Editions Of The Theological Commonplaces
EDITIONS OF THE THEOLOGICAL COMMONPLACES
There are four main editions of Gerhard’s Theological Commonplaces: the Jena edition of 1610 (the edition printed during Gerhard’s lifetime), the Frankfurt/Hamburg edition of 1657 (edited by Johann Ernst Gerhard, the author’s son), the Tübingen edition of 1762 (edited by Johann Friedrich Cotta), and the Berlin/Leipzig edition of 1863 (edited by Edward Preuss). Dr. Richard Dinda made his translation from the Preuss edition, and I have edited the text with an eye not only on Preuss but also on the Cotta edition, which was employed to correct the many typographical errors of Preuss’s edition (some of which were carried forward from the Frankfurt/Hamburg edition). On the top of each page of the Concordia edition, references are given to both the Cotta and Preuss editions. Thus “C3:44” means “Cotta edition, volume 3, page 44,” and “P1:143” means “Preuss edition, volume 1, page 143.”
In the preface to his edition, Preuss noted that he was reprinting the Jena edition of 1610. However, instead of including the original Commonplaces IVII of the Jena edition, Preuss substituted the four commonplaces he found at the beginning of the Frankfurt/Hamburg edition. These were published in 1625, after Gerhard had finished his Theological Commonplaces, with the title “Exegesis, or a more copious explanation of certain articles of the Christian religion.” They were not meant to be a substitute for the 1610 Commonplaces IVII but were intended as a supplement. It is these “Exegesis” Commonplaces that Preuss included, and it is the same that we have previously presented to our readers in the volumes covering Exegesis IIV. These “Exegesis” Commonplaces have been included with printings of Gerhard’s Theological Commonplaces since the Frankfurt/Hamburg edition; therefore they do belong in this series.
The enumeration of the commonplaces has also presented difficulties. Both Preuss and Cotta presented different numbering systems than the seventeenth-century editions of the Theological Commonplaces. We have decided to follow the original enumeration as found in the Jena and Frankfurt/Hamburg editions. A comparison chart is included on p. xxi.
In the Concordia edition, we refer to the commonplaces included both in the original Jena edition and in Preuss’s edition as, for example, “Commonplace XI.” We refer to the “Exegesis” Commonplaces included in Preuss’s edition as “1625 Exegesis, Commonplace II.” And we refer to the original Commonplaces IVII, which were not included in Preuss’s edition, as “1610 Loci Theoologici, locus 5.” In the indices, reference is given first to the commonplace number, then to the section number. For example: “E3.34” means “1625 Exegesis, Commonplace III, § 34.” And “8.55” means “1610 Commonplace VIII, § 55.” This manner of indexing will allow the reader to refer to any edition of the Theological Commonplaces from the seventeenth century to the present.
Preuss’s edition and this Concordia edition occasionally surround sections of text with double asterisks (**). These sections are Gerhard’s marginal notes on his Theological Commonplaces that his son included in the Frankfurt/Hamburg edition.
1 Johann Gerhard, Locorum Theologicorum… Tomus Secundus: In quo continentur haec Capita: 9. De Creatione & Angelis. 9. De Providentia. 10. De Electione & Reprobatione. 11. De Imagine Dei in homine ante lapsum. 12. De peccato Originali. 13. De peccatis Actualibus. 14. De Libero Arbitrio (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1611).
2 See below, p. 6.
3 Erdmann Rudolph Fischer, The Life of John Gerhard 14.2, trans. Richard J. Dinda and Elmer Hohle (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2000), 215.
4 Erdmann Rudolph Fischer, Vita Ioannis Gerhardi 11.2 (Lipsiae: Ioh. Christophorus Coernerus, 1723), 163, my translation; cf. Fischer, Life of John Gerhard, 139.
5 Johann Gerhard, Enchiridion Consolatorium Morti Ac Tentationibus In Agone mortis opponendum (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1611); Handbook of Consolations: For the Fears and Trials That Oppress Us in the Struggle with Death, trans. Carl L. Beckwith (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2009); Erklärung der Historien des Leidens unnd Sterbens unsers Herrn Christi Jesu nach den vier Evangelisten/Also angestellet/daß wir dadurch zur Erkentnis der Liebe Christi erwecket werden/unnd am innerlichen Menschen seliglich zunehmen mögen (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1611); An Explanation of the History of the Suffering and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Four Evangelists, trans. Elmer M. Hohle (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 1998).
