Today, November 10, is the anniversary of Martin Luther's birthday in 1483. Luther is best remembered as the impetus and architect of the Reformation. But according to Luther himself, he did nothing; the Word did everything. Here he is, in the second Invocavit sermon...
E.J. Hutchinson
What Is the Law of God?
Without a proper definition of terms, talking is useless, if not worse. If we or our hearers do not know what we are saying, then we are not saying it. Philip Melanchthon seems to have recognized this. Thus in the third stage of the Loci communes/Loci theologici,...
Creatio Naturaliter Christiana
Last year, I wrote an essay for the print edition of Ad Fontes on, as it were (and to paraphrase Tertullian), "creation naturally Christian," suggesting a theology and an eschatology that is built into the season of spring, the season of Cross and Resurrection. In the...
“The Chief Things Which Concern a Christian”
Martin Luther's series of Invocavit sermons has an extremely metal beginning: The summons of death comes to us all, and no one can die for another. Every one must fight his own battle with death by himself, alone. We can shout into another’s ears, but every one must...
Pure Christ, One Hundred Proof: Another Poem on Luther for Reformation Day
Reformation Day was yesterday, so for this week's "Melanchthon Monday" we have another poem on Luther by Melanchthon. This one is an epitaph, only two lines long. Melanchthon also wrote both a Greek and a Latin version; I have translated the Latin. I have taken a...
The Reformation of Images
I've been doing some reading on the first commandment and its appendix on images (the second commandment according to a different division of the Decalogue). It is well known that images of Christ provoke sharp disagreement among Protestants (though you will find none...
“Lest the Human Race Die in Despair”: A Poem on Luther for Reformation Day
The great and good celebration of the Festival of the Reformation is coming up this Sunday, and so for this week's "Melanchthon Monday" I offer you a poem Melanchthon wrote about Martin Luther to his son, Martin Luther. The poem deals with the chief themes of the...
The Order of the Commandments
The order of the commandments in the Decalogue has its own inner logic that writers have described in various ways. Below I have translated Johann Gerhard's discussion from the twelfth locus (On the Law of God) of his Loci theologici. This is followed by a long...
Warm Bodies: Another Melanchthonian Prayer Poem
For "Melanchthon Monday" this week, we've got a new poem--another prayer in verse, this time inspired by the creation account in Genesis 1. Melanchthon's poem consists of three elegiac couplets. My version, in eight iambic pentameters, is somewhat expanded. I've...
An Easter Egg in Plato’s Phaedo
I have a longish post I want to write on Plato's Phaedo. This is not that post. This is a different one. When reading Plato's dialogues, it is tempting to identify every view attributed to Socrates as a view of Plato's, and from there to suggest that Plato wished the...