Athens and Wittenberg: Poetry, Philosophy, and Luther's Legacy (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 234)

Scholarship has tended to assume that Luther was uninterested in the Greek and Latin classics, given his promotion of the German vernacular and his polemic against the reliance upon Aristotle in theology. But as Athens and Wittenberg demonstrates, Luther was shaped by the classical education he had received and integrated it into his writings. He could quote Epicurean poetry to non-Epicurean ends; he could employ Aristotelian logic to prove the limits of philosophy's role in theology. This volume explores how Luther and early Protestantism, especially Lutheranism, continued to draw from the classics in their quest to reform the church. In particular, it examines how early Protestantism made use of the philosophy and poetry from classical antiquity. Contributors to this volume: Joseph Herl, Jane Schatkin Hettrick, E.J. Hutchinson, Jack D. Kilcrease, E. Christian Kopf, John G. Nordling, Piergiacomo Petrioli, Eric G. Phillips, Richard J. Serina, Jr, R. Alden Smith, Carl P.E. Springer, Manfred Svensson, William P. Weaver, and Daniel Zager. Contents Contents 6 Preface 10 Illustrations 11 Abbreviations 12 Classical Authors and Works 13 Notes on Contributors 14 Introduction: Martin Luther: From Classical Formation to Reformation 16 Part 1 Luther and Classical Poets and Philosophers 32 Chapter 1 Naso erat magister? Virgil and Other Classical Poets in Luther’s Tischreden 34 Chapter 2 Nugatory Nonsense: Why Luther Rarely Cites Catullus 43 Chapter 3 “Pious Mirth”: Listening to Martin Luther’s Latin Poetry 59 Chapter 4 Luther between Stoics and Epicureans 69 Chapter 5 Philtered Philosophy: Aristotle and Cicero in Luther’s Tischreden 80 Chapter 6 A Debatable Theology: Medieval Disputation, the Wittenberg Reformation, and Luther’s Heidelberg Theses 91 Chapter 7 A Painted Record of Martin Luther in Renaissance Bologna 103 Part 2 The Reformation of Hymnody and Liturgy 120 Chapter 8 What Virgil Taught Martin Luther About Poetry and Music 122 Chapter 9 Collaboration over Time: Luther’s Adaptation of Ambrose’s Veni Redemptor Gentium 129 Chapter 10 The Latin Liturgy and Juvenile Lutheran Instruction in Sixteenth-Century Germany 141 Chapter 11 “Exulting and Adorning in Exuberant Strains”: Luther and Latin Polyphonic Music 159 Chapter 12 Tradition and the Individual Talent: Some Verse-Paraphrases of Psalm 1 175 Chapter 13 Imitate the Lutherans: Catholic Solutions to Liturgical Problems in Late Eighteenth-Century Vienna 192 Part 3 Lutheran Readings of Philosophy and Poetry 206 Chapter 14 Melanchthon, Luther, and Indexing the Classics 208 Chapter 15 An Intended Reformulation: Of Brad Gregory, Duns Scotus, and Early Modern Metaphysics 225 Chapter 16 Ad normam veritatis christianae: Correcting Aristotle in Protestant Commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics 249 Chapter 17 Influence and Inspiration: Archias and Staupitz as Didactic Models for Cicero and Luther 268 Bibliography 288 Index 318 "Scholarship has tended to assume that Luther was uninterested in the Greek and Latin classics, given his promotion of the German vernacular and his polemic against the reliance upon Aristotle in theology. But as Athens and Wittenberg demonstrates, Luther was shaped by the classical education he had received and integrated it into his writings. He could quote Epicurean poetry to non-Epicurean ends; he could employ Aristotelian logic to prove the limits of philosophy's role in theology. This volume explores how Luther and early Protestantism, especially Lutheranism, continued to draw from the classics in their quest to reform the church. In particular, it examines how early Protestantism made use of the philosophy and poetry from classical antiquity. Contributors include: Joseph Herl, Jane Schatkin Hettrick, E.J. Hutchinson, Jack D. Kilcrease, E. Christian Kopf, John G. Nordling, Piergiacomo Petrioli, Eric G. Phillips, Richard J. Serina, Jr, R. Alden Smith, Carl P.E. Springer, Manfred Svensson, William P. Weaver, and Daniel Zager"-- Provided by publisher