6 The record of his episcopal visitation for the Heldburg parishes is published in Ferdinand Schmidt, Johann Gerhard in Heldburg, Schriften des Vereins fr Meiningische Geschichte und Landeskunde 16 (Meiningen: L. v. Eye, 1893), 3236.
7 On thehe practice of disputations in the era of Lutheran Orthodoxy, see Kenneth G. Appold Orthodoxie als Konsensbildung: Das theologische Disputationswesen an der Universität Wittenberg zwischen 1570 und 1710 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004).
8 Johann Gerhard, Disputatio Theologica de Creatione Et Angelis. Quam Deo potenter adjuvante maximo Sub Praesidio Johannis Gerhardi S…. In Illustri Gymnasio Casimiriano, quod est Coburgi Publicè examinandam proponit & pro virili tuebitur M. Michael Selt Diaconus Eisfeldensis. Ad Cal. Iunii in Auditorio majori (Coburg: Justus Hauck, 1607); De Providentia. Disputatio prior… Quam… Publicè examinandam proponit M. Augustinus Bachmannus Scholae Hilperhusanae Moderator. Ad 3. Augusti horis locoque consuetis (Coburg: Justus Hauck, 1607); De Providentia. Disputatio posterior… Quam… Publicè ventilandam proponit Georgius Lönigius Torgensis Misnicus. Ad Calend. Octobris in Auditorio majore (Coburg: Kaspar Bertsch, 1607); Disputatio Theologica. De Praedestinatione… Publicè rationem reddet M. Fabianus Vogelius Churvvisensis, Hermundurus. IIX. Idus Jan. (Coburg: Justus Hauck, 1607); Disputatio Theologica, De Imagine Dei In Homine Ante Lapsum, De cujus Thesibus… Publicè rationem reddet M. Johannes Faber Rodachensis. Ad 3. Martii (Coburg: Kaspar Bertsch, 1608).
9 Johann Gerhard, Aphorismi Succincti Et Selecti, In Viginti Tribus Capitibus, totius Theologiae nucleum continentes: Ad Usum Disputationum Scholasticarum Accommodati & conscripti (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1611; repr., [Jena]: typis Joh. Jacobi Bauhöferi, [1663]).
10 Aphorismi Succincti (1663 ed.), fol. b3rb3v, [b4]r.
11 Ap II 1722; FC SD I 10 (Triglotta, pp. 10911, 863; Concordia, pp. 78, 513).
12 See On the Image of God (Commonplace XI), especially §§ 129 and 136, below, pp. 322, 32526.
13 See below, On the Image of God (Commonplace XI), § 13, p. 256.
14 Rune Söderlund follows Bengt Hägglund in calling it a “broken” doctrine of predestination. “Broken” here does not mean “impaired” or “deficient” or “problematic,” but rather that the parts of the doctrine do not fit with each other in a rationally consistent way. Rune Söderlund, Ex praevisa fide: Zum Verstndnis der Prädestinationslehre in den der lutherischen Orthodoxie (Hannover: Lutherisches Verlagshaus, 1983), 13, 175.
15 Robert Preus, “The Influence of the Formula of Concord on the Later Lutheran Orthodoxy,” in Discord, Dialogue, and Concord: Studies in the Lutheran Reformation’s Formula of Concord, ed. Lewis W. Spitz and Wenzel Lohff (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977), 86101, here at 9899; Edward Busch, “The Predestinarian Controversy 100 Years Later,” Currents in Theology and Mission 9, no. 3 (1982): 13248, here at 134; Söderlund, Ex praevisa fide, 65.
16 Jacob Andreae and Theodore Beza, Acta Colloquij Montis Belligartensis: Quod habitum est, Anno Christi 1586… Inter Clarissimos Viros, D. Iacobvm Andreae…& Theodorvm Bezam (Tübingen: Georg Gruppenbach, 1587), 51718, my translation.
17 Söderlund, Ex praevisa fide, 17576.
18 Söderlund, Ex praevisa fide, 49. See On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), §§ 2016, below, pp. 24043.
19 Söderlund, Ex praevisa fide, 70; Robert Preus, “The Doctrine of Election as Taught by the Seventeenth-Century Lutheran Dogmaticians,” Quartalschrift: Theological Quarterly 55, no. 4 (1958): 22961, here at 241.
