Luther – Page 3

Confession and name: Male names of German Protestant nobility in the 16–17th centuries

Prokopiev Andrey Yur’evich, PhD, professor, Institute of History, Saint-Petersburg State University (Mendeleevskaya linia, dom 5, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 199034)

prokopiev65@mail.ru

Prokopiev A. Y. Confession and name: Male names of German Protestant nobility in the 16–17^thcenturies, 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, 2014, vol. 3, pp. 298–313.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2014-00014

Language: Russian

The article deals with names given the 16–17^thcenturies ruling elite in order to study influence of the confessional and other factors on naming. The author focuses on the male names of Württemberg and Dresden rulers within period after the Augsburg Peace to the Thirty Years’ War. Concerning house of Württemberg, offspring of Duke Friedrich I (1558–1608) up to the children of the Duke Eberhard III are studied. Saxon house of Wettin is limited to children of Elector August I and their offsprings up to the heirs of Johann Georg II. The study involves a wide amount of archival materials and, in particular, the funeral sermons, made by confessors. Author concludes that most names were absolutely neutral, regardless to the elite faith. Luther called to stop the practice of christening in honor of the old saints in favor to biblical and old German names, but for his adherents from elite social class this question was hardly relevant. In contrast, a significant influx of new names from Catholic houses, especially obvious in the history of Württemberg, or reproduction of Moritz-name in Wettin family, demonstrate that naming was influenced by dynastic interests. In spite the importance of confessional consciousness in the period, family roots and dynastic course were to overcome confessional limits.

Key words: confession, Reformation, the House of Wettin, the House of Württemberg, Luther, naming

URL: //rcs-almanac.ru/prokopiev-2014-en/

Protestant theater of the 16–17th centuries as a historical and cultural phenomenon

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Lurie Zinaida Andreevna, Institute of History, Saint-Petersburg State University (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), zinaidalourie@gmail.com

Lurie Z. A. Protestant theater of the 16–17^th centuries as a historical and cultural phenomenon, 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, 2014, vol. 3, pp. 282–297.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2014-00013

Language: Russian

The article discusses the phenomenon of the 16–17^thcenturies Protestant theater as a unique feature of the age. The author discusses the main characteristic of drama and performances and features out several steps of development of the Protestant scene. She makes an attempt to speak about the theater from the angle of its social role and its cultural relevance with same respect to its printed versions (Protestant drama) and visual and scene components. Protestant theater was an original phenomenon only in the first half of the 16^thcentury, later dealing the stage with the Jesuits. Existed mainly as forms of public school theater (teachers were responsible for organization of city performances) both phenomena were invariants of confessional theater based on the humanist tradition. Since the second half of the 16^th century such half-professional institutions were overshadowed by professional English and Italian troupes and Court Theater as well. However, in German lands with their sets of provincial cities school theater was an important social structure for a long time. Relevance of the article is in examination of the theatrical practice from various angels (its content and esthetics, occupation in propaganda, author’s social role and professional level). The researcher tries to avoid generalizations that are inherent to formal or instrumentalist approaches.

Key words: Sixt Birk, Joachim Greff, Cornelius Crocus, Martin Luther, Melanchthon, Reformation, Humanism, theater

URL: //rcs-almanac.ru/lurie-2014-en/

Lutheran preaching and drama: an attempt at a comparative typology

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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 ecclesiasticus, ordo 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 (epitrepticum, paraeneticum 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.

Key words: Melanchthon, Luther, confessionalisation, the Bible, Sixt Birck, Joachim Greff, Paul Rebhun, Tomas Naogeorgus, preaching, sermons, drama, theater

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

Alles Schicksal? Der Himmel als astrologische Auskunftei im Luthertum der Frühen Neuzeit

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Walter Sparn, PhD in theology, professor, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Schloßplatz 4, 91054 Erlangen, Germany), ephorus, Martin Luthers Bund (Fahrstraße 15, Erlangen, Germany, 91054)

walter.sparn@t-online.de

Sparn W. Alles Schicksal? Der Himmel als astrologische Auskunftei im Luthertum der Frühen Neuzeit, 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. 34–41.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2015-00003

Language: German

The article “All is Fortune? The sky as an astrology agency in the early modern time lutheranism” deals with attitude to astrology as part of the Lutheran intellectual culture of the 16–17^th centuries. The author marks out two distinctive approaches to astrology that were, on the one hand, the interpretation of the planets position as the epitome of human lives, and, on the other hand, as sign of the future events. The last implies human actions with aim of correction and perfection of the picture presented in the sky. Luther himself didn’t engaged in astrology, but it fat perfectly his eschatological consciousness. Among other reformers and Lutheran priests (Michael Stiefel, Philipp Melanchthon, Abdias Trew, etc.) astrology was considered as necessary and honorable knowledge. Here the Melanchthon’s support of astrology in the treatise “Oratio de dignitate astrologia” 1535 was an important argument and is analyzed in detail by the author. Despite the overall empirical character of the 16–17^th centuries science within astrology was widely condemned, there had been made several attempts to reform the area. In conclusion, the author analyses astrology in the context of general Christian eschatology.

Key words: Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Ptolemy, Copernicus

URL: //rcs-almanac.ru/sparn-w-2015-en/

Truth and tolerance: what are the borders of the acceptable plurality in Christian faith?

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Juha Pihkala Doctor in theology, docent of dogmatics, University of Helsinki (Universitetsgatan, 4, Helsingfors, Finland, 00100), juha.pihkala@jpihkal.pp.fi

Pihkala J. Truth and tolerance: what are the borders of the acceptable plurality in Christian faith?, 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, 2017, vol. 6, pp. 44–67.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2017-00003

Language: English

This article, based on the lecture read in St. Petersburg (24.10.2017), at first discusses the Christian concept of truth. It differs from the philosophical concept of truth, which relies on the commonly accepted knowledge-based arguments. The Christian concept of truth relies on events experienced in history whose existential meaning, it’s most important identity, is recorded in the rule of the faith – regula fidei. Within the core domains of the rule of faith, the Christian concept of truth does not know the tolerance liked by modern thinking. It is, however, also necessary for the Church mission to interpret the rule of the faith in different cultures in their own language and to apply practices that differ from the original. This means: tolerance also is needed. Religious freedom is necessary concerning the assumption of the faith. In the history, however, this freedom has been damaged, causing great harm. When Constantine used the Christian faith as an ideological creator of the unity of the state, he still did not change the old Roman law of religion: the religion of the ruler was also during the Christian era necessarily the religion of the empire. This principle has been followed until the new era (cuius regio, eius religio).

Key words: Confessio Augustana, Luther, Church, creed, confession, Reformation, ecumenism

URL: //rcs-almanac.ru/pihkala-2017-en/