Church History, Volume 3 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
History
Church History, Volume 3 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
The Formula of Concord commended itself to the hearts and
intelligences of Lutherans, and secured a hundred years’ supremacy of
orthodoxy, notwithstanding two Christological controversies. Gradually,
however, a new dogmatic scholasticism arose, which had the defects
as well as the excellences of the mediæval system. The orthodoxy of
this school deteriorated, on the one hand, into violent polemic on
confessional differences, and, on the other, into undue depreciation
of outward forms in favour of a spiritual life and personal piety.
These tendencies are represented by the Syncretist and Pietist
controversies.
§ 159.1. =Christological Controversies.=
1. =The Cryptist and Kenotist Controversy= between the
Giessen and Tübingen theologians, in A.D. 1619, about
Christ’s state of humiliation, led to the publication of
many violent treatises down to A.D. 1626. The Kenotists
of Giessen, with Mentzer and Feuerborn at their head,
assigned the humiliation only to the human nature, and
explained it as an actual κένωσις, _i.e._ a complete but
voluntary resigning of the omnipresence and omnipotence
immanent in His divinity (κτῆσις, but not χρῆσις),
yet so that He could have them at His command at any
moment, _e.g._ in His miracles. The Cryptists of Tübingen,
with Luc. Osiander and Thumm at their head, ascribed
humiliation to both natures, and taught that all the
while Christ, even _secundum carnem_, was omnipresent
and ruled both in heaven and earth, but in a hidden
way; the humiliation is no κένωσις, but only a κρύψις.
After repeated unsuccessful attempts to bring about
a reconciliation, John George, Elector of Saxony, in
A.D. 1623, accepted the Kenotic doctrine. But the two
parties still continued their strife.[466]
2. =The Lütkemann Controversy= on the humanity of Christ in
death was of far less importance. Lütkemann, a professor
of philosophy at Rostock, affirmed that in death, because
the unity of soul and body was broken, Christ was not true
man, and that to deny this was to destroy the reality and
the saving power of his death. He held that the incarnation
of Christ lasted through death, because the divine nature
was connected, not only with the soul, but also with the
body. Lütkemann was obliged to quit Rostock, but got an
honourable call to Brunswick as superintendent and court
preacher, and there died in A.D. 1655. Later Lutherans
treated the controversy as a useless logomachy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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