Scala Christus Est: Reassessing the Historical Context of Martin Luther's Theology of the Cross (Spatmittelalter, Humanismus, Reformation / Studies in ... Middle Ages, Humanism and the Reformation)

Since the nineteenth century, scholars have debated the controversial relationships between humanism, the Renaissance and the Reformation. Challenging the dominant narrative on the subject, Giovanni Tortoriello reconstructs the debates that characterized the early Reformation movements. He shows that Martin Luther's theology of the cross developed in reaction to the irenic tendencies of the Renaissance. With the spread of Platonism, Hermeticism, and Kabbalah in the fifteenth century, the identity of Christianity shifted and the boundaries between the different religions thinned. In response to this attempt to minimize the differences among the various religions, Luther reiterated the centrality and uniqueness of the salvific event of the cross. Confessional biases and theological prejudices have obliterated the role that Platonism, Hermeticism, and Christian Kabbalah played in the early Reformation debates. The author reconstructs these controversies and situates Luther's theology of the cross in this historical context. Cover Title Preface Table of Contents Abbreviations Introduction Part I: The Discourse on Human Nature in the Renaissance and the Reformation Chapter 1: Two Trials, Multiple Interpretations: Reuchlin,Luther,and the Discursive Context of the Early Sixteenth Century 1.1 Competing Christologies on the Eve of the Reformation 1.1.1 Martin Luther’s Theology of the Cross in the Heidelberg Disputation 1.1.2 Between Sola Gratia and Prisca Theologia: Reshaping Christian Identity in the Late Fifteenth Century 1.2 A “Positive Misunderstanding”? 1.3 “Jewish Books Must be Destroyed”: The Aftermath of the Reuchlin Affair 1.4 Overcoming Scholastic Theology: The Reformation of the University Curriculum in Wittenberg, the Support for Reuchlin, and Luther’s Secret 1.5 Intersections and Juxtapositions between the Trials of Luther and Reuchlin 1.6 A Polarized Discursive Context Chapter 2: Platonic Anima and Pauline Spiritus: Erasmus’ Concept of Human Nature 2.1 Irenism and Philosophia Christi in the Letter to Paul Volz 2.2 Homo prodigiosum quoddam animal: Erasmus’ Theological Anthropology in the Enchiridion 2.3 Origen, Plato, and the Allegorical Reading of the Bible 2.4 The Moral Level of Erasmus’ Pietas and His Critique of the Ceremonies of the Monks 2.5 Erasmus’ Enchiridion and Luther’s Early Theological Anthropology Chapter 3: Spirit and Flesh: Luther’s Critique of Erasmus’ Anthropology 3.1 The Dialectic between Flesh and Spirit in Luther’s Dictata super Psalterium 3.2 The “Aristotelian Erasmus”: Luther’s Two-Fold Critique of the Soteriology of Erasmus and Biel 3.3 Divine Justice and Pagan Wisdom: Demarcating the Boundaries of Revelation 3.4 Body, Soul, and Spirit: Ockhamism and anti-Erasmianism in Luther’s Anthropology 3.5 Erasmus and Luther: Reception, Assimilation, and Transformation Chapter 4: CRUX Sola Est Nostra Theologia: Luther’s Theology of the Cross in Context 4.1 “Dionysius, Whoever He May Have Been”: Luther and the Debate on the Dionysian Corpus in the Early Sixteenth Century 4.2 Solus Amor and Amore Solo: Ficino and the Mystical Ascent to the One through Love 4.3 Pax Philosophica and Divine Union in Pico’s De Ente et Uno 4.4 Theologia Negativa More Scolastico: Eck’s Commentary to Dionysius’ Mystical Theology 4.5 Scala Christus Est: Luther’s Theology of the Cross and the Ascent to God through Christ’s Humanity 4.6 Eck and Luther: Two Competing Theologies Part II: Theologus Gloriae vs. Theologus Crucis: From the Christian Kabbalah to Luther’s Sola Scriptura Chapter 5: Solam Scripturam Regnare: The Development of Luther’s Scriptural Argument 5.1 The Sola Scriptura Argument and Luther’s Grammar of Exclusion 5.2 The Bible in Translation: The Overcoming of the Vulgate in the Early Modern Times 5.3 Patristic, Medieval, and Sixteenth-Century Influences in the Dictata super Psalterium 5.4 The Indulgence Controversy and the Development of Luther’s Scriptural Argument 5.5 Sola Scriptura and the Manifold Interpretations of Scripture Chapter 6: The Spirit and the Letter: The Debate on Biblical Hermeneutics in Context 6.1 In Spirit and in Faith: Grammar, Theology, and Sapientia Crucis in Luther’s Operationes in Psalmos 6.2 Origen and Jerome the Public Targets, Erasmus the Unnamed Enemy: Luther’s Front Against Allegory 6.3 Luther Pro Erasmus: The Dispute between Erasmus and Jacques Lefèvre on Heb. 2:7 6.4 Luther Against Erasmus: The Controversial Interpretation of Gal. 2:11–14 6.5 The Goat in Leipzig and the Bull in Wittenberg: The Spirit and the Letter in the Luther–Emser Debate 6.6 “Idle Spirits” and “Theologians of Glory” Chapter 7: Vera Cabala Dominis Nomini: Luther’s Theologia Crucis and the Christian Kabbalah 7.1 The Influence of the Christian Kabbalah in Luther’s Dictata super Psalterium 7.2 Vera Cabala Dominis Nomini: Competitive Discourses at the Edge of the Reformation 7.3 The Lord and Our Lord: Deus absconditus, the Tetragrammaton, and the Cross of Christ 7.4 Theologus Gloriae vs. Theologus Crucis 7.5 Theologia Crucis: Luther’s Rejection of the Christian Kabbalah Conclusions Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects