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). At 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 said that he was reprinting the Jena edition of 1610. However, instead of including the original Commonplaces I–VII 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 I–VII 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 I–IV. 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. xix.
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 I–VII, which were not included in Preuss’s edition, as “1610 Loci Theologici, 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 Georg Berbig, D. Johann Gerhards Visitationswerk in Thüringen und Franken (Gotha: Th. Herm. Wechsung, 1896), 5–6; Ferdinand Schmidt, Johann Gerhardt in Heldburg, Schriften des Vereins für Meiningische Geschichte und Landeskunde 16 (Meiningen: L. v. Eye’s Buchhandlung, 1893), 22–24; Erdmann Rudolph Fischer, Life of John Gerhard 4.8, trans. by Richard J. Dinda and Elber Hohle (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2000), 59–62; Fischer, Vita Ioannis Gerhardi 4.8 (Lipsiae: apud Ioh. Christophorum Coernerum, 1723), 63–67.
2 Exercitium Pietatis Quotidianum Quadripartitum: Peccatorum confeßiones, gratiarum actiones, precationes & observationes complectens (Coburg: Justus Hauck, 1612); The Daily Exercise of Piety, trans. Matthew C. Harrison (Decatur, IL: Johann Gerhard Institute, 1997); new edition, Meditations on Divine Mercy: A Classic Treasury of Devotional Prayers (St. Louis: Concordia, 2003).
3 Postilla: Das ist/Erklärung der Sontäglichen und fürnehmesten Fest-Euangelien/uber das gantze Jahr … Erster Theil: Vom Advent biß auff Trinitatis (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1613); translated as Postilla: An Explanation of the Sunday and Most Important Festival Gospels of the Whole Year, vol. 1, trans. Elmer M. Hohle (Malone, TX: Center for the Study of Lutheran Orthodoxy, 2003). Postilla … Ander Theil: Vom Sontage Trinitatis an/biß auff den letzten (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1613); translated as Postilla: An Explanation of the Sunday and Most Important Festival Gospels of the Whole Year, vol. 2, trans. Elmer M. Hohle (Malone, TX: Center for the Study of Lutheran Orthodoxy, 2003). Postilla: Das ist/Erklärung der Euangelien/so auff die gewöhnlichen Apostel und andere Festtage Jährlich in Christlicher Gemeine zu handeln verordnet … Dritter Theil (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1613); Appendix: Das ist/Anhang schöner unnd auserlesener Sprüche aus altem unnd newem Testament/so sonsten/und in gewöhnlichen Wochenpredigten abgehandelt und erkleret worden (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1613); translated as Postille: Sunday and Main Festival Gospels Parts III and IV, trans. Elmer M. Hohle (Fort Wayne, IN: Lutheran Legacy, 2012).
4 These commonplaces first appeared in print in 1613: Johann Gerhard, Locorum Theologicorum … Tomus Tertius: In quo continentur haec Capita: 15. De Lege Morali. 16. De Legibus Ceremonialibus & Forensibus. 17. De Evangelio. 18. De Poenitentia. 19. De Justificatione per Fidem (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1613).
5 On the 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).
6 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]), fols. [H8]v–[I6]r. Published to provide students with an overview of theology, this volume contains the theses of the disputations that Gerhard held at Coburg, though the list of “disputants” in the Aphorisms does not match the names of the respondents on the title pages of the previously printed disputation theses (see 1663 ed., fols. b3r–b3v, [b4]r).
7 Johann Gerhard, Scholae Pietatis Liber I [–V]. Das ist/Christlicher und heilsamer Unterrichtung/was für Ursachen einen jeden wahren Christen zur Gottseligkeit bewegen sollen/auch welcher gestalt er sich an derselben uben soll ([Jena:] Tobias Steinmann, 1622–23); repr., Schola Pietatis, Oder Ubung Der Gottseeligkeit Worinnen Die vornehmsten Hauptund Kern-Sprüche Heil-Schrifft, welche zur Theologia Morali und Christlichen Sitten-Lehr gehörig, gründlich eröffnet, und zur Beförderung eines rechtschaffenen und thätigen Christen-Wandels erkläret werden, 5th ed., ed. Johann Georg Walch (Nürnberg: in Verlegung W. M. Endters seel. Töchter & J. A. Engelbrechts seel. Wittib., 1736); translated as Schola Pietatis (1623), trans. Elmer Hohle (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2006–). See Renatus Hupfeld, Die Ethik Johann Gerhards: Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis der lutherischen Ethik (Berlin: Trowitzsch & Sohn, 1908), 8; Johann Anselm Steiger, Johann Gerhard (1582–1637): Studien zu Theologie und Frömmigkeit des Kirchenvaters der lutherischen Orthodoxie (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1997), 44; Jörg Baur, “Johann Gerhard,” in Orthodoxie und Pietismus, vol. 7 of Gestalten der Kirchengeschichte, ed. Martin Greschat (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1982), 112–15; Luther und seine klassischen Erben (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, Paul Siebeck, 1993), 347–54.
