Adapting Lutheran Preaching: The Postil of Danish Reformer Hans Tausen (1539)
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Rasmus H. C. Dreyer
Abstract
The Danish reformer Hans Tausen has been characterized as a “Danish Luther” in both Danish and foreign-language church historiography. Recent scholarship, however, has challenged this characterization, interpreting Tausen instead as an urban, humanistic reformer who transmitted a kind of Zwinglian theology. The present article sheds light on Hans Tausen’s 1539 Postil, which has so far been neglected in international research on early modern postils. The drafting of Tausen’s Postil is closely connected with the new legislation for the Danish Lutheran Church presented in the Danish Church Ordinance of 1537–1539. Twentieth-century Danish research has indicated that the Postil was either an original work by Tausen or a precise adaptation of Luther’s own sermons. Previous research overlooked the way in which Tausen worked with several models and templates as inspiration for his postil, the most influential being the postils of Stephan Roth. The Tausen-Postil reflects Tausen’s ability to respond to the changing tides in favour of Wittenbergian theology in Denmark from the mid-1530s. As such, it serves as evidence for the transfer of contemporary Lutheranism from Germany to Scandinavia.
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- From Choir to Chamber: Negotiating Vocal Music in the Zurich Reformation
- Adapting Lutheran Preaching: The Postil of Danish Reformer Hans Tausen (1539)
- The Moral Status of Self-Love in Early Reformed Ethics
- “Spectatissimo, Eruditione & Pietate, Insigno Viro”: Abraham Rogerius, the Open-Deure, and the Identity of A.W. JCtus
- Papal Nuncios in Prague as Part of the Imperial Court: The Significance of Integration, Sociability, and Credibility of Papal Diplomats at the Turn of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
- The Arrow and the Ecstasy: The Rhetoric of Rapture in French Carmelite Poetry
- Dossier: Messianism, Sabbatarianism and Millenarism in the Reformation
- The Messianic Secret and the Significance of Preaching in Gabriele Biondo, Otto Brunfels, and Celio Secondo Curione
- “News about Jews” in Puritan New England: Sabbatian Messianism and Judeocentric Millenarianism in Increase Mather’s Mystery of Israel’s Salvation (1669)
- Rejudaized Jesus: The Early Transylvanian Sabbatarian Concept of the Messiah
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- From Choir to Chamber: Negotiating Vocal Music in the Zurich Reformation
- Adapting Lutheran Preaching: The Postil of Danish Reformer Hans Tausen (1539)
- The Moral Status of Self-Love in Early Reformed Ethics
- “Spectatissimo, Eruditione & Pietate, Insigno Viro”: Abraham Rogerius, the Open-Deure, and the Identity of A.W. JCtus
- Papal Nuncios in Prague as Part of the Imperial Court: The Significance of Integration, Sociability, and Credibility of Papal Diplomats at the Turn of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
- The Arrow and the Ecstasy: The Rhetoric of Rapture in French Carmelite Poetry
- Dossier: Messianism, Sabbatarianism and Millenarism in the Reformation
- The Messianic Secret and the Significance of Preaching in Gabriele Biondo, Otto Brunfels, and Celio Secondo Curione
- “News about Jews” in Puritan New England: Sabbatian Messianism and Judeocentric Millenarianism in Increase Mather’s Mystery of Israel’s Salvation (1669)
- Rejudaized Jesus: The Early Transylvanian Sabbatarian Concept of the Messiah
