Overview

Enemies of the Cross examines how suffering and truth were aligned in the divisive debates of the early Reformation. Vincent Evener explores how Martin Luther, along with his first intra-Reformation critics, offered ""true"" suffering as a crucible that would allow believers to distinguish the truth or falsehood of doctrine, teachers, and their own experiences. To use suffering in this way, however, reformers also needed to teach Christians to recognize false suffering and the false teachers who hid under its mantle.This book contends that these arguments, which became an enduring part of the Lutheran and radical traditions, were nourished by the reception of a daring late-medieval mystical tradition DL the post-Eckhartian DL which depicted annihilation of the self as the way to union with God. The first intra-Reformation dissenters, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt and Thomas Müntzer, have frequently been depicted as champions of medieval mystical views over and against the non-mystical Luther. Evener counters this depiction by showing how Luther, Karlstadt, and Müntzer developed their shared mystical tradition in diverse directions, while remaining united in the conviction that sinful self-assertion prevented human beings from receiving truth and living in union with God. He argues that Luther, Karlstadt, and Müntzer each represented a different form of ecclesial-political dissent shaped by a mystical understanding of how Christians were united to God through the destruction of self-assertion. Enemies of the Cross draws on seldom-used sources and proposes new concepts of ""revaluation"" and ""relocation"" to describe how Protestants and radicals brought medieval mