Timothy P. Dost - Renaissance Humanism in Support of the Gospel in Luthers Early Correspondence

Taking all things captive

Timothy P. Dost

First published 2001 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2017 by Routledge
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Copyright Timothy Paul Dost, 2001

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data
Renaissance Humanism in Support of the Gospel in Luther's Early Correspondence:
Taking all things captive. Dost, Timothy Paul
1. Luther, Martin, 1483-1546 2. Humanism I. Title
144

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Dost, Timothy P.
Renaissance Humanism in Support of the Gospel in Luther's Early Correspondence:
Taking all things captive / Timothy Paul Dost.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN 0-7546-0350-4 (alk. paper)
1. Luther, Martin, 1483-1546. 2. Humanism I. Title
BR333.5.H.85 D67 2001
284.1'092-dc21
2001022181

Typeset in Times New Roman by N2productions

ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-0350-4 (hbk)

This young scholar had much help along the way to finding a niche that would work for this book. In my undergraduate work at Valparaiso University, Gottfried Krodel provided much needed context and inspiration in his course, "The Life and Thought of Martin Luther". His continued assistance and guidance, especially in the area of historiography has been essential. The Luther course I had with Earnest Koenker at the University of Southern California served to clarify certain issues. When I suggested a survey of the antagonisms between Luther and the humanists it was Dr. Koenker who gently told me that-perhaps I should explore their concord rather than their discord. He also instructed me to read the book by Helmar Junghans, Der Junge Luther und Die Humanisten. Dr. Paul Knoll of the University of Southern California has been most generous in chairing the committee for both my examinations and my dissertation. He guided me through the area of Renaissance humanism, and showed me how extensive a task it would be to cover a topic involving both the Renaissance and Reformation. His numerous emendations have been invaluable, as has his wise counsel. Dr. Abraham Friesen of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has provided consistent guidance and advice on my dissertation and this book, showing me how to be more analytic, and less descriptive and analistic. Dr. Dallas Willard has provided inspiration, confidence, support and clarity. He has helped me to put this book into context as a human task that should be done well, but should also be completed. Occasional conversations with Lewis Spitz helped me to understand that this project would be worth pursuing and inspired me to sit down and get to work. Dr. Dwaine Brandt of Concordia University, Portland, perused a draft of the manuscript and provided helpful suggestions. Others who deserve credit for this project are the members of Concordia Lutheran Church, Inglewood, California, and Peace Lutheran Church, Estacada, Oregon, who helped support my family during this time of study, Norbert Huber and everyone at South Bay Lutheran High School who assisted me during this time, and of course my wife Nanette and my two children Jeremiah and Rachel who put up with so much to see this matter through to completion. My family's help in gathering books and articles, adding corrections on the computer and sacrificing some summer holidays, was invaluable. Of course, Alec McAulay, Ruth Peters, Thomas Gray and others at Ashgate and St. Andrews Press deserve particular thanks for placing confidence in a heretofore-untested scholar. Any errors or omissions that remain are of course my responsibility.

There was a time when the words Luther and humanism could hardly be mentioned as complementary concepts. As recently as 1950, in his excellent biography Here I Stand, Roland Bainton made no mention of humanism's influence on the reformer in his formative years. The closest Bainton came to such a conclusion was the following comment concerning Erfurt University at the time Luther studied there:

The University of Erfurt brought no change. The institution at that time had not yet been invaded by Renaissance influences. The classics in the curriculum, such as Vergil, had always been favorites in the Middle Ages. Aristotelian physics was regarded as an exercise in thinking God's thoughts after him, and the natural explanations of earthquakes and thunderstorms did not preclude occasional direct divine causation. The studies all impinged on theology, and the Master's degree for which Luther was preparing for the law could have equipped him equally for the cloth. The entire training of home, school, and university was designed to instill fear of God and reverence for the Church.

That Sainton's biography ignored humanism's early influence on Luther left the distinct impression that the reformer's encounters with the movement could best be organized around the opposite poles of his later antipathy for Erasmus and sympathy for Melanchthon. According to Bainton, while Luther's opposition to humanism was slight at this early juncture, there remained little or no influence by this particular intellectual current on his education. As recently as 1995, Bernard Reardon wrote,

Martin Brecht provided a contrasting view. In 1981 he completed the first book of his three-volume biography of Luther. Brecht broke with recent precedent, providing a rather extensive treatment of Luther and humanism, including the following excerpt regarding Erfurt:

In general, however, the intellectual climate in Erfurt was favorable for the seed sown by the humanists. The humanists who were teaching or studying here felt at home in the city, and got along well with the students. The movement quietly extended its base more and more, while at times the traditional instruction stagnated in the last two decades of the fifteenth century. We must make it clear that, in addition to the required courses, there was an extensive offering of voluntary lectures - sixteen courses as early as 1469 - dealing almost exclusively with classical authors such as Cicero, Vergil, Ovid, Terence, Valerius Maximus and Sallust. These courses became chiefly the domain of the humanists.