We Believe in God and in Christ. Not in the Church: The Influence of Wessel Gansfort on Martin Bucer

by Marijn de Kroon

Overview

This English translation from the Dutch volume is a study of a quotation by St. Augustine as it was understood in the late medieval period. Marijn de Kroon focuses on how this quotation was interpreted by two theologians: Wessel Gansfort, the Northern humanist and theologian connected to the Devotio moderna and the Brethren of the Common Life, and Martin Bucer, the Protestant reformer who further developed Gansfort's ideas. This study is accompanied by a series of shorter texts, all showing the reception of Augustine's phrase in late medieval theology and contrasting it with Gansfort's understanding of it, which Bucer was to adopt. With his commented edition of sourcetexts, de Kroon throws a new light on the links between late medieval and Reformation thought, demonstrating how a fully fledged reformer like Bucer used the works of medieval theologians. In fact, this is the first work to point to a concrete case of Gansfort's influence on the Reformation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664232931
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	06/29/2009
Series:	Princeton Theological Seminary Studies in Reformed Theology and History
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Marijn de Kroon is Chief Editor of the Collected Works of Martin Bucer and the author of numerous scholarly works, including The Honor of God and Human Salvation.

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface Elsie McKee ix

Author's Preface for the English Translation Marijn de Kroon xi

Introduction xv

1 Augustine Makes His Entrance xv

2 Through the Back Door of Canon Law (Corpus Iuris Canonici) xvii

3 Augustine's Criticism of Mani's Epistula fundamenti xviii

4 Introductory Note to Chapter 1 xxi

Chapter 1 Six Interpretations 1

1 William of Occam (d. 1347) 1

2 Hermann von Schildesche (d. 1357) 5

3 Gregory of Rimini (d. 1358) 8

4 Pierre d'Ailly (d. 1420) 12

5 Thomas Netter Waldensis (d. 1430) 17

6 Gabriel Biel (d. 1495) 21

Chapter 2 Who Has Authority in the Church? 27

1 Wessel Gansfort's Interpretation 27

2 Why Did Wessel Gansfort Write This? 30

3 Excursus: Gansfort and Luther 32

4 Preliminary Remarks on the Present Edition of Wessel Gansfort's Treatise on Authority in the Church 33

5 The Text: Wessel Gansfort, Ecclesiastical Dignity and Power 34

Chapter 3 Martin Bucer and Wessel Gansfort: Exploratory Forays 67

1 Introduction 67

Bucer's Commentary on Romans 8:18 67

Bucer Chooses Wessel Gansfort 68

2 Exploratory forays 70

Wessel's Treatise De Eucharistia 70

Wessel's Treatise De potestate ecclesiastica 73

Edification and Piety 75

Religious Office as a Position 77

3 Antithetical Formulations 79

4 "Nature Is...the Will of God." 84

5 Wessel's Praise of Francis of Assisi 85

6 Concluding Remarks 86

Abbreviations 89

Sources and Secondary Literature 91

Biblical Index 97

Name Index 99