Meeting Melanchthon: A Brief Biographical Sketch of Philip Melanchthon and a Few Samples of His Writing

By Scott Leonard Keith

Most scholars consider Melanchthon to be a Reformation enigma. He, the developer of the Reformation doctrine of forensic justification, is contrarily condemned as a synergist. Known well as the Protestant preceptor of Germany, he was Martin Luther's lifelong friend, colleague, teacher of Greek, and fellow reformer. Upon arriving at Wittenberg, M

• Language: English
• Publisher: 1517 Publications
• Release date: Oct 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781945978715

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Meeting Melanchthon

Meeting Melanchthon

A Brief Biographical Sketch of Philip Melanchthon and a Few Samples of His Writing

By Scott Keith

An imprint of 1517 the Legacy Project

Meeting Melanchthon: A Brief Biographical Sketch of Philip Melanchthon and a Few Samples of His Writing

© 2017 Scott Keith

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below.

Published by:

NRP Books

PO Box 54032

Irvine, CA 92619-4032

Publisher’s Cataloging-In-Publication Data

(Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

Names: Keith, Scott Leonard. | container of (work): Melanchthon, Philipp, 1497–1560. Loci communes rerum theologicarum. Selections. English.

Title: Meeting Melanchthon : a brief biographical sketch of Philip Melanchthon and a few samples of his writing / by Scott Keith.

Description: Irvine, CA : NRP Books, an imprint of 1517 the Legacy Project, [2017] | Summary: A compilation of blog posts from 1517Legacy.com, with a brief introduction to the life of Philip Melanchthon and selected translations of a few of his works. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: ISBN 978-1-945978-70-8 (softcover) | ISBN 1-945978-70-8 (softcover) | ISBN 978-1-945978-71-5 (ebook) | ISBN 1-945978-71-6 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Melanchthon, Philipp, 1497–1560. | Theology–History–16th century.

Classification: LCC PA8550.Z5 K45 2017 (print) | LCC PA8550.Z5 (ebook) | DDC 274.009–dc23

NRP Books, an imprint of 1517. The Legacy Project, is committed to packaging and promoting the finest content for fueling a new Lutheran Reformation. We promote the defense of the Christian faith, confessional Lutheran theology, vocation and civil courage.

Cover design by Peter Voth.

Contents

Meeting Melanchthon: An Introduction

The Early Years

Melanchthon’s Magnum Opus

Work, Work, Work

The Birthday of the Lutheran Church

Freewheeling Libertine or Law Dog?

A Man of Trouble

The Conclusion

The Method of the Loci Communes—1526

The Uses of the Divine Law

Concerning the Gospel

Justification and Faith

Notes

Meeting Melanchthon

An Introduction

Earlier this month, I taught a class on Philip Melanchthon at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Frasier, Michigan. At the end of class, I was asked if I would recommend a short biography on Melanchthon suitable for a layperson. Sadly, I said no. Most of the short biographies are out of print and very expensive, and most of the modern works are written for academic audiences. So I decided to do a short series as a brief introduction to the life and times of Philip Melanchthon. As we continue to celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation this year, I think that this booklet, which appeared previously as a series of blog posts on 1517Legacy.com, will be helpful and pair nicely with the two Thinking Fellows podcasts on Melanchthon.

Now most scholars consider Melanchthon to be a Reformation enigma. He, the developer of the Reformation doctrine of forensic justification, is contrarily condemned as a synergist. Known well as the Protestant preceptor of Germany, he was Martin Luther’s lifelong friend, colleague, teacher of Greek, and fellow reformer. Upon arriving at Wittenberg, Melanchthon was a theologian neither by trade nor by training. He was a classically trained expert in classical languages, neo-Latin poet, textbook author, Greek scholar, humanist, and above all, an educator.

Melanchthon’s lectures at the University of Wittenberg would commonly draw upward of four hundred students. Along with his work in the development of the German public education system and the reform of the German universities, this earned him the title of the Protestant preceptor of Germany. In both form and function, he was a theologian and a reformer.

Melanchthon was a chief formative influence on the development of historical Protestantism as the author of the first Protestant systematic theology and author of the principal Protestant confession of faith. His Loci Communes Theologici (Common Topics of Theology) was used as a textbook for pastors and teachers of the Lutheran faith for more than a hundred years, and through