Nitzschenum
The draft of a confessional text that the mediation theologian Carl Immanuel Nitzsch wrote in 1846 is known under the polemical name of Nitzschenum .
"Nitzschenum" in context
The “Nitzschenum” was part of an expert opinion on a renewed ordination form (available at the ordination ). Nitzsch gave a lecture on this at the extraordinary Prussian General Synod , which met from June 2 to August 29, 1846 in the chapel of the Berlin Palace . At that time he was Professor of Practical and Systematic Theology at the University of Bonn .
The text was controversially discussed by the synodians, but there was no vote on it. The plenary work was interrupted; on August 7, 1846, the commission submitted a new draft of the ordination form, which contained essential parts of Nitzsch's text. This ordination form was accepted with 48 votes in favor and 14 against.
The so-called Nitzschenum was not, as the opponents claim, the draft for a new kind of "Union Confession" in Prussia. Rather, a text corpus was intended as the "basis for establishing a teaching order", which included three parts:
- the ordination form (with “Nitzschenum”);
- the list of confessional texts (symbols) valid in the Prussian regional church;
- a detailed teaching consensus.
text
According to the official protocol, the confession text presented by Nitzsch had the following wording:
“... so confess the servant by the word
to believe in God the Father , almighty creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ , his only begotten Son,
who emptied himself and assumed the form of a servant
and as a prophet from God, powerfully preaching peace in deed and word,
who was given up for our sins and was raised for our righteousness,
has sat at the right hand of God and rules as head of the church forever;
and in the Holy Spirit , by whom we are called Lord Jesus, and know what is given to us in him,
Who testifies to the believers that they are children of God, and will be given to them an imperishable inheritance that is kept in heaven.
In particular, testify to the evangelical magisterium that we are saved not through works of the law but by grace through faith which renews the heart and in love vigorously brings forth the fruits of the Spirit. "
Reactions
The group (later known as the “Confessionellen”) around Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg and his Evangelical Church newspaper was in the minority at the synod; It was their concern that the confessional texts valid in Prussia were explicitly set down - for them the Confessio Augustana was the focus. A “creed composed of many historical pieces”, as Nitzsch had introduced, could not be the basis of the confession of the United Church for them.
Hengstenberg's party violently polemicized against the so-called “ robber synod ”, which wanted to put a “Nitzschenum” in place of the Nicaenum . Friedrich Wilhelm IV was disappointed in his expectations of the synod, his government left the resolutions unexecuted.
literature
- Joachim Mehlhausen : The right of the community. Carl Immanuel Nitzsch's contribution to the reform of the Protestant church constitution. In: Vestigia Verbi. Essays on the history of Protestant theology (= work on church history . Volume 72). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1999. ISBN 3-11-015053-0 . Pp. 273-299.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Joachim Mehlhausen: Das Recht der Gemeinde , Berlin / New York 1999, p. 284. Note 38.
- ^ Joachim Mehlhausen: The right of the community , Berlin / New York 1999, p. 283.
- ↑ Lucian Hölscher : Confessional politics in Germany between religious dispute and coexistence. In the S. (Ed.): Construction plans of the visible church: linguistic concepts of religious communalization in Europe. Göttingen 2007. pp. 11–52, here p. 34.