Christian Entfelder

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Christian Entfelder († after 1546 ) was an Austrian theologian with a radical Reformation orientation. He belonged temporarily to the Anabaptist movement and later developed an independent spiritualistic theology.

Life

Entfelder came from Carinthia . His brother and his cousins ​​owned goods in the Ennstal . Apparently he received a university education as a lawyer, because in 1525 he prepared a legal opinion and in a document he is referred to as a master's degree . Research suggests that he was a student of the radical Reformation theologian Hans Denck , with whom he agreed in many ways, but there is no evidence for this. After the mid-1520s he worked as a preacher in an Anabaptist congregation in Eibenschitz in Moravia . At that time he followed the theological orientation of Balthasar Hubmaier , a well-known spokesman for the Anabaptist movement, who valued his judgment.

According to his own account, Entfelder gave up his work as a preacher in Eibenschitz after he had recognized his errors and left the place. He was referring to his alienation from theology and the understanding of the Anabaptist community. Perhaps the persecution of Anabaptists in Moravia, initiated by King Ferdinand I in 1528, contributed to his decision to move. In January 1530 at the latest, he went to Strasbourg . This city was a refuge for dissidents , including Sebastian Franck and Johannes Bünderlin , whom Entfelder probably met there. He was on friendly terms with the radical Reformation theologian and writer Kaspar Schwenckfeld , who was then living in Strasbourg. A treatise that Entfelder completed in January 1530 shows that he had already broken with Anabaptism by then. This break was an expression of the controversy among the radical reformatory dissidents at the time: a legalistic tendency considered external norms, ceremonies and institutional community structures to be necessary, while spiritualists such as Entfelder, Bünderlin and Franck declared all of this to be useless and even harmful. Since Entfelder viewed the division of Christianity into rival denominations as a basic evil, he, like Bünderlin and Franck, had come to reject all denominational communities and now represented an independent theological doctrine. With this he caused offense in Anabaptist circles. Pilgram Marpeck , a spokesman for the Anabaptists, fought Bünderlin and Entfelder's non-denominational Christianity.

Later Entfelder stayed in Königsberg at the court of Duke Albrecht of Prussia . There he was a member of the ducal council from 1536 and signed government decrees together with the other councils. His official appointment to the council with a salary of 80 marks a year did not take place until June 1, 1541. As a government representative, he campaigned for the Dutch colonists in Prussia ; in particular, he helped set up the first closed settlement of Dutch Anabaptists. His sharpest opponent at this time was the Lutheran Bishop Paul Speratus , who described him as extremely clever in a letter in 1542. On March 2, 1544 Entfelder wrote a Latin letter to the reformer Johannes a Lasco . It is documented for the last time in Königsberg in 1546. From 1547 his name no longer appears on the payroll, so he was no longer in the service of the duke. His further fate is unknown.

Teaching

In his writings, Entfelder presented the doctrine that he had developed in the course of his turning away from the Anabaptist community. In addition to the theology of Hans Denck, late medieval influences also shaped his panentheistic thinking. He took up spiritual ideas that had been widespread since the late Middle Ages and that went back in particular to the impulses of Meister Eckhart . In this context, among other things, his use of Eckhart's term “serenity” belongs.

Like other spiritualists of the Reformation period, Entfelder accused the Reformed denominations of aligning themselves with the "dead letters" of the Bible. The theologians whom he criticized, he disparagingly referred to as " scribes ". He also used this expression for legalistic Anabaptists. He opposed the Lutheran appeal to the wording of the Holy Scriptures with the “inner voice”, the “inner living word” as the authoritative authority. By this he meant the presence of God within man. According to Entfelder's understanding, the function of Scripture is limited to guiding the reader to the inner word that everyone can find within themselves. With this he professed a purely spiritual piety beyond all dogmas and regulations of religious communities. He saw the violent arguments about baptism and the Lord's Supper as a cause of the fateful divisions and conflicts in Christianity. In order to overcome what was dividing, he advocated renouncing both rites ; these are the work of man and cannot bring bliss . The commission of God to carry out the rites does not apply universally, but only to the biblical persons to whom it has been expressly given. By declaring water baptism superfluous, Entfelder broke with the Anabaptist community, who attached great importance to this rite. Yet he seems to have retained a certain sympathy for the Anabaptists.

