Unsung European hero? – Book Review

Martin H. Jung, Philipp Melanchthon und seine Zeit (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2010)

Philipp Melanchthon is not well known, even in Germany. Jung acknowledges this entertainingly in his opening chapter, disarming a possible argument about the irrelevance of his subject head-on with a number of straightforward arguments. Melanchthon’s life is among the best-documented of the sixteenth century, for one thing. A noted Humanist scholar, Melanchthon was responsible for shaping the German Church as well as the modern university. Far from being a specifically German figure, Melanchthon can justifiably be called ‘Europe’s teacher’; Jung includes England in the long list of countries within Melanchthon’s sphere of influence, but neglects to mention that subsequent developments have made Lutheranism an important force in North America too. What is more, Melanchthon clearly anticipated many ecumenical advances that have only come about in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, making him up-to-date and widely relevant. This book is timed to coincide with the 450th anniversary of Melanchthon’s death in 2010.

Jung retells the standard Protestant version of the Reformation story, but with a number of twists. The first of these is to break up the narrative into short, quasi-thematic sections, which he introduces with a snappy segue to enhance the pace and drama of the story (think Da Vinci Code in the hands of a competent popular historian). The purpose is not to provide another sweeping account of the period, although Jung does take the time to debunk the worst of the Luther legends (revealing Melanchthon’s role in the creation of the story in which Luther nails his 95 Theses to the Church door, for example). It is just as well that Jung does not attempt such a retelling, which has in any case been recently undertaken so successfully in the form of Diarmaid MacCulloch’s scholarly history Reformation: Europe’s House Divided. Jung, on the other hand, is a popularising and occasionally pedantic historian. He uses traditional historiography and terminology uncritically, misses opportunities to analyse his data or to quote specific examples from Melanchthon’s writing, and he does not indicate his sources with any clarity. His real achievement in this book is to make Melanchthon visible – and legible – in the history of the Reformation.

It emerges that Melanchthon’s role has been downplayed, even in some of the best-known episodes of the Reformation. We learn of his vast correspondence with friends and associates, as well as with such opposed figures as Erasmus and Calvin. His academic abilities are emphasised too, as Jung reveals that Melanchthon’s Wittenberg lectures were consistently better attended than Luther’s. Melanchthon played such a significant role in Luther’s famous translation of the Bible that Jung proposes re-baptising it the ‘Luther-Melanchthon Bible’, but Melanchthon’s grandeur was such that his abilities as a linguist were recognised on all sides of the confessional divide. Even his dogmatics – subtly different and more nuanced than Luther’s – and his theological method have exercised a long-lasting and unrecognised influence.

Never a monk or a priest, Melanchthon was simply and straightforwardly an academic. Yet it is as a mediator that Melanchthon really comes into his own. Much more ready to compromise than most of his contemporaries, Melanchthon appears as a cultivated and patient peace-maker. Indeed, Melanchthon helped to engineer what still counts as the longest period of peace in German history (1552-1618).

In his position on secondary issues (‘adiaphora’), Melanchthon took a stand against fundamentalism. Perhaps this openness of mind explains why he was so sought-out as a correspondent and conversation partner, and why his drafts of statements negotiated at Augsburg and Worms have been retained and successfully used in recent ecumenical discussions.

In keeping with contemporary biographical practice, Jung uncovers little-known aspects of Melanchthon’s private life: his unsuccessful marriage, for instance, or his depression, suicidal tendencies, and sense of impotency in the face of stronger personalities (such as Luther’s). The importance of dreams and portents for Melanchthon’s political and theological decision-making is also surprising.

Finally, Jung brings Melanchthon up to date with chapters on his treatment of Jews and Muslims. Only a discussion of his sexual ethics and attitude towards women are missing. In fact, Melanchthon was surprisingly experimental in his willingness to rethink his views on marriage, in one case advising (secret) bigamy and in another, divorce. The former advice he later came to regret, while the latter, inspired by the unhappy marriage of his daughter and perhaps also by his own. (Melanchthon felt ‘under the thumb’ both at home and at work, where he lived in Luther’s shadow and very much submitted to his influence. These sad marital and professional situations were never resolved.)

Melanchthon’s avant-garde views with regard to marriage and ecumenical relations do not prepare us for his more naive treatment of Jews and Muslims (although Jung hastens to point out how personable he was with individual Jews, and generous in what he wrote about Islam). Also in his reluctance to accept the Copernican revolution, Melanchthon shows himself to be a true child of his times.

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