Lutheran preaching and drama: an attempt at a comparative typology

Zinaida Andreevna Lurie PhD-student, Institute of History, Saint-Petersburg State University (Mendeleevskaya linia, dom 5, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 199034), z.lurie@spbu.ru; zlourie@gmail.com

Lurie Z. A. Lutheran preaching and drama: an attempt at  a comparative typology , Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2015, vol. 4, pp. 234–249.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2015-00011

Language: Russian

The article deals with formal and thematic peculiarities of the Lutheran sermon in its evolution as a prototype of other didactic genres. Biblical drama that appeared soon after the Reformation as  independent and prevailing type of dramatic works was in many aspect a rhetorical genre. That allows to make a consistent comparison between sermon and drama in the early Lutheran tradition. The author shows that thematically both literature genres were aimed at preaching of Law and Gospel. Ethical, political and social problems (ordo ecclesiasticusordo politiciis, ordo oeconomicus) composed an important part of confession didactic, especially, in Melanchton interpretation. However, they were valuable only in the light of Apocalyptical consciousness. All loci that were typical for the Lutheran sermon and, for example, were named by Melanchton in the Augsburg confession of 1531, also appear in dramatic works. Speaking of formal features, logic and structure, biblical drama seem to be orientated as well on the rhetorical model of Melanchton (epitrepticumparaeneticum and genus didascalicum) that fit the homiletical aims. All this make possible with more certainty to speak about Biblical drama as a part of phenomenological confessional model, reflected mainly in Luther Biblical translation and commentary.
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Key words: Melanchthon, Luther, confessionalisation, the Bible, Sixt Birck, Joachim Greff, Paul Rebhun, Tomas Naogeorgus, preaching, sermons, drama, theater

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/lurie-2015-en/

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