8 See below, On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), § 58; cf. §§ 116, 138, 154, 161, 176.
9 Johann Brunsmann, Sabbatica quies, sive Vindiciae sabbatariae, hoc est dissertatio in qua … sententia dicens “ad unicam in qualibet hebdomade feriam concelebrandam” christianos quoque … obstringi et quae pro ea … militant argumenta … defenduntur (Havniae: ex Reg. Majest. et Universit. typographeo, 1707); reviewed in Unschuldige Nachrichten Von Alten und Neuen Theologischen Sachen Zur geheiligten Ubung 5 (Leipzig: bey den Großischen Erben & Joh. Friedr. Braunen, 1708): 303–5. See also the comment on Brunsmann’s book by C. F. W. Walther, “Lutherisch-theologische Pfarrers-Bibliothek,” Lehre und Wehre 1, no. 10 (October 1855): 300.
10 Locorum Theologicorum Tomus Sextus … Illustravit Et Auxit Io. Fridericus Cotta (Tubingae: sumtu Io. Georgii Cottae, 1767), 1–96. See also Benjamin T. G. Mayes, “The Mystical Sense of Scripture according to Johann Jacob Rambach,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 72, no. 1 (2008): 45–70.
11 Wilhelm Gass, Geschichte der christlichen Ethik, vol. 2/1 (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1886), 153–55.
12 Hupfeld, Die Ethik Johann Gerhards, 88, referring to Gerhard, On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), §§ 14, 206.
13 Hupfeld, Die Ethik Johann Gerhards, 9.
14 Hupfeld, Die Ethik Johann Gerhards, 14.
15 Hupfeld, Die Ethik Johann Gerhards, 34.
16 See Gass, Ethik 2/1:154–55.
17 Hupfeld, Die Ethik Johann Gerhards, 88, referring to On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), §§ 14, 206.
18 Hupfeld, Die Ethik Johann Gerhards, 91–92.
19 The relevant passages of the Book of Concord dealing with the Sabbath or Sunday observance are AC XXVIII 57–64 (“the keeping neither of the Sabbath nor of any other day is necessary”) and LC III 85 (“there must be at least one day in the week set apart”). See the LCMS Brief Statement of 1932, which is at odds with parts of Gerhard’s doctrine of the Third Commandment. Here, not only is the seventh day of the week abrogated as a Christian obligation, but so is Sunday, and even “at least one specific day of the seven days of the week.” Sunday is not emphasized as an apostolic practice but deemphasized as merely “an ordinance of the Church, made by virtue of Christian liberty” (Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod [St. Louis: Concordia, 1932], § 41). The position of the LCMS on the Third Commandment especially was shaped against the American Reformed emphasis on Sunday as the Sabbath of the New Testament. See, e.g., C. F. W. Walther, “The True Visible Church (1866–1871),” in Essays for the Church, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 1992), 181.
20 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), § 135.
21 Martin Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, trans. J. A. O. Preus, Chemnitz’s Works 8 (St. Louis: Concordia, 1989, 2008), 706 (hereafter Chemnitz’s Works).
22 Chemnitz’s Works 8:705.
23 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), §§ 128–30, 135.
24 Schola Pietatis 3.25 (1736), 644–79.
25 Schola Pietatis 3.25 (1736), 646.
26 Schola Pietatis 3.25 (1736), 647. See also On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), § 132. As testimonies agreeing with his position, Gerhard (On the Law of God, Commonplace XV, § 138) cites Balthasar Mentzer and Friedrich Balduin. See Balduin, Commentarius in omnes epistolas Pauli, vol. 2 (Francofurti: Balthasar-Christophorus Wustius, 1691), 1084, on Colossians 2, part 3, question 3: “Therefore the sum of the passages is this: All days in themselves are holy, yet God has designated a certain time for His worship every seven days.”
27 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), §§ 132, 139 (5).
28 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), § 139 (3) and (6).
29 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), §§ 139 (5), 141.
30 Schola Pietatis 3.26 (1736), 656–57.
31 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), § 137.
32 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), § 133.
33 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), § 136.
34 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), § 142.
35 Schola Pietatis 3.26 (1736), 655.
36 Ordnung Wie es in deß Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herrn Herrn Johann Casimiri Herzogen zu Sachsen, Gülich, Cleve und Berg, Landgraven in Thüringen, Marggraven zu Meissen, Graven zu der Marck und Ravenßburgk, herrn zu Ravenstein etc. Fürstenthumb und Landen, Orts Francken und Thüringen, in den Kirchen, mit Lehr, Ceremonien, Visitationen und was solchen mehr anhängig, Dann im Fürstlichen Consistorio, mit denen verbotenen gradibus in Ehesachen und sonsten, auch im Fürstlichen Gymnasio, so wol Land: und Particular Schulen, gehalten werden solle (Coburgk: Forckel, 1626), 160, 163.
37 Ordnung, 228–29.
38 Ordnung, 229.
39 Ordnung, 229–30.
40 Ordnung, 230.
41 Ordnung, 234.
42 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), § 208.
43 See above, p. x n. 4. The Frankfurt/Hamburg edition is: Loci Theologici … Ab Autore Ipso Revisi Et Loci Innumeris aucti … In Novem Tomos Et Exegesin Divisi (Francofurti & Hamburgi: sumptibus Zachariae Hertelii, 1657).
44 On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), §§ 7–9.