Reforming the Art of Dying: The Ars Moriendi in the German Reformation (1519-1528)

ISBN-13: 9780754654391 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 304 str.

Austra Reinis

Opis

The Reformation forced Christians to reconsider virtually every aspect of their faith, and those who embraced Luther's teachings had to find new ways of dealing with the many aspects of their lives. Nowhere is this more true than with death. By the beginning of the sixteenth century the Catholic Church had an established and sophisticated mechanism for dealing with death and its consequences, all of which were rejected by the Protestant reformers. In order to fill this gap and offer comfort to the dying, they produced new church orders and published handbooks on dying. This study focuses on the earliest of these Protestant handbooks, beginning with Luther's "Sermon on Preparing to Die" in 1519 and ending with Jakob Otter's "Christlich leben vnd sterben" in 1528. It explores how Luther and his colleagues adopted traditional themes and motifs even as they transformed them to accord with their conviction that Christians could be certain of their salvation. It further shows how Luther's colleagues drew on his writings, not only his teaching on dying, but also other writings including his sermons on the sacraments. The study concludes that the assurance of salvation that these works offered represented a significant change from traditional teaching on death. By examining the ways in which the themes and teachings of the reformers differed from the late medieval ars moriendi, the book underlines many of the breaks as well as continuities that underpinned the early Reformation.

Recenzje

’The work fills a gap in the understanding of how a particular area of pastoral care and instruction took on a Reformed shape.’ Anaphora ’... clearly-written and thorough review of a neglected by important genre... a useful study that makes accessible to an English-speaking readership a genre which continued to be of great pastoral significance throughout the years of the early Lutheran Reformation and beyond.’ Ecclesiastical History ’This is a richly documented theological and rhetorical analysis, buttressed by interesting details about biographical and social context, that effectively represents the enthusiasm of these early evangelical theologians of consolation at death.’ Catholic Historical Review ’This is a useful book for both specialists and nonspecialists.’ German Studies Review

Spis treści

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Between fear and hope: uncertainty of salvation in the late medieval Ars moriendi; Martin Luther’s Eyn Sermon von der bereytung zum sterben (1519); Sermons on preparation for death; Handbooks or manuals for use at the deathbed; Instruction on dying in summaries of reformation teaching; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

O autorze

Austra Reinis is Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity in the Department of Religious Studies, Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri, USA.