Melanchthon and Bucer ed. by Wilhelm Pauck (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 813 Melanchthon and Bucer. The Library of Christian Classics, vol. 19. Ed. by WILHELM PAUCK. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1969. Pp. 406. $7.50. Two of the leading figures of the early period of Protestantism were Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) and Martin Bucer (1491-1551). Surprisingly little is known today even in Protestant circles of these theologians who were second only to Martin Luther among German reformers and whose published works-books and treatises-number in the hundreds. The appearance of two important works of Melanchthon and Bucer in English translation is a welcome addition to the theological corpus of the Reformation and to ecumenical studies. This volume is one of a twentysix volume English language presentation of the " most indispensable Christian treatises written before the end of the sixteenth century." The translation and the editorial notes are in keeping with the high standards of The Library of Christian Classics series. The Loci Communes Theologici (1521) of Philip Melanchthon has been described as the first Protestant dogmatics or the first Protestant attempt at systematic theology. Unlike the De Locis Theologicis (1560) of Melchior Cano, Melanchthon's work is not a study of the sources of theology. It is a treatment of Loci communes rerum theologarum (Fundamental Theological Themes). Melanchthon was still a young man of twenty-four when he first published the Loci Communes, a work which was to undergo several changes and additions throughout the author's career. In the period 1521-1525 eighteen Latin editions were published; in the years 1535-1540 an enlarged and much altered edition appeared; the greatest changes in theological opinion occurred in the editions of 15431544 . A book of the Library of Protestant Thought series, Melanchthon on Christian Doctrine: Loci Communes 1555, ed. by C. L. Manschreck (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), presents the final redaction of the author. Anyone who is interested in an extensive study of Melanchthon's thought is referred to this latter book which contains notes and an introduction by Hans Engelland from the critical edition of the Loci Communes (1555). The special importance of the volume of the Library of Christian Classics under consideration is that it presents the work of a young writer at the beginning of his career and at the beginning of the Reformation period (1521) alongside of the De Regno Christi, the mature work of Martin Bucer which appeared at the end of the first generation of Lutheran and Reformed theologians (1550) . Bucer's work, like Melanchthon's, contains elements of Protestant dogmatics. The editor, Wilhelm Panek, a distinguished Protestant historian of the Church, has published writings on both men but is more at home with the Strasbourg reformer Martin Bucer, having done his doctoral dissertation on the De Regno Christi at Berlin (1928). Both Melanchton and Bucer were repulsed by the " spohistical legends," 814 BOOK REVIEWS as they referred to the scholastic theologians. They were attracted by Erasmus, Rhenanus (learned humanist of Bucer's birthplace, .Selestat) , Reuchlin (from Melanchthon's home in the Palatinate), Brenz, and the humanists of the University of Heidelberg. Both were deeply moved by Luther's arguments from Holy Scripture. Melanchthon, a professor of Greek at Wittenberg, was moved to become a theologian; Bucer, a Qominican. priest, was moved to seek a dispensation from his vows and to become a preacher of the reform. The Loci Communes was hastily published by Melanchthon after his students had put in print without permission a set of his classroom notes. The worl.< amounts to a commentary on the Epistle to the Romans of St. Paul. The basic topics of Christian theology are sin, the fruits of sin, law, free will, grace, the vows of monks, justification and faith, etc. Little or nothing is done with. the divinity of God, the Christian mystenes of the Incarnation, creation. "We do better to adore the mysteries of Deity than inve~tigate them." . The Thomistic influence of his early Dominican period remained to give moderation and a certain organization to Bucer's program of social ethics. The De. Regno Christi wa~ a program of social and ecclesiastical reform presented to the young King Edward VI of England, where Bucer was in exile during the last two years of his life. Bucer returns to preChristian and Christian sources. The Bible is the foundation stone for his ecclesiology and reform program. He presents the Church as a community of the elect: one may not' be in the Church (Body of Christ) and yet be in .the reign of Christ; but it is not possible to be in the Body of Christ without being in the reign of Christ. This view of Church membership is close to that of the prominent Protestant theologian of our day Oscar Cullmann (cf. Christ and Time, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1964', p. 188 ff.).¥elanchton and Bucer were important figures in the struggle for Protestant unity, a fact which led both men to be misunderstood and mistrusted by contemporaries. Melanchthon convinced Luther that he should agree to the Concord of Wittenberg (1536) of which Bucer was the architect, a concord which at least on paper put an end to the bitter strife among Protestants over the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. :rhe historical and theological research into Melanchthon's early Protestant dogmatics and Bucer's early Protestant social ethics will prove rewarding to Roman Catholic scholars. The .historical influence and significance of these men is reflected in Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican, Puritan ap.d Methodist traditions. Both are witness to the central Protestant · concern for the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae. Dominican HOWle of Studil!S Washington, D. (j. JoHN M. DoNAHUE, 0. P. ...