theology had to follow, by the beginning of the 17th century, Lutheran theologian Balthasar Mentzer attempted to explain theology in the same way. Beginning with God as the goal, he explained the doctrine of man, the nature of theology, and the way man can attain eternal happiness
with God. This form of presentation, called the analytic method, replaced the loci method
used by Melancthon in his Loci Communes. This method made the presentation of theology more uniform, as each theologian could present Christian teaching as the message of salvation and the way to attain this salvation.
, Lutherans lost their attitude that philosophy was antagonistic to theology. Instead, Lutheran dogmaticians used syllogistic
arguments and the philosophical terms common in the neo-Aristotelianism
of the time to make fine distinctions and enhance the precision of their theological method. Scholastic Lutheran theologians engaged in a twofold task. First, they collected texts, arranged them, supported them with arguments, and gave rebuttals based on the theologians before them. Second, they completed their process by going back to the pre-Reformation scholastics in order to gather additional material which they assumed the Reformation also accepted. Even though the Lutheran scholastic theologians added their own criticism to the pre-Reformation scholastics, they still had an important influence. Mainly, this practice served to separate their theology from direct interaction with Scripture. However, their theology was still built on Scripture as an authority that needed no external validation. Their scholastic method was intended to serve the purpose of their theology. Some dogmaticians preferred to use the synthetic method, while others used the analytic method, but all of them allowed Scripture to determine the form and content
of their statements.
, used exegetical theology along with Lutheran scholasticism. However, in Calov, even his exegesis is dominated by his use of the analytic method With Johann Friedrich König
and his student Johannes Andreas Quenstedt
, scholastic Lutheran theology reached its zenith. However the 20th century Lutheran scholar Robert Preus
was of the opinion that König went overboard with the scholastic method by overloading his small book, Theologia Positiva Acroamatica with Aristotelian distinctions. He noted that the scholastic method was inherently loaded with pitfalls. In particular, dogmaticians sometimes established cause and effect
relationships without suitable links. When dogmaticians forced mysteries of the faith
to fit into a strict cause and effect relationships, they created "serious inconsistencies". In addition, sometimes they drew unneeded or baseless conclusions from the writings of their opponents, which not only was unproductive, but also harmed their own cause more than that of their rivals. Later orthodox dogmaticians tended to have an enormous number of artificial distinctions.
. As a result, their writings are understandable and prone to misrepresentation only by those entirely opposed to their theology. The use of scholastic philosophy also made Lutheran orthodoxy more intellectually rigorous. Theological questions could be resolved in a clean cut, even scientific, manner. The use of philosophy gave orthodox Lutheran theologians better tools to pass on their tradition than were otherwise available. It is also worth noting that it was only after Neo-Aristotelian philosophical methods were ended that orthodox Lutheranism came to be criticized as austere, non-Christian formalism.
combined mystic
and scholastic elements.
Lutheran Orthodoxy
Lutheran orthodoxy was an era in the history of Lutheranism, which began in 1580 from the writing of the Book of Concord and ended at the Age of Enlightenment. Lutheran orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Calvinism and tridentine Roman Catholicism after the...
. Theologians used the neo-Aristotelian form of presentation, already popular in academia, in their writings and lectures. They defined the Lutheran faith and defended it against the polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
s of opposing parties.
Distinction between scholastic theology and method
The term “scholasticism” is used to indicate both the scholastic theology that arose during the pre-Reformation Church and the methodology associated with it. While Lutherans reject the theology of the scholastics, some accept their method. Henry Eyster JacobsHenry Eyster Jacobs
Henry Eyster Jacobs was an American educator and Lutheran theologian.-Biography:Jacobs was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the son of professor Michael and Juliana M Jacobs. He graduated from Pennsylvania College in 1862 and from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1865...
writes of the scholastic method:
- The method is the application of the most rigorous appliances of logic to the formulation and analysis of theological definitions. The method per se cannot be vicious, as sound logic always must keep within its own boundaries. It became false, when logic, as a science that has only to do with the natural, and with the supernatural only so far as it has been brought, by revelation, within the sphere of natural apprehension, undertakes not only to be the test of the supernatural, but to determine all of its relations.
