Gnesiolutherans

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A group of theologians who developed out of internal Protestant doctrinal disputes in the 16th century is called Gnesiolutherans . Its contemporary name was Flacianer , after its most famous representative Matthias Flacius . They referred to themselves only as Lutherans (which they denied their opponents to be). In the 17th century the name Gnesiolutheraner arose (the Greek adjective γνήσιος gnesios means "real"). The views of the Gnesiolutherans shaped the basic structure of Lutheran orthodoxy .

Confrontation with the Philippists

After the death of Martin Luther in 1546 and the armed conflicts in the Schmalkaldic War of 1546/47, the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 offered the first opportunity to take stock of theology. In this so-called confessional age , two parties competed in Lutheranism for theological interpretative sovereignty: the " Philippists " (pupil of Philipp Melanchthon , who especially after the death of Martin Luther shaped the line of the church-political Reformation in Germany) and the genuine Lutherans ("Gnesiolutherans"). As a result, a disputation broke out among Protestant theologians on six points of contention:

  1. the 2nd sacrament controversy
  2. the adiaphoristic dispute
  3. the antinomial dispute
  4. the majorist dispute
  5. the Osiandrian quarrel
  6. the synergistic dispute

The main concern of the Gnesiolutherans was to ensure the survival of the Protestant religion. They wrote many polemical pamphlets in German in order to achieve the broadest possible impact. Because they feared the end of the world, they were not ready to compromise. A certain settlement of the teaching disputes did not come about until 1577 with the agreement on the concord formula .

Representative

The term Gnesiolutherans retrospectively summarizes a loose group of individual theologians who had a common interest in pure teaching, but also differing views. They hardly formed a common school.

The main representatives of the Gnesiolutherans were:

literature

  • Rudolf Keller: Gnesiolutheran . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia . Volume 13. (1984), pp. 512-519 (overview with further literature).
  • Wolfgang Klose: The Wittenberg Scholar Studbook. The family book of Abraham and David Ulrich. In use from 1549–1577 and 1580–1623. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 1999, ISBN 3-932776-76-3 .