Teaching the Reformation: Ministers and Their Message in Basel, 1529-1629 (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology) - Hardcover

Burnett, Amy Nelson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195305760 ISBN 13: 9780195305760

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2006

Synopsis

Though the Reformation was sparked by the actions of Martn Luther, it was not a decisive break from the Church in Rome but rather a gradual process of religious and social change. As the men responsible for religious instruction and moral oversight at the village level, parish pastors played a key role in the implementation of the Reformation and the gradual development of a Protestant religious culture, but their ministry has seldom been examined in the light of how they were prepared for the pastorate. Teaching the Reformation examines the four generations of Reformed pastors who served the church of Basel in the century after the Reformation, focusing on the evolution of pastoral training and Reformed theology, the theory and practice of preaching, and the performance of pastoral care in both urban and rural parishes. It looks at how these pastors were educated and what they learned, examining not only the study of theology but also the general education in languages, rhetoric and dialectic that future pastors received at the citys Latin school and in the arts faculty of the university. It points to significant changes over time in the content of that education, which in turn separated Basels pastors into distinct generations. The study also looks more specifically at preaching in Basel, demonstrating how the evolution of dialectic and rhetoric instruction, and particularly the spread of Ramism, led to changes in both exegetical method and homiletics. These developments, combined with the gradual elaboration of Reformed theology, resulted in a distinctive style of Reformed Orthodox preaching in Basel. The development of pastoral education also had a direct impact on how Basels clergy carried out their other dutiescatechization, administering the sacraments, counseling the dying and consoling the bereaved, and overseeing the moral conduct of their parishioners. The growing professionalization of the clergy, the result of more intensive education and more stringent supervision, contributed to the gradual implantation of a Reformed religious culture in Basel.

About this title

About the Author

Amy Nelson Burnett is Professor of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is the author of The Yoke of Christ: Martin Bucer and Christian Discipline.

Review

"Impressively researched, clearly organized, well-written, and helpfully augmented by a number of graphs and tables. This important book will have an enduring impact on German Reformation studies."--Church History

"Burnett's new book is a very helpful contribution to a much neglected subject. Drawing on archival as well as printed sources, this study of the development of the Protestant clergy of Basel provides a detailed picture of the training and career paths of the first four generations. One key strength of the book is the attention to obscure men, to the rank-and-file of pastors and preachers. It is particularly illuminating to see how both church and clergy shaped and were shaped by the process which led from reformers like Johannes Oecolampadius, through several cohorts of pastors who experienced different stages of the establishment of Protestant structures, to those whose entire formation was the fruit of a post-Reformation tradition." -- Elsie McKee, author of Elders and the Plural Ministry: The Role of Exegetical History in Illuminating Joh nCalvin's Theology

"Amy Nelson Burnett's study of the clergy of Basel and its hinterland places her in the distinguished company of such colleagues as Bernard Vogler and Luise Schorn-Schütte in revealing what a complex task introducing the Reformation was. Without an informed, convinced, and energetic pastoratenot just in the earliest phase but beyond the sixteenth century the effort at religious reform might have failed. Because the clergy stood at the nexus between authority and society at large, Burnetts findings have implications for the social and political dimensions of religious change. She relates events in Basel to similar developments portrayed in the scholarly literature about other parts of Europe. I shall require all my graduate students to read this book!" --Susan Karant-Nunn, author of The Reformation of Ritual: An Interpretation of Early Modern Germany

"Amy Nelson Burnett has produced a highly significant study of the culture of learning in Basel in the Reformation and post-Reformation eras that is sensitive both to the socio-political context and to the religious and theological backgrounds of the era. In other words, this is a study remarkable for its careful work in the realm of social and institutional history and for its grasp of currents in intellectual history as well. This is a finely documented work of superb scholarship." --Richard A. Muller, P.J. Zondervan Professor of Historical Theology, Calvin Theological Seminary

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0195305760
• ISBN 13: 9780195305760
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 460