True Worship in the Spirit: Martin Chemnitz and the Minor Role of the Body in Worship
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Andreas Bergman
Abstract
Martin Chemnitz (1522–1586) is an extremely important theologian for the Lutheran tradition, however, he has received only modest scholarly interest. This article is the first examination of Chemnitz’s theology of indifferent rites, or adiaphora, which pays attention to its anthropological implications. The article is divided into five sections. The first section offers an overview of Luther’s and Melanchthon’s theology of worship in order to contextualize Chemnitz’s thought. The second section presents Chemnitz’s definition of worship and analyzes its implications for the soul-body relationship. The third section examines Chemnitz’s theology of the adiaphora and its ramifications for the participation of the body in worship. In the fourth section, a specific remark of Chemnitz is studied in which he indicates that our outward activity can promote spiritual well-being. The article concludes with a section that summarizes the findings and reflects on their importance for the Lutheran tradition.
© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Winner of the REFORC Paper Award 2023
- Concerning the Defamation and Execution of the “Radical” Ludwig Hätzer (1500–1529): An Attempt at Using Social Network Analysis on Small Samples
- Research Articles
- Framing Religious Leadership in Dutch Nationalist Confessional Historiography: Anabaptism on the Lower Rhine in the 1540s–1550s
- Hope from the Ashes: Juan Pérez de Pineda’s Mystical Body beyond Neoplatonic Consolation
- True Worship in the Spirit: Martin Chemnitz and the Minor Role of the Body in Worship
- The Duke of Olyka and the Saint: The Meeting between Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł and Pope Pius V (1566)
- The Post-Tridentine Controversies at the Louvain Faculty of Theology: The Correspondence between Judocus Tiletanus and Michael Baius (1568)
- Between Jerusalem and Babylon: Catholic Discourses of Israel and National Identity in Elizabethan and Jacobean England (ca. 1560–1625)
- Enfance, martyre et mission dans L’Histoire des martyrs du Japon de Nicolas Trigault (1624)
- Critical Independence versus Christian Catholicity in Hugo Grotius’s Annotations on Matthew 23:2–3
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Winner of the REFORC Paper Award 2023
- Concerning the Defamation and Execution of the “Radical” Ludwig Hätzer (1500–1529): An Attempt at Using Social Network Analysis on Small Samples
- Research Articles
- Framing Religious Leadership in Dutch Nationalist Confessional Historiography: Anabaptism on the Lower Rhine in the 1540s–1550s
- Hope from the Ashes: Juan Pérez de Pineda’s Mystical Body beyond Neoplatonic Consolation
- True Worship in the Spirit: Martin Chemnitz and the Minor Role of the Body in Worship
- The Duke of Olyka and the Saint: The Meeting between Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł and Pope Pius V (1566)
- The Post-Tridentine Controversies at the Louvain Faculty of Theology: The Correspondence between Judocus Tiletanus and Michael Baius (1568)
- Between Jerusalem and Babylon: Catholic Discourses of Israel and National Identity in Elizabethan and Jacobean England (ca. 1560–1625)
- Enfance, martyre et mission dans L’Histoire des martyrs du Japon de Nicolas Trigault (1624)
- Critical Independence versus Christian Catholicity in Hugo Grotius’s Annotations on Matthew 23:2–3