Entfelder equated God with good . According to his teaching, good must communicate, and this necessity is the cause of creation and the reason for human existence. As the absolutely good, God can only produce good, therefore everything that comes from him must be good. For Entfelder, evil is exclusively the work of man; it arises from the fact that the person turns to his own ego instead of the principle of being, the good. However, God wants to lead people back to himself. That is why he was made concrete in the figure of Jesus Christ . In Entfelder's opinion, Christ differs from other people not in his essence , but only in ethical terms: he is the only person who has fully realized divine goodness, but the possibility of doing so exists for everyone.

According to Entfelder, the real goal of the innate human pursuit of happiness is good. Man searches in vain for the good in the world, because it can only be found in God. The prerequisites for attaining true bliss are the renunciation of any pursuit of perishable goods and the willingness to live in uncertainty and unrest.

Entfelder rejected the dogma of the Trinity , according to which there are three persons in God - God the Father , Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit . He saw in it a “division” of God. Instead, he assumed an "undivided" deity "with triune power". As the three aspects of divine power, he determined the divine being, which he called “is”, the eternal “reality” that appears in creation, and the spirit with whose help man can come to God. Entfelder divided man's way to God into three stages. According to him, the first stage is the apprehension of God's true essence, which brings about purification, the second enlightenment as the knowledge that it is possible to participate in this essence, and the third, the union with the essence thanks to the power of the spirit.

expenditure

Contemporary prints

Modern editions

  • Adolf Laube (Ed.): Pamphlets from the Peasants' War to the Anabaptist Empire (1526–1535). Volume 2, Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-05-000936-5 , pp. 934–983 (critical edition of the book On the manifold divisions in faith that arose in these years with preliminary remarks and explanations)
  • Heinold Fast , Gottfried Seebaß (Ed.): Letters and writings from Upper German Anabaptists 1527–1555. The 'art book' by Jörg Probst Rotenfelder called painter (Burgerbibliothek Bern, Cod. 464). Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2007, ISBN 978-3-579-01646-7 , pp. 643-660 (critical edition of the book Vonrueer Gottseligkeit )

literature

  • Werner O. Packull : Mysticism and the Early South German-Austrian Anabaptist Movement 1525-1531. Herald Press, Scottdale 1977, ISBN 0-8361-1130-3 , pp. 163-175
  • Horst Penner : Christian Entfelder. A Moravian Anabaptist preacher and ducal councilor at the court of Albrecht of Prussia. In: Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter , Volume 23 (= New Series No. 18), 1966, pp. 19-23
  • Peter Poscharsky :  Entfelder, Christian. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 540 ( digitized version ).
  • André Séguenny: Christian Entfelder . In: André Séguenny (Ed.): Bibliotheca dissidentium . Repertoire of the non-conformistes religieux des seizième et dix-septième siècles. Volume 1: Johannes Campanus, Christian Entfelder, Justus Velsius, Catherine Zell-Schütz. Valentin Koerner, Baden-Baden 1980, ISBN 3-87320-079-1 , pp. 37-48
  • André Séguenny: A l'origine de la philosophie et de la théologie spirituelles en Allemagne au XVI e siècle: Christian Entfelder. In: Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 57, 1977, pp. 167-181

Remarks

  1. ^ André Séguenny: Christian Entfelder . In: André Séguenny (Ed.): Bibliotheca dissidentium , Vol. 1, Baden-Baden 1980, pp. 37–48, here: 37; Bruno Schumacher : Dutch settlements in the Duchy of Prussia at the time of Duke Albrechts (1525–1568) , Leipzig 1903, p. 56 f. and note 241; Horst Penner: Christian Entfelder. In: Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter , Volume 23 (= New Series No. 18), 1966, pp. 19–23, here: 19.
  2. ^ Adolf Laube (ed.): Pamphlets from the Peasant War to the Anabaptist Empire (1526–1535) , Vol. 2, Berlin 1992, p. 973; Martin Rothkegel : The understanding of the Holy Scriptures among the Anabaptists in Moravia. In: Ota Halama (ed.): Amica, Sponsa, Mater , Prag 2014, pp. 177–225, here: 186.
  3. ↑ See Vasily Arslanov: "Seliger Unfried" , Leipzig 2017, pp. 130 f., 151 f .; Paul Brand: Standing Still or Running On? In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 62, 2011, pp. 20–37, here: 23 f.
  4. ↑ Paul Brand: Standing Still or Running On? In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 62, 2011, pp. 20–37, here: pp. 23/24 note 20.
  5. ^ Adolf Laube (ed.): Pamphlets from the Peasant War to the Anabaptist Empire (1526–1535) , Vol. 2, Berlin 1992, p. 973; Vasily Arslanov: "Seliger Unfried" , Leipzig 2017, pp. 126-136.
  6. ^ Adolf Laube (ed.): Pamphlets from the Peasant War to the Anabaptist Empire (1526–1535) , Vol. 2, Berlin 1992, p. 974; Stephen B. Boyd: Pilgram Marpeck. His Life and Social Theology , Mainz 1992, pp. 84-90; Paul Brand: Standing Still or Running On? In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 62, 2011, pp. 20–37, here: 29–31.
  7. ^ André Séguenny: Christian Entfelder . In: André Séguenny (Ed.): Bibliotheca dissidentium , Vol. 1, Baden-Baden 1980, pp. 37–48, here: 38; André Séguenny: A l'origine de la philosophie et de la théologie spirituelles en Allemagne au XVI e siècle: Christian Entfelder. In: Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 57, 1977, pp. 167-181, here: 168 f .; Bruno Schumacher: Dutch settlements in the Duchy of Prussia at the time of Duke Albrechts (1525–1568) , Leipzig 1903, p. 56 f. and note 240; Horst Penner: Christian Entfelder. In: Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter , Volume 23 (= New Series No. 18), 1966, pp. 19–23, here: 19–21.
  8. ^ Adolf Laube (Ed.): Pamphlets from the Peasant War to the Anabaptist Empire (1526–1535) , Vol. 2, Berlin 1992, pp. 975–977.
  9. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Seliger Unfried" , Leipzig 2017, pp. 132-136; Paul Brand: Standing Still or Running On? In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 62, 2011, pp. 20–37, here: 24 f.
  10. ^ André Séguenny: Spiritualist Philosophy as an Answer to the Religious Question of the XVI. Century , Wiesbaden 1978, p. 24; André Séguenny: A l'origine de la philosophie et de la théologie spirituelles en Allemagne au XVI e siècle: Christian Entfelder. In: Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 57, 1977, pp. 167-181, here: 176; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, p. 59.
  11. ^ André Séguenny: A l'origine de la philosophie et de la théologie spirituelles en Allemagne au XVI e siècle: Christian Entfelder. In: Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 57, 1977, pp. 167-181, here: 170-172.
  12. ↑ George Huntston Williams : The Radical Reformation , 3rd Edition, Kirksville 2000, pp. 465-467; André Séguenny: Spiritualist Philosophy as an Answer to the Religious Question of the XVI. Century , Wiesbaden 1978, pp. 24–26; André Séguenny: A l'origine de la philosophie et de la théologie spirituelles en Allemagne au XVI e siècle: Christian Entfelder. In: Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 57, 1977, pp. 167-181, here: 176-179; Werner O. Packull: Mysticism and the Early South German-Austrian Anabaptist Movement 1525-1531 , Scottdale 1977, p. 166 f.
  13. ↑ On the first print see Adolf Laube (ed.): Pamphlets from the Peasant War to the Anabaptist Empire (1526–1535) , Vol. 2, Berlin 1992, pp. 974 f.
personal data
SURNAME Entfelder, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Baptist and spiritualist
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century or 16th century
DATE OF DEATH after 1546