Synergistic dispute

The synergistic dispute (ancient Greek: synergetikos "contributing") is one of the post-Reformation disputes in Germany and was waged between the Gnesiolutherans and the Philippists in 1556–1560 / 61 . In accordance with the late Philip Melanchthon represented Johann Pfeffinger and Victorin Strigel the view that the human will mitwirke at conversion. The Gnesiolutherans, led by Matthias Flacius , insisted, referring to Luther's De servo arbitrio , that the natural man no longer has free will with regard to his salvation and is like a "block and stone" ( truncus et lapis ), so that he is completely open by the grace of God. The so-called Weimar Disputation was intended to settle the dispute, during which, on the initiative of Duke Johann Friedrich the Middle , Flacius and Strigel discussed in Weimar Castle in August 1560.

The formula of the Agreement in Article II rejected the doctrine of the Philippists and emphasized that the natural man is incapable of turning to grace. But it also contradicted Flacius' radical statements that original sin was the nature or the essence of man, but saw the Christian through grace as being able to make his own will.

As a synergistic theology, the view is also generally referred to, God and man worked together of individuals with the healing and that it was not only a result of God's grace (see righteousness ).

literature

Thomas Kaufmann : Synergism. I: Reformation and Orthodoxy . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE). Volume 32, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-016712-3 , pp. 508-518.
Stefan Michel: The synergistic dispute. Theological and religious political positions on human free will . In: Irene Dingel , Günther Wartenberg (Hrsg.): Politics and Confession. The reactions to the Interim of 1548 . Ev. Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2006. pp. 249–278.

Individual evidence

^ Friedhelm Gleiß: The Weimar Disputation of 1560. Theological search for consensus and confessional politics of Johann Friedrich the Middle. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-374-05433-6 .

[1] Friedhelm Gleiß: The Weimar Disputation of 1560. Theological search for consensus and confessional politics of Johann Friedrich the Middle. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-374-05433-6 .