Background
High Scholasticism in Western ChristianityWestern Christianity
Western Christianity is a term used to include the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church and groups historically derivative thereof, including the churches of the Anglican and Protestant traditions, which share common attributes that can be traced back to their medieval heritage...
aimed at an exhaustive treatment of theology, supplementing revelation by the deductions of reason. Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
furnished the rules according to which it proceeded, and after a while he became the authority for both the source and process of theology.
Initial rejection
Lutheranism began as a vigorous protest against scholasticism, starting with Martin LutherMartin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
. Around the time he became a monk, Luther sought assurances about life, and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing particular interest in Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
and the scholastics William of Ockham
William of Ockham
William of Ockham was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered to be one of the major figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of...
and Gabriel Biel
Gabriel Biel
Gabriel Biel was a German scholastic philosopher and member of the Brethren of the Common Life born in Speyer. In 1432 he was ordained to the priesthood and entered Heidelberg University. He succeeded academically and became an instructor in the faculty of the arts.- Life :His studies were pursued...
. He was deeply influenced by two tutors, Bartholomaeus Arnoldi
Bartholomaeus Arnoldi
Bartholomaeus Arnoldi was an Augustinian friar and doctor of divinity who taught Martin Luther and later turned into his earliest and one of his personally closest opponents.-Life:...
von Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter, who taught him to be suspicious of even the greatest thinkers, and to test everything himself by experience. Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying, offering assurance about the use of reason
Reason
Reason is a term that refers to the capacity human beings have to make sense of things, to establish and verify facts, and to change or justify practices, institutions, and beliefs. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, ...
, but none about the importance, for Luther, of loving God. Reason could not lead men to God, he felt, and he developed a love-hate relationship with Aristotle over the latter's emphasis on reason. For Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, he believed, and Scripture therefore became increasingly important to him.
Martin Luther held that it was "not at all in conformity with the New Testament to write books about Christian doctrine." He noted that before the Apostles wrote books, they "previously preached to and converted the people with the physical voice, which was also their real apostolic and New Testament work." To Luther, it was necessary to write books to counter all the false teachers and errors of the present day, but writing books on Christian teaching came at a price. "But since it became necessary to write books, there is already a great loss, and there is uncertainty as to what is meant." Martin Luther taught preaching and lectured upon the books of the Bible
Books of the Bible
The Books of the Bible are listed differently in the canons of Judaism and the Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Slavonic Orthodox, Georgian, Armenian Apostolic, Syriac and Ethiopian churches, although there is substantial overlap. A table comparing the canons of some of these traditions...
in an exegetical manner. To Luther, St. Paul was the greatest of all systematic theologians
Systematic theology
In the context of Christianity, systematic theology is a discipline of Christian theology that attempts to formulate an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the Christian faith and beliefs...
, and his Epistle to the Romans
Epistle to the Romans
The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, often shortened to Romans, is the sixth book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by the Apostle Paul to explain that Salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ...
was the greatest dogmatics textbook
Dogmatic theology
Dogmatic theology is that part of theology dealing with the theoretical truths of faith concerning God and his works, especially the official theology recognized by an organized Church body, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Dutch Reformed Church, etc...
of all time.
Beginning of the loci method
In contrast, Philipp MelanchthonPhilipp Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon , born Philipp Schwartzerdt, was a German reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems...
scarcely began to lecture on Romans before he decided to formulate and arrange the definitions of the common theological terms of the epistle in his Loci Communes
Loci Communes
Loci Communes or Loci communes rerum theologicarum seu hypotyposes theologicae was a work by the Lutheran theologian Philipp Melancthon published in 1521...
.
Flourishing of the loci method
Martin ChemnitzMartin Chemnitz
Martin Chemnitz was an eminent second-generation Lutheran theologian, reformer, churchman, and confessor...
, Mathias Haffenreffer
Mathias Haffenreffer
Matthias Hafenreffer was a German orthodox Lutheran theologian in the Lutheran scholastic tradition. Born at Lorch , he was professor at Tübingen from 1592 until his death in 1617. He was a motivating teacher with a charismatic influence upon his students. He combined strict faithfulness to the...
, and Leonhard Hutter
Leonhard Hutter
Leonhard Hutter was a German Lutheran theologian.-Life:He was born at Nellingen near Ulm. From 1581 he studied at the universities of Strasbourg, Leipzig, Heidelberg and Jena...
simply expanded upon Melanchthon's Loci Communes. With Chemnitz, however, a biblical method prevailed. At Melanchthon's suggestion he undertook a course of self-study. He began by carefully working through the Bible in the original languages while also answering questions that had previously puzzled him. When he felt ready to move on, he turned his attention to reading through the early theologians of the church slowly and carefully. Then he turned to current theological concerns and once again read painstakingly while making copious notes. His tendency was to constantly support his arguments with what is now known as biblical theology
Biblical Theology
Biblical theology is a discipline within Christian theology which studies the Bible from the perspective of understanding the progressive history of God revealing Himself to humanity following the Fall and throughout the Old Testament and New Testament...
. He understood biblical revelation to be progressive—building from the earlier books to the later ones—and examined his supporting texts in their literary contexts and historical settings.
Analytic method
Properly speaking, Lutheran scholasticism began in the 17th century, when the theological faculty of Wittenberg took up the scholastic method to fend off attacks by Jesuit theologians of the Second Scholastic PeriodSecond scholasticism
In philosophy, the term second scholasticism denotes the 16th-century revival of the scholastic system of philosophy, that arose, in part, to counter the Protestant Reformation, by returning to biblical language usage, and to the Fathers of the Church...
of Roman Catholicism.
Origin of the analytic method
The philosophical school of Neo-AristotelianismNeo-Aristotelianism
Neo-Aristotelianism is a view of literature and criticism propagated by the Chicago School — Ronald S. Crane, Elder Olson, Richard McKeon, Wayne Booth, and others — which means:...
began among Roman Catholics, for example, the universities Padua
University of Padua
The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...
and Coimbra. However, it spread to Germany by the late 16th century, resulting in a distinctly Protestant system of metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
associated with humanism. This scholastic
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
system of metaphysics held that abstract concepts
Universal (metaphysics)
In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For example, suppose there are two chairs in a room, each of...
could explain the world in clear, distinct terms. This influenced the character of the scientific method.
Jacopo Zabarella
Jacopo Zabarella
Giacomo Zabarella was an Italian Aristotelian philosopher and logician. He was accused of atheism for the notable chapter "De inventione æterni motoris" in his De rebus naturalibus libri XXX....
, a natural philosopher
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
from Padua, taught that one could begin with a goal in mind and then explain ways to reach the goal. Although this was a scientific concept that Lutherans did not feel theology had to follow, by the beginning of the 17th century, Lutheran theologian Balthasar Mentzer attempted to explain theology in the same way. Beginning with God as the goal, he explained the doctrine of man, the nature of theology, and the way man can attain eternal happiness
Beatific vision
The beatific vision - in Christian theology is the ultimate direct self communication of God to the individual person, when she or he reaches, as a member of redeemed humanity in the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e. heaven...
with God. This form of presentation, called the analytic method, replaced the loci method
Loci Theologici
Loci Theologici was a term applied by Melanchthon to Evangelical systems of dogmatics and retained by many as late as the seventeenth century....
used by Melancthon in his Loci Communes. This method made the presentation of theology more uniform, as each theologian could present Christian teaching as the message of salvation and the way to attain this salvation.
Flourishing of the analytic and synthetic methods
After the time of Johann GerhardJohann Gerhard
Johann Gerhard was a Lutheran church leader and Lutheran Scholastic theologian during the period of Orthodoxy.-Biography:He was born in the German city of Quedlinburg...
, Lutherans lost their attitude that philosophy was antagonistic to theology. Instead, Lutheran dogmaticians used syllogistic
Syllogism
A syllogism is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition is inferred from two or more others of a certain form...
arguments and the philosophical terms common in the neo-Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is a tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. The works of Aristotle were initially defended by the members of the Peripatetic school, and, later on, by the Neoplatonists, who produced many commentaries on Aristotle's writings...
of the time to make fine distinctions and enhance the precision of their theological method. Scholastic Lutheran theologians engaged in a twofold task. First, they collected texts, arranged them, supported them with arguments, and gave rebuttals based on the theologians before them. Second, they completed their process by going back to the pre-Reformation scholastics in order to gather additional material which they assumed the Reformation also accepted. Even though the Lutheran scholastic theologians added their own criticism to the pre-Reformation scholastics, they still had an important influence. Mainly, this practice served to separate their theology from direct interaction with Scripture. However, their theology was still built on Scripture as an authority that needed no external validation. Their scholastic method was intended to serve the purpose of their theology. Some dogmaticians preferred to use the synthetic method, while others used the analytic method, but all of them allowed Scripture to determine the form and content
Form and content
In art and art criticism, form and content are considered distinct aspects of a work of art. The term form refers to the work's style, techniques and media used, and how the elements of design are implemented. Content, on the other hand, refers to a work's essence, or what is being depicted....
of their statements.
Abuse of the methods
Some Lutheran scholastic theologians, for example, Johann GerhardJohann Gerhard
Johann Gerhard was a Lutheran church leader and Lutheran Scholastic theologian during the period of Orthodoxy.-Biography:He was born in the German city of Quedlinburg...
, used exegetical theology along with Lutheran scholasticism. However, in Calov, even his exegesis is dominated by his use of the analytic method With Johann Friedrich König
Johann Friedrich König
Johann Friedrich König was a German Lutheran theologian.-References:...
and his student Johannes Andreas Quenstedt
Johannes Andreas Quenstedt
Johannes Andreas Quenstedt was a German Lutheran dogmatician in the Lutheran scholastic tradition.Quenstedt was born at Quedlinburg, a nephew of Johann Gerhard...
, scholastic Lutheran theology reached its zenith. However the 20th century Lutheran scholar Robert Preus
Robert Preus
Robert David Preus was an American Lutheran pastor, professor, author, and seminary president.-Biography:...
was of the opinion that König went overboard with the scholastic method by overloading his small book, Theologia Positiva Acroamatica with Aristotelian distinctions. He noted that the scholastic method was inherently loaded with pitfalls. In particular, dogmaticians sometimes established cause and effect
Causality
Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
relationships without suitable links. When dogmaticians forced mysteries of the faith
Mysterium fidei (Latin phrase)
Mysterium Fidei, a Latin phrase meaning mystery of faith or mystery of the faith, is a Christian theological term for an article of faith or doctrine which defies man’s ability to grasp fully...
to fit into a strict cause and effect relationships, they created "serious inconsistencies". In addition, sometimes they drew unneeded or baseless conclusions from the writings of their opponents, which not only was unproductive, but also harmed their own cause more than that of their rivals. Later orthodox dogmaticians tended to have an enormous number of artificial distinctions.
Merits of the methods
On the other hand, the Lutheran scholastic method, although often tedious and complicated, managed to largely avoid vagueness and the fallacy of equivocationEquivocation
Equivocation is classified as both a formal and informal logical fallacy. It is the misleading use of a term with more than one meaning or sense...
. As a result, their writings are understandable and prone to misrepresentation only by those entirely opposed to their theology. The use of scholastic philosophy also made Lutheran orthodoxy more intellectually rigorous. Theological questions could be resolved in a clean cut, even scientific, manner. The use of philosophy gave orthodox Lutheran theologians better tools to pass on their tradition than were otherwise available. It is also worth noting that it was only after Neo-Aristotelian philosophical methods were ended that orthodox Lutheranism came to be criticized as austere, non-Christian formalism.
Late Orthodoxy (1685 -1730)
David HollatzDavid Hollatz (dogmatician)
David Hollatz, Lutheran dogmatician; born at Wulkow, near Stargard , in Pomerania, 1648; died at Jakobshagen April 17, 1713...
combined mystic
Christian mysticism
Christian mysticism refers to the development of mystical practices and theory within Christianity. It has often been connected to mystical theology, especially in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions...
and scholastic elements.
Content
Scholastic dogmaticians followed the historical order of God's saving acts. First Creation was taught, then the Fall, followed by Redemption, and finished by the Last Things. This order, as an independent part of the Lutheran tradition, was not derived from any philosophical method. It was followed not only by those using the loci method, but also those using the analytical. The usual order of the loci:- Holy Scriptures
- Trinity (including ChristologyScholastic Lutheran ChristologyScholastic Lutheran Christology is the orthodox Lutheran theology of Jesus Christ, developed using the methodology of Lutheran scholasticism.On the general basis of the Chalcedonian christology, and following the...
and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) - Creation
- Providence
- Predestination
- Image of God
- Fall of Man
- Sin
- Free Will
- Law
- Gospel
- Repentance
- Faith and Justification
- Good Works
- Sacraments
- Church
- Three Estates
- Last Things