Johann Gerhard on the Theologian's Vocation in Theory and Practice
The Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard (1582-1637) wrote his erudite Loci theologici for an academic context, and the Schola pietatis and Meditationes sacrae as popular devotional works for a lay audience; these works coexist as part of a singular and coherent literary corpus. This article presents...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
The Johns Hopkins University Press
2022
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| In: |
Lutheran quarterly
Year: 2022, Volume: 36, Issue: 3, Pages: 295-321 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KAG Church history 1500-1648; Reformation; humanism; Renaissance KDD Protestant Church NAB Fundamental theology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard (1582-1637) wrote his erudite Loci theologici for an academic context, and the Schola pietatis and Meditationes sacrae as popular devotional works for a lay audience; these works coexist as part of a singular and coherent literary corpus. This article presents the argument that key methodological features bind together Gerhard's academic and popular devotional works. In his Loci theologici, Gerhard both employs and explicitly teaches about theological method. He draws on Aristotelian causality and the synthetic method of theology, and he combines these with his distinctive penchant for pondering each theological theme in relation to the giver (God) and the recipients (humans or creation). In the process, he also analyzes the role of the theologian or pastor in helping those Christians who seek to grow in the habitus of piety., These philosophical considerations of methodology find their practical embodiment in many of his pastoral meditations in the Schola pietatis. There, Gerhard repeatedly leads his readers to consider the themes evoked by the words of Scripture as caused by God and as received by humans, following the methodological patterns established in the Loci theologici. In other words, in his Loci, Gerhard analyzes methodological and theoretical questions with deeply practical pastoral implications, while in the Schola pietatis, he applies the same methodological tools to compose devotional meditations. These notable continuities connect Gerhard's work as an academic theologian to his work as a pastor and popular writer of devotional texts. |
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| ISSN: | 2470-5616 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Lutheran quarterly
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/lut.2022.0068 |