House postille
A house postil was originally used to describe a collection of sermons or a sermon book that was intended for domestic edification and possibly also for reading aloud in church. It was also intended to help pastors prepare their own sermons. From the literal sense of the word, postils were explanations of the texts of the Bible that followed the text words. (Latin: post illa verba = after those words ).
history
Best known are the Catholic hand Postille was the stone fields Prämonstratenser - priest Leonard Goffiné that in 1690 Mainz was printed. With over 120 new editions and translations into many languages, it is one of the most widespread works in world literature. The double postil (also known as the house and church postil or "German postil" ) by Martin Luther from 1521 has found widespread use in the Protestant region. The Bohemian thinker and writer of the Hussite period Petr Chelčický wrote a postil in the Czech language around 1435, which was printed in 1522. Finally, the postil of Johann Arndt , a Protestant theologian from 1615, is worth mentioning. For the spiritual survival of the secret Protestants , e.g. B. in Austria, the postillas were indispensable. Up to the Tolerance Patent in 1781, there was a constant smuggling of Luther Bibles and devotional writings, as well as collections of sermons - i.e. postils - into the secret Protestant centers in Upper Styria and Upper Austria.
List of historical postils (selection)
- Martin Luther : Enarrationes epistolarum et evangeliorum quas postillas vocant. Wittenberg 1521.
- Martin Luther: Church postil. Wittenberg 1522.
- Martin Luther: House Postille. Wittenberg 1542.
- Philipp Melanchthon : Gospel Postille. Nuremberg 1549.
- Martin Chemnitz : Evangelien-Postille. Magdeburg 1594.
- Lucas Osiander the Elder : Farmer's Postille. Tübingen 1597.
- Johann Arndt : Evangelien-Postille. Leipzig 1616.
- Leonhard Goffiné : Hand-Postill or Christian-Catholic instructions from all Sundays and Feyr days of the whole year. Mainz 1690.
- Claus Harms : Winter Postille. Kiel 1812
- Claus Harms: Summer Postille. Kiel 1815.
- Wilhelm Löhe : Winter Postille. Stuttgart 1847.
- Wilhelm Löhe: summer postil. Stuttgart 1848.
- Wilhelm Löhe: Epistle-Postille. 1858.
Change of word meaning
Today, the misreading of sermons for lecturers and preachers read sermons published. The term postil changed from a devotional book to a writ of edification. In the 20th century it finally found its way into literary and colloquial language - ironically. Bertolt Brecht's work, first published in 1927 but conceived as early as 1918, bears the title Bertolt Brecht's house postil . The alleged proximity to a Christian edification is like the preface an ironic-distancing element of this modern collection of poetry. Known (with a circulation of more than 200,000 copies) also was Halunkenpostille of Fritz Grasshoff , whose lyrics often recited in cabaret and as songs were sung.
Current meaning of postille
In today's colloquial language, Postille describes a newspaper or magazine with only a few pages . The word is mostly used disparagingly for press products of little journalistic value (eg "advertising post" of a company).
literature
- Sabine Holtz: Sermon: Religious Transfer via Postillen , European History Online , ed. from the Institute for European History (Mainz) , 2011, accessed on: June 29, 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz: GOFFINÉ, Leonhard. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 262-263.