Thursday, October 17, 2024

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 17th of October 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

About 20 years ago, a younger me was stashed away in the Library at the University of St. Andrews, feverishly looking for reformation characters who were non-traditional, outsiders, and, most importantly for a PhD student, understudied.

I would go on to look at Johann Arndt. Still, it was almost Andreas Osiander- one of the more controversial early Reformers who had been passed over for various reasons- NONE of them being that he wasn’t a fascinating character. Two years ago, Andrew Thomas published The Apocalypse in Reformation Nuremberg: Jews and Turks in Andreas Osiander's World. And I can’t help but think this unconventional reformer might get some of the historical recognition he deserves with this work and just a few others in English.

Students of Lutheran Orthodoxy might recognize the name Osiander. Our Osiander was born in 1498 as Andreas Hosemann. He would Latinize the name Osiander, and his son, Lucas, and grandson, also called Andreas, would become theologians.

Andreas the elder went to school in Leipzig, Altenberg, and Ingolstadt, where, among other things, he would study Hebrew under Johannes Reuchlin- the great uncle of reformer Philip Melanchthon. Andreas was called to teach at the Augustinian Monastery in Nuremberg in 1520 as the Reformation was in its early stages. Andreas, trained in the humanist style, would be interested in the work being done in textual criticism- he would publish his own version of the Latin Vulgate. Later in his career, he published a harmony of the Gospels. In 1522, he was made preacher at St. Lorenz, a position he would hold until 1548.

There, he began to move to the side of the Reformation. His popularity in Nuremberg helped sway the whole city to the Reformation, and in 1529, Osiander was called to the Colloquy of Marburg, where Luther and Zwingli debated, among other things, the proper understanding of the Eucharist. Osiander would side with Luther and would be seen as an ally of the Wittenberg reformer.

But Osiander was not shy about backing down when he thought the reformers were too timid. He criticized Melanchthon for being, in his opinion, too timid. By 1539, Osiander was carving out his own place in the Reformation, even if it meant breaking with the other reformers. As a Hebrew tutor, he would study with Woelfflein of Schnaittach, and it was in his work with this Jewish man that Andreas would write an anonymous attack on the anti-semitic claims of blood libel (the idea that Jewish people ritually murdered Christian children). In a private letter, Osiander was also critical of Luther’s anti-Jewish writings.

Those views would be less influential than those in the short and anonymous preface he wrote for Nicholas Copernicus’ “Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs” in 1543. Osiander wrote the introduction, but unsigned. Many believed Copernicus wrote it, and in it, Osiander claimed that these ideas were purely hypothetical- while this wasn’t Copernicus’s view, it was this preface that would keep the book of the Index of Banned Books.

In 1548, under the Augsburg Interim, all Lutherans were to submit to the traditions of the Catholic mass with some concessions (they could have bread and wine for communion, and married preachers could remain married). This was too far for Osiander, who ended up in Königsberg to teach theology at the University there.

And it was in that outpost that some of Osiander’s more peculiar theology began to work itself out, especially with regard to the meaning of Christ’s death for the believer and the nature of justification.

He taught that Jesus is the savior of humanity only on account of his divine nature. Osiander’s colleague Stancarus would most vehemently oppose this view, claiming that Jesus is the savior of humanity only on account of his human nature. The Book of Concord, a Lutheran confessional document, would condemn both views.

But Osiander would more famously argue against what he saw as an over-emphasis on the forensic nature of Justification- that is, Justification as a declarative act that pronounces the sinner justified instead of- for Osiander- an infused grace by which one conforms to the likeness of Christ. While the latter is taught in Scripture, the Reformers were careful to separate forensic Justification and sanctification- Osiander’s position was “Augustinian” but deemed insufficiently Lutheran.

He was an early reformer who didn’t fit the mold still being cast in the early 16th century, and as a humanist and theologian, Andreas Osiander could be a useful ally but also something of a pest (his niece married Thomas Cranmer, and Cranmer would not bring Osiander to England for fear of his temperament). Son and grandson, Lucas and Andreas, would continue in the family business of theology and disputation. Andreas the elder would die on this, the 18th of October in 1552. Born in 1498, he was 53 years old.

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and Romans 15:

7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
    I will sing the praises of your name.”

10 Again, it says,

“Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”

11 And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
    let all the peoples extol him.”

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 17th of October 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by the pride of West Lafayette, whose Boilermakers take on the #2 Oregon Ducks tomorrow! He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man with a joke about how Purdue could be ranked 17th in the Big 10 until I realize the Trojans are 15th… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.