Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Sacramentarian controversy »

German text
Die ökumenische Bewegung weltweit steht nicht erst seit kurzem vor großen Herausforderungen, nicht nur an der Basis. Kirchenpolitische Interessen, kulturelle Barrieren und in der Tat theologische Differenzen fragen nach dem Kern christlicher Einheit. Vor dieser Aufgabe steht auch und insbesondere die evangelikale Bewegung mit ihrer spezifischen Prägung und Fragestellung im Kontext der weltweiten Christenheit. Innerhalb dieser global betrachtet expandierenden Bewegung begegnet man dem ökumenischen Anliegen mit geteilter Aufmerksamkeit, offener Kritik und völliger Abstinenz. Mithilfe der Darstellung der Unionsbemühungen des Reformators Martin Bucer, insbesondere seiner theologischen Motive, wird ein hoffentlich weiterführender Gesprächsbeitrag für die Ökumene-Debatte im modernen Evangelikalismus geliefert.
World-wide ecumenicism has to challenge big issues for a long time now. Church-political interests, cultural frontiers and, of course, theological differences search for the center of christian unity. Especially evangelicalism as a part of world-wide christianity has to face this challenge with its specific character. Within this expanding movement, a variety of viewpoints exist with regard to ecumenicism: divided attention, open criticism and neglection. Martin Bucer as ecumenical pioneer in the period of reformation elaborates a fresh approach towards the evangelical ecumenicism-debate. His theological motives build the center of this dissertation.
Philosophy & Systematic Theology
M. Th. (Systematic Theology)

The early Reformation debate over the sacraments provoked a crisis of authority within the evangelical movement. The conflict developed from contrasting presuppositions held by Martin Luther and Erasmus of Rotterdam concerning the relationship between spiritual and material reality; it also reflected differences in biblical hermeneutics and the interpretation of specific Scripture passages. Both infant baptism and the Lord’s Supper were discussed privately in the early 1520s, but the public debate began in late 1524 with the printing of Andreas Karlstadt’s pamphlets rejecting Christ’s corporeal presence in the Lord’s Supper. Printers, editors, and translators increased the controversy’s polemical tone and spread it throughout Germany and Switzerland and to every level of society. The sacramentarian alternative to Luther’s position gradually coalesced from arguments advanced by the reformers of Basel, Strasbourg, Zurich, and Silesia. Luther’s tremendous personal authority gave the Wittenbergers an advantage that their opponents lacked, and the Wittenbergers proved better at using print to reach even the illiterate. The two sides could not reach agreement on the Lord’s Supper at the Marburg Colloquy, but that meeting shifted the focus of debate away from Christ’s bodily presence to how communicants could receive Christ in the sacrament—a question that opened the way for future negotiations. The Marburg Articles also introduced a new source of authority for Protestants: an official confession of faith endorsed by all participants.

Luther’s 1527 That These Words Still Stand Firm initiated a new stage of the Eucharistic controversy by summarizing and then refuting the most important sacramentarian arguments. The treatise initiated an exchange with Oecolampadius and Zwingli that highlighted their hermeneutical and exegetical disagreements and emphasized Christology. In response to Luther’s 1528 Confession Concerning Christ’s Supper, Martin Bucer wrote a dialogue arguing that Luther and his opponents actually agreed. Although Bucer still advocated a sacramentarian position, he recognized that Luther did not teach impanation, and he began to shift the debate away from Christ’s bodily presence in the elements to Christ’s reception by communicants. Other contributions demonstrate that the two sides were consolidating their arguments and propagating them through a variety of genres.

This chapter analyzes 372 titles, in 905 imprints, concerning the Lord’s Supper printed between 1525 and 1529. The largest number were printed in the opening years of the Eucharistic controversy. The Wittenberg party published well over half of the total and more than twice as many imprints as the sacramentarians. Luther was by far the most important contributor owing to the frequent reprinting of his works, although only about a third of these were direct contributions to the controversy. Catholics defended the mass against the Wittenbergers and asserted Christ’s true presence against the sacramentarians. A significant proportion of the publications were exchanges between two individuals as a form of public debate. While sacramentarians wrote for the highly literate, pro-Wittenbergers used genres most effective for reaching the illiterate: sermons, catechisms, and liturgies.

The medium of print spread the debate over the sacraments throughout Germany and Switzerland, but it also allowed that debate to escape the control of the reformers. Printers, editors, and translators influenced the presentation of ideas, and both language and literacy levels shaped their reception. Printed matter could distort as well as transmit the positions of individuals, and the false impressions it created were difficult to correct. The Eucharistic controversy furthered the development of Protestant sacramental theology. Zwingli’s understanding of the Lord’s Supper was not normative; he was instead one contributor, along with Karlstadt, Oecolampadius, Schwenckfeld, and the Strasbourg reformers, and all of them were influenced by Erasmus’s ontology, hermeneutics, and exegesis. The sacramentarians had no one to rival Luther’s personal authority. The Marburg Colloquy did not end the controversy, but it changed the issues being discussed. It was also the context for the emergence of a new source of authority, a confession accepted as defining orthodoxy.

The Eucharistic controversy entered a new phase at the beginning of 1526 with the publication of several Latin pamphlets attacking Oecolampadius’s position. The most important of these were by Johannes Brenz and Theobald Billican. In his responses to these pamphlets, Oecolampadius developed a number of arguments against Christ’s bodily presence that were shaped by both Aristotelian philosophy and Erasmian hermeneutics and exegesis. He also addressed broader questions concerning the purpose and value of the sacraments. Ludwig Hätzer translated Oecolampadius’s treatises into German, and by the fall of 1526 the debate had shifted to the vernacular. In the process, it became more polemical and the arguments against the sacramentarians were simplified to make them easier for the less literate to understand. Oecolampadius was not merely Ulrich Zwingli’s follower but was instead a major contributor to the debate in his own right.