20 The Missouri Synod’s “Thirteen Theses” on predestination were adopted as its official position at the 1881 synodical convention: Achtzenhter Synodal-Bericht der Allgemeinen deutschen ev.-luth. Synode von Missouri, Ohio und anderen Sta Staaten, versammelt als Dritte Delegaten-Synode zu Fort Wayne, Indiana, im Jahre 1881 (St. L ouis: D ruckerei des L utherischen C oncordia-Verlags, 1881), 3335; English in Richard C. Wolf, ed., Documents of Lutheran Unity in America (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966), 199203.
21 Söderlund recognizes the American controversy’s importance because of the historical studies that were developed surrounding it, and he devotes a section of his book to explaining the controversy: Ex praevisa fide, 16174.
22 Georg Stöckhardt, “Si duo faciunt idem, non est idem,” Lehre und Wehre 28 (1882): 15760, here at 158, my translation.
23 On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), §§ 160, 186, below, pp. 2056, 226, 22425.
24 Preface to Romans (1546), AE 35:378 (WA DB 7:23); Lectures on Genesis (153545/154454), on Genesis 26, AE 5:4250 (WA 43:45763); Bondage of the Will (1525), AE 33:3644, 18492 (WA 18:61420, 71420).
25 Cf. Preus, “Influence of the Formula of Concord on the Later Lutheran Orthodoxy,” 9899.
26 See On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), § 56; below, p. 145.
27 On Creation and Angels (Commonplace VIII), §§ 15, below, pp. 910.
28 On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), §§ 416, 47, 159, 175 (IV), 197, belIV), 197, below, pp. 12326, 142, 2045, 216, 23536.
29 See Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, trans. G. M. Geiger, ed. James T. Dennison, vol. 1 (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1992), 1.3, question 14.
30 On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), § 93, below, p. 157.
31 Söderlund, Ex praevisa fide, 67.
32 On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), §§ 52, 161, 170 (2), 173, 175, 193 (5), below, pp. 143, 207, 212, 214, 21517, 231; Söderlund, Ex praevisa fide, 70, 75.
33 On Election and Reprobation (Commonplanplace X), §§ 53, 148, 161, below, pp. 14344, 197, 207; Söderlund, Ex praevisa fide, 68.
34 On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), §§ 28, 4345, 105, 188, 193 (5), below, pp. 13233, 13940, 162, 22627, 231.
35 C. F. W. Walther, “Dogmengeschichtliches über die Lehre vom Verhältniß des Glaubens zur Gnadenwahl,” Lehre und Wehre 26 (1880): 4257, 6573, 97110, 12937, 16170, here at 97.
36 On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), § 175 (IV), below, pp. 216.
37 Despite an attempt in On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), § 139 (V), below, pp. 18889.
38 Söderlund examines Leonhard Hutter’s and Balthasar Meisner’s treatments of this point. See Söderlund’s entire chapter on this topic (Ex praevisa fide, 7379).
39 See Rom. 11:1922; 1 Cor. 10:12; 1 Tim. 1:1920; Heb. 10:38; 2 Pet. 2:2021; SA III III 4244.
40 On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), §§ 18183, 211, below, pp. 22023, 247.
41 On Election and Reprobation (Commonplace X), §§ 152 (III), 175 (III), 20710, below, pp. 200, 216, 24446.
42 “Certitudo de perseverantia non est absoluta, sed hypothetica, quatenus media perseverantiaeverantiae non negliguntur, sed usurpantur, eatenus de perseverantia certi esse possumus. Quamvis homo vere credens, dum talis est, ex sua parte nullam dubitandi de perseverantia rationem habeat, quia et posse et velle nunquam sibi ademtum iri novit ex divina promissione Philipp. 1. v. 6. cap. 2. v. 13. nisi ipse Spiritui Sancto resistat, quod ne faciat aut facere velit, satis habet virium ab inhabitante Spiritu Sancto: tamen quia non impossibile est non obstantibus his divinae gratiae fulcimentis, ut homo renatus expellat regenerantem pariter et renovantem Spiritum Sanctum, absolutae impossibilitatis certitudinem nemo sibi promittere potest aut debet” (Johann Gerhard, Confessionis Catholicae, in qua Doctrina Catholica et Evangelica, quamEcclesiae Augustanae Confessioni addictae profitentur, ex Romano-Catholicorum Scriptorum suffragiis confirmatur… Libri II. Specialis Pars Tertia, eadémque ultima (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1637), 726b, my translation. See also Söderlund, Ex praevisa fide, 129.