The Preaching Ministry of Heinrich Bullinger - Research Paper Example

? The preaching ministry of Heinrich Bullinger Thesis ment Heinrich Bullinger was a well-known Swiss reformer who was thehead of the Zurich church as the successor of Huldrych Zwingli. Most researchers show how different he was form the earlier generation of reformers such as Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. Bullinger was rather a consolidator; he added his own perspective to the theology and was a genius to think beyond just gathering the gospel riches that the people of Switzerland craved. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Early Life 3. Beginning of his era 4. Life of a Preacher 5. Highs and Lows of his Life in Zurich 6. Conclusion 1. Introduction Heinrich Bullinger was a well-known Swiss reformer who was the head of the Zurich church as the successor of Huldrych Zwingli. Most researchers show how different he was form the earlier generation of reformers such as Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. Bullinger was rather a consolidator; he added his own perspective to the theology and was a genius to think beyond just gathering the gospel riches that the people of Switzerland craved. Hence, it is believed after being long underestimated, that without him, the shape of theology of England in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century would have been unimaginable1. Bullinger is known for being one of the most influential theologians in the history and specifically in the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. The life of Bullinger indicated how he had been raised for priesthood. His father was a Catholic priest and though he was a priest, he had married, mainly because of the loose enforcement of the vows of celibacy. Bullinger was the youngest of five sons. Bullinger’s parents are not much discussed, but the fact the Bullinger’s father came to confess on the doctrines of the Reformation when he was very old, is known. This may be probably because of the influence of his gifted son2. 2. Early Life Eventually Bullinger started with his formal education in the school of The Brethren of the Common Life in Cleves. While his education, his father gave him no money as he believed that his poverty is necessary for him to develop good habits and responsibilities in his life. However, like Luther, Bullinger was also subjected to sing to earn his living. Bullinger also wanted to enter a Carthusian monastery during his studies, but he was put off against his brother. And he rather set off to Germany to attend the University of Cologne when he was 15 years of age, as his parents expected him to follow the clergy just as Luther3. Bullinger went through many of the experiences and formations of his life while he was in Germany. It was in Cologne when he started studying about the scholastic theologians of the middle Ages. Soon he became disgusted of them, and rather turned his way to the church fathers, specifically Chrysostom and Augustine. He was involved in the lives of the church fathers and eventually became inspired by their writings, especially by their abundant use of Scripture. Prompted by the determination of the church fathers to ground all their doctrine in God’s Word, Bullinger turned his direction to the study of Scriptures4. Thus, as he involved himself more in the pleasure of reading Scriptures, he went through the writings of Martin Luther and used to be inspired by them greatly. These writings used to revolve throughout Germany at that time and thus Bullinger involved himself immensely in this world. It is these years of study in Germany that Bullinger spent and became one of those whose life was surrounded by the winds of reform that were let loose by Luther5. On returning to Switzerland with his master’s degree in 1522, Bullinger accepted the call by Wolfgung Rupli to teach in the cloister school. As he was already influenced by the thought of Reformation, he taught the monks form the New Testament and from Philip Melanchthon’s Loci Communes, which was considerably the first systematic theology of the Reformation. He also initiated the systematic program of reading the Bible for the monks there. 3. Beginning of his era After an experience of symbolic understanding of the Eucharist, he approached Zwingli with his thoughts. He was sent to Zurich where Zwingli preached and Bullinger spent 5 months to study ancient languages and listening to Zwingli to start his studies in Hebrew and perfecting his Greek. However, it was this moment of his life where he became more thoroughly familiar with the Reformation characteristics. As a result, when he returned to the cloister school, he started persuading all the monks and the abbot to accept the teachings of the Reformation. In 1529, Bullinger’s father announced how he had been preaching false doctrines all these years and now renounced them in the favor of the Protestant doctrines. Resulting, his congregation decided to remove him as the priest. In the same year, Bullinger was called to be the minister of the church as the successor of his father as preacher at Bremgarten. Bullinger preached here till the battle of Cappel in which Zwingli was killed against the Catholics and Reformation in Switzerland was brought to a temporary fester. 4. Life of a Preacher During Bullinger’s years in Bremgarten, he developed keen skills as a preacher and pastor. He served the congregation well until the death of Zwingli. When he died, Bullinger was forced to leave the congregation and stop preaching. He stayed away from the pulpit for a while, as he was shortly called as to be the successor of Zwingli in the prestigious congregation of Zurich. This was where he remained till the end of his life and wrapped himself in the ministry of the Word. Throughout his life in Zurich, he preached six or seven times a week, and later only on Fridays. The death of Zwingli was expected to bring a blow to the Reformation in Switzerland, but Bullinger was sent to provide the churches a steady hand. The life of Bullinger as a preacher and a minister served many people as he adopted his loyalty to his work. Bullinger proved to be a devoted pastor as not only was he a powerful preacher, but also was a faithful shepherd who visited his sheep day and night. In every aspect of his life, he had proved to do his job and provide his people with the best of God’s Word. He welcomed all the people to his house that needed his help, exposed himself to all the dangers when he visited the ones who were struck down by the affliction that visited Zurich several times. He protected his people through every possible way and brought comfort and strength to the dying. Bullinger was considered a man sent by God to protect his church and his people6. Bullinger lived on a very low salary, yet his charity was well known throughout Switzerland. He was known as being free to distribute money, food, and clothing to those who needed it and came to him for help. At the same time, he refused all sorts of gifts presented to him, and rather gave everything he could beyond his salary to support the hospitals and institutions of mercy. Bullinger always provided his home as a shelter to the ones who were exiles or even strangers. He also secured a pension for Zwingli’s widow and took her responsibility under his shoulders, bought her under his roof, and also took the charge of the education Zwingli’s two children. His work and devotion is what brought him great respect from all his parishioners. He was a strong writer and thinker with an enduring spirit that bought him great qualities that won little sympathy at that age. Thus, these were the qualities of charity and hospitality that were exemplary, and because of which many Protestant fugitives took his writings with them for a broad distribution7. Bullinger’s Christian love is what led him to be deeply committed to Christian education. He served as the administrator and manager of the schools in Zurich. He helped many of the schools with the employment of able theologians. Furthermore, he participated actively in the regulation of the schools according to the Word of God. His work clearly executed his love for teaching and preaching. He had a passion for truth and God’s Word through which he delivered messages that spurred and shaped the Reformation8. On the other hand, Bullinger was a family devoted man. He married a former nun from Zurich, Ann Adlischweiler in 1529, and had seven children with her. Many of the researchers suggest that his home was a very happy and peaceful place despite the fact that strangers were always lodging in with them. He romped around with his children and grandchildren, and more importantly he was deeply concerned about his covenant calling to teach them the ways of Lord and give his preaching at home. Also, when his parents could no longer take care of themselves, Bullinger and his wife used to care for them in their own home9. 5. Highs and lows of his life in Zurich Bullinger had become the theologian of the Swiss churches after Zwingli’s death. The Swiss Reformation produced two of the most remarkable and beautiful confessions: the First and Second Helvetic Confessions. Bullinger was the theologian behind both the confessions10. The First Helvetic Confession was his work along with several other theologians including Megander, Grynaeus, Myconius and Leo Jud. However, in 1532, Jud proposed about making the religious discipline entirely different from the secular power11. To this, Bullinger argued that the need for the separate church court sets had been ended when the magistrate became Christian. He further argued that the place where there is a Christian magistrate, the institutions of the Old Testament was the appropriate thing. He did not believe that the church should be utterly submissive to the state though, as in 1532, he was involved in creating a joint committee of ministers and magistrates to supervise the church12. The Second Helvetic Confession was Bullinger’s personal work, which was written as a personal confession of faith, and was adopted by the Swiss Churches in 1566. It has been read and studied by many, and in all respect, it is a beautiful and worth the time confession to read it. His confession had become a personal statement of his faith that Bullinger wished to be presented to the Zurich Rathaus upon his death. When in 1566, the Pious, Elector palatine introduced the Reformed elements in the church in his region, Bullinger had a feeling that this statement would be successful for the elector, so he spread it throughout the Protestant cities of Switzerland who signed it to show their consent13. When there was a controversy that rose in Switzerland over the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, Bullinger defended the Reformed view against Lutheranism. Moreover, he not only defended the view but also worked immensely to bring uniformity amongst the Swiss with the collaboration of John Calvin. Their cooperative efforts showed a great result, in the form of the Consensus Trigurinus which was an important Reformation document on the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper14. Bullinger was an influential man and his influence extended throughout Europe, even though he never travelled beyond Switzerland. He never put an end to his preaching or never limited them. When exiles from England during the reign of Bloody Mary, sought refuge in Zurich, he took them into his home and taught them the Scriptures and the truths of Scriptures more carefully. Bullinger spent his life in the honest preaching and teaching throughout his life. His astonishing influence corresponded on theologians everywhere15. His influences were applied in correspondence with the Swiss, German and the English theologians. He wrote to the kings, princes and the queens to correspond his influence and preaching throughout his access. When he died, the English mourned the event as a calamity, and continuously expressed their great debt that they had to this great preacher of Zurich16. Bullinger showed his weakness in one controversy that he went through during his life. When Calvin in Geneva had been struggling with the heresies of Bolsec, the Consistory of Geneva tended to seek the advice of some other Swiss theologians. Although, these theologians did agree with Calvin in his doctrine of predestination, they cautioned Geneva to proceed with care and questioned Calvin’s strong statements on God’s predestination of sin and sovereign, unconditional reprobation. Bullinger was also among them and when Calvin drew up his Consensus Genevensis, Bullinger simply refused to sign it. Another controversy in which Bullinger carried out his debates with the Anabaptists is of great value to the researchers and theologians today. Against the Anabaptists, Bullinger wrote about six books. Bullinger developed his ideas of God’s covenant of grace in his defense of the biblical position on the doctrine of infant baptism. Once again, it was Bullinger’s writings that had the first development of this doctrine which was seen and which meant so much for the cause of truth. Thus, all the subsequent covenant theologians do owe a great debt to this great preacher17. It was not late at his lifetime stage while he was preaching that he quite soon discovered that leading the Zurich churches was none other than another fraught with difficulties. Bern had realized what a strong leader Bullinger was ad in accordance, painted a miserable picture of Zurich which was in order to tempt Bullinger over to them. However, many magistrates of the church had become so increasingly used to of the brave yet equally tactless stubbornness of Zwingli that they began to think that milder Bullinger was a second-best substitute. Moreover, the Funf Orte had been so immensely hurt by Zwingli’s less than Christian statesmanship while representing Zurich’s interests that they were very close to re-declaring war on the city, thinking that Bullinger had simply put up Zwingli’s functions rather than creating up his own18. This mistrust grew and came to a head in 1532 when the Corporation demanded that Bullinger should draw up a Mandate of Faith at the name of the city, announcing that the Reformation had come to stay and accusing Rome in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately the authorities thought that Bullinger’s declaration was too mild and voted from a more militant version, which the surrounding Roman Catholic districts started to view not only as a breach of the Kappeler Peace but also as an aggravation to war. The corporation’s act also coincided with Charles V’s who was trying to find some sort of a mutual tolerance between Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed and the Glaubensmandat appeared as a threat to the Emperor’s policy19. Thus, the five districts asked Zurich to withdraw the Mandate as it sought to go beyond the Kappeler Peace which stated that each of the cantons should democratically follow the religion of their choice and not interfere with the other cantons. Bern however, insisted Zurich to maintain their militant position. Bullinger was elected as the spokesman to announce to the corporation that they could not prescribe for the Roman Catholic ruled areas as they believe, but they should allow the Zurich pastors to preach the Word of God. The corporation withdrew the Mandate as it was too bold and negative and further averted the war20. 6. Conclusion Bullinger had suffered a lot in the last days of his life, as the great burden of the work undermined his health21. He was known to be the man sent by God to maintain the Swiss Reformation after Zwingli had died. He was gifted with extraordinary spiritual gifts given to him by God. It was his nature that portrayed patience, firm faith, moderation, courage and fortitude who proved through his work and preaching that the Reformation was a work of God since the reformation at his time survived the catastrophe at Cappel against the Catholics. References Armstrong, B.G. "Bullinger, Johann Heinrich". In Who's Who in Christian History. Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1992. Baker, J. Wayne. 1993. The theology of history and apologetic historiography in heinrich bullinger: Truth in history. Vol. 24The Sixteenth Century Journal. Eijnatten, Joris. Preaching, Sermon and Cultural Change in the Long Eighteenth Century. Netherlands: BRILL, 2009. Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology: Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001. Elwell, Walter A. and Barry J. Beitzel. Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988. Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1998. Fahlbusch, Erwin and Geoffrey William Bromiley. The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Grand Rapids, Mich.; Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 2005. Myers, Allen C. The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987. Schaff, Philip and David Schley Schaff. History of the Christian Church. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910. Stephens, Wiliam Peter. 2009. The authority of the bible in heinrich bullinger's early works. Reformation and Renaissance Review 10 (1). Wabuda Susan. Preaching During the English Reformation. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Watt, Jeffrey R. 2006. Architect of reformation: An introduction to heinrich bullinger, 1504?1575 – edited by bruce gordon and emidio campi. Religious Studies Review 32 (1): 50-1. Read More