THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND THE PASTORAL MINISTRY

Learning from the Reformers

Introduction

Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that the only thing you need to be a pastor is baptism of the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, and performing miracles. That is a pure myth! The church today needs pastors who are theologically trained, good public speakers, focus on the text when preaching, have clarity of thought and expression, have a constant concern for application, and have a high sense of the authority of Scripture. When we study the life and ministry of the Reformers in church history, whom I consider great examples for those who desire the pastoral ministry, it is clear that good quality theological education is necessary in pastoral ministry.

Listen to some of their Stories!

Martin Luther (1483 – 1546).

Luther had a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and doctorate degrees in theology. He came under the influence of the more classical sort of Scholasticism advocated by Thomas Aquinas. Luther was determined to win God’s favor by submitting himself to the disciplines of medieval spirituality but later on rediscovered the gospel and began to preach it in the pulpit of the town church of Wittenberg. In his preaching, Luther had none of the rhetorical culture that Basil, Chrysostom, or Augustine had, but only a standard training in rhetoric. He was both a prophetic preacher and an expository preacher. Some of Luther’s great works include his translation of the New Testament and also the postil, which was a series of sermon helps for preachers who were obligated to preach the lectionary selections. Erasmus, who was quite familiar with the catechetical preaching of the fourth-century Church Fathers, made an appeal for the revival of catechetical preaching, and “Luther’s catechetical sermons of 1528 show us what catechetical preaching had become after it had been going on for a few years. For Luther, preaching was worship because it was doxological and it is also the means God has provided for the building up of the Church. He used simple illustrations from common life to make his points, and his illustrations were not particularly colorful or interesting in themselves.

One subject Luther took up with particular interest was liturgical reform. He produced two works on liturgical reform, “On the Ordering of Worship in the Congregation,” focusing on the daily office, and “Formula missae,” focusing on the reform of the Mass. On the reform of the church calendar, Luther’s interest was to get rid of the saints’ days and adopt the lectio continua. The lectionary did not emphasize the essential matters of faith but rather matters of conduct. Luther did not insist on liturgical uniformity, and he had no intention of drawing up any canons of evangelical worship. In the town church at Wittenberg, daily prayer services included the preaching of the lectio continua, taking one book at a time until one has read through the entire Bible. For Luther, Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) has ultimate authority in the church, and the centrality of the reading and preaching of the Word in public worship was the most important reform needed in the Worship of the Church.

Ulrich Zwingli (1484 – 1531).

Zwingli was on intimate terms with the Christian humanists of Basel, a circle which at that time was presided over by Erasmus of Rotterdam. Christian humanism is an approach to theology which advocates an intensive study of the humanities, that is, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. It is a very literary approach to theology which studies the scriptures and the writings of the ancient Christian Fathers in their literary context. The motto of Christian humanism was ad fontes, “back to the sources.” It was in this Christian humanism that Zwingli was educated.

By the time the Reformation began, Basel had become one of the centers of Christian humanism and the seat of an impressive intellectual empire. When the Erasmus edition of the complete works of Jerome was published, Zwingli was one of the first to study it. Zwingli had a remarkable devotion to the study of the Scriptures. He wrote out the Greek text of the New Testament in his own hand and then committed it to memory and also wrote the textual variations he found in the commentaries of the Fathers (Ambrose, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Augustine).

In his preaching ministry, Zwingli was greatly inspired by the lectio continua preaching of Chrysostom, and after he got a copy of Chrysostom’s lectio continua sermons on Matthew from his friend Johann Froeben, he preached through the gospel of Matthew just as Chrysostom had done in Antioch in the fourth century. He is also known for sometimes preaching occasional sermons and sermons for the major feasts. Zwingli didn’t agree with Scholasticism because of its claim to continue the heritage of the philosophy of the ancient world.

As asceticism began to gain an ever-stronger grip on Christianity, fasting became central to the liturgical calendar. Zwingli broke into his lectio continua to preach against Lenten fasting. Zwingli also preached prophetically against Idolatry, convincing the town council to remove the offending pictures and statues, and in June 1524 the city council had the churches cleared of all traces of idolatry. Zwingli began to preach prophetically against mercenary soldiering in Switzerland. His resolve was that Swiss young men should never become the pawns of foreign princes. It is through the prophetic preaching of Zwingli that Swiss neutrality stems. Swiss soldiers do not fight on foreign soil.

John Calvin (1509 – 1564).

Calvin studied law and theology in Paris, the capital of Scholasticism. He was introduced to the historical-critical method of studying the law and, at the same time, to the study of Greek and the ideas of the Reformation. Calvin devoted his attention to the historical and literary studies of the Christian humanists such as Erasmus.

Among the reformers, Calvin was the theologian. He produced a thorough and complete explanation of the whole of Christian theology in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Even in preaching, he followed the other reformers in doing expository preaching, rejecting the allegorical interpretations of the Alexandrians and adopting the grammatical-historical exegesis of Antioch. Though Calvin is not clear in his Institutes on whether he followed the Strasbourg theology of the Lord’s Day, he did follow his older colleagues in Strasbourg in his understanding of the Lord’s Day. He preached a lectio continua Lord’s Day sermon series on the Gospel of Matthew, where he strongly opposed the ascetic way of life. In these sermons, we see a much looser and freer type of expository preaching, which is different from the Scholastic preachers of the High Middle Ages which had emphasized much the maintaining of a balanced sermon outline.

Apart from the Lord’s Day sermons, Calvin also had Weekday Sermons from Monday until Saturday, where he did lectio continua preaching. Calvin also preached Holy Week sermons, and it is clear from the sermons that have been preserved that there is a definite pastoral integrity in his sermons, a stronger emphasis on presenting the cross as vicarious atonement, and an understanding of the Holy Week as Passover.

Finally, looking at his homiletics, Calvin was good at public speaking, though he is not thought of as a great orator. From his sermons, we are able to see Calvin’s focus on the text of Scripture, clarity of thought and expression, a constant concern for application, and finally a high sense of the authority of Scripture.

Finally, Calvin understood the reading and preaching of scripture as having a central place in the worship of the church. For Calvin, worship must always serve God’s glory. Christ is always present in the reading and preaching of his Word (kerygmatic real presence). He gave special attention to covenantal theology of worship, which emphasizes worship as a means to establish a covenant with God, maintain it, nourish it, and renew it.

John Oecolampadius (1482 – 1531).

Oecolampadius was the leading reformer of the Upper Rhineland along with Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer, and Wolfgang Capito. He is known for translating an impressive amount of the writings of the Greek Fathers, most of which were sermons. Before he began his work as a reformer, he had already won a reputation as a preacher and occupied three pulpits: the first one in Weinsberg, his native city; the second one was the cathedral of Augsburg; and lastly, he went to preach in the monastery of Altomünster.

The preaching of Oecolampadius was inspired by the feasts of the Christian year, and this was due to his admiration and study of the festal sermons of Gregory of Nazianzus. Gregory was not an expository preacher, and the emphasis on the celebration of the major Christian feasts by the Continental Reformed churches was to some extent due to the influence of Gregory of Nazianzus.

After he left the monastery in 1522, Oecolampadius devoted himself to making a Latin translation of the sixty-six sermons of Chrysostom on the book of Genesis, which were based on the lectio continua and represented an entirely different approach to preaching than the sermons of Gregory of Nazianzus. The example of Chrysostom consequently disciplined and purified Oecolampadius’s preaching style, and the more elaborate rhetoric of Gregory of Nazianzus was replaced by the more chaste rhetoric of John Chrysostom. Though Oecolampadius was obliged to follow and honor the lectionary and the Christian year, his sermons did not develop the traditional themes but focused on the biblical text itself, working as best as he could within these traditional structures.

Wolfgang Capito was pastor of the cathedral of Basel from 1515-19, and it was he who had begun the Reformed preaching ministry in Basel cathedral by preaching through the Gospel of Matthew. Oecolampadius became pastor of the cathedral of Basel after the adoption of the Reformation Act of 1529. As successor of his friend Wolfgang Capito, Oecolampadius began his ministry at the cathedral by preaching a lectio continua on the Gospel of Mark. He continued this series on Mark until his death in November 1531.

Martin Bucer (1491 – 1551).

Among the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century, Martin Bucer is known for the reform of worship. At an early age, he entered the Dominican cloister where he received an excellent education, and later on was sent to the University of Heidelberg, a recognized center for the new learning of Christian humanism. While at the University of Heidelberg, young Bucer steeped himself in the knowledge of Greek and biblical Hebrew, and also picked up his strong Augustinian theology and his love for Scripture and patristic literature.

When young Bucer arrived at Heidelberg, Erasmus was the bright star of Christian humanism, and Bucer was fascinated by Erasmus’s publication of the complete works of Jerome, and eagerly learned all he could from Erasmus. Bucer also studied the biblical commentaries of the rabbis. In 1518, young Bucer was won over to the theology of the Reformation by the debates of Martin Luther with the Dominican Order at Heidelberg. In 1521, Bucer obtained a release from his monastic vows, married Elizabeth Silbereisen, becoming one of the first priests to marry, and began to exercise a pastoral ministry, vigorously preaching the Reformation. Bucer was an expository preacher, going through the Gospel of Matthew and the First Epistle of Peter. He was excommunicated in 1523 by the bishop of Speyer, sought refuge in Strasbourg, and became a popular preacher in Strasbourg, where his parents were citizens.

Talking about his preaching ministry, what we read in his commentaries was first preached by him in the pulpit. He was truly a master of the literary arts so brilliantly developed by the Christian humanists of the Renaissance. His commentary on the Psalms contains comments on the Hebrew text, something all but unknown to the medieval preacher, and even went so far as to compare it with the different Greek versions of antiquity.

Though being one of the best biblical scholars of his day, Bucer’s contribution is in the field of worship. His focus was on practical theology and not systematic theology. He is known for contributing to a strong church polity and the catechetical ministry of the church.

Hugh Latimer (ca. 1485 – 1555)

Hugh Latimer did his traditional Scholastic sort of studies at Cambridge. The new learning of Christian humanism did not seem to have influenced him, even though it was so influential for the Rhenish Reformers. His preaching was based on late medieval preaching techniques the preaching orders had fashioned.

On the eve of the Reformation, Germany was experiencing a reform of preaching while England was spiritually starving for lack of preachers. The leaders of the English Reformation were not preachers, Latimer being the most notable exception. Being a master of late medieval homiletical forms, Latimer’s sermons contain the typical medieval introduction, the prothema, and have a literary charm one rarely finds in the sermons of the Continental Reformers. His sermons are rich in rhetoric, full of irony, ridicule, personal reminiscence, epithet, simile, metaphor, and alliteration.

In the early stages of his preaching ministry, Latimer cared much about the point he wanted to make and not what the text was saying. Later on, he became much more expository, penetrating deeper into the meaning of the text. One thing Latimer understood well in his prophetic preaching was selecting the right text for the right occasion. Latimer was recognized as the best preacher in England, and he was called upon to preach at critical moments in the history of England.

Because of his prophetic burden to restore the ministry of the Word to the Church of England, Latimer first of all made an appeal for preaching prelates because the bishops had left the local church in charge of curates who were far less capable. Other issues Latimer had to deal with include idolatry, enclosures, and high rents. Catechetical sermons also made part of Latimer’s preaching ministry. What Latimer lacked was a systematic interpretation of major portions of scripture such as we find in Luther, Zwingli, or Calvin. He was not an expository preacher.

The other thing we see in Latimer’s preaching is an excessive dependence on the state, and this is the typical English Reformation preaching but not typical of the Reformation as a whole. With the English pulpit so dependent on government support, it is not surprising that when the government was indifferent, English preaching was indifferent as well.

John Flavel (1627 – 1691).

John Flavel, the seamen’s preacher, was a minister in Dartmouth. He ministered to the sea captains and sailors, having understood well their peculiar sins and vices, their fears, their ambitions, and their spiritual needs.

Flavel was trained as a minister at Oxford. When Charles II was restored to the throne, and the episcopacy got reestablished, Flavel could not support it; neither was he excited about The Book of Common Prayer, and this led to him being officially removed from his pulpit. Flavel continued with his preaching ministry for almost thirty years, preaching from a rock in the harbor of Dartmouth and sometimes in woods and private homes. In 1691 he served as moderator of an assembly of Presbyterian and Congregational ministers trying to unite the two groups, and he died a few hours later after the meeting reached a consensus.

Flavel was a standard Puritan preacher, doing a regular exposition of various chapters of Scripture, which he went through one verse at a time. He gave solid theology to clandestine congregations gathered in the middle of the night or from a rock in the harbor of Dartmouth, which demonstrated the true passion of a Puritan for solid theology. He had a delight in catechetical preaching as evidenced by An Exposition of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism. Beginning in 1688, Flavel began to preach through the Westminster Shorter Catechism each Lord’s Day, taking one question at a time. He was a man of profound and powerful prayer and intense awareness of God’s providence in his life. Among his published sermons are a collection of twelve Sacramental Meditations and also another series of six sermons called the Seaman’s Companion. He turned Englishmen who were Anglican at court and cathedral into pure Puritans once off to sea.

One thing to note about Flavel’s sermons is how he balances his strong doctrine of providence with an equally strong discipline of prayer, developing in his preaching something implicit in Calvinism yet classically Christian. Another thing to note is that Flavel was a learned minister. His sermons include illustrations from ancient history, Latin proverbs, quotations, and citations of writers of his own day. His sermons follow the Protestant plain style but also divide the text in characteristic scholastic fashion. He did not employ the elaborate introductions and conclusions that had been so cultivated by the medieval schools.

Heinrich Müller (1631 – 1675).

Heinrich Müller was a preacher of practical piety and heartfelt devotion, and also a scholar of considerable attainment, held in particular honor as one of Germany’s leading preachers of the seventeenth century. Young Heinrich, only thirteen years of age, began to study theology at the University of Rostock after a solid foundation in the Greek and Latin Classics. He received the master’s degree before he was twenty years old. In 1653, he was granted a doctorate in theology by the University of Helmstedt. He was named professor of Greek and later on professor of theology in 1662. He became superintendent of the church of Rostock in 1671.

In Müller’s sermons, we see the focus on preaching as worship. His sermons have no focus on spiritual disciplines usually associated with the liturgical calendar, but on expounding the text as it is found in Scripture. His sermons are always filled with his intensive investigation of the text, and he is ingenious at developing the biblical imagery. He does follow the homiletical forms that were popular in his day, but he was hardly a slave to convention, as he could easily follow the text, commenting as he goes along.

Müller was a master of the use of his native language, looking at the magnificent use of words in his sermons, the variety of his vocabulary, his alliterations, his rhythms, and his balanced phrases. His sermons have the beauty of Protestant plain style though preached in the age of the baroque. His sermons are of classic Protestant orthodoxy, preached at a time when Protestantism had shaped the devotion of a good part of Germany, elaborating its theology, deepening its devotional life, and training its pastors to study the scriptures with an astounding thoroughness and depth, and its congregations to read the Bible carefully and thoughtfully.

Müller’s sermons are true classics and are as rich today as they were in the seventeenth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church: Volume 4, The Age of the Reformation (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002).

Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) – Pages 3-43.

Ulrich Zwingli (1484 – 1531). – Pages 43-53.

John Calvin (1509 – 1564) – Pages 90 – 134.

John Oecolampadius (1482 – 1531) – Pages 53-65.

Martin Bucer (1491 – 1551) – Pages 72-74.

Hugh Latimer (ca. 1485 – 1555); The Prophet or Reform – Pages 139-144.

John Flavel (1627 – 1691) – Pages 317-326.

Heinrich Müller (1631 – 1675) – Pages 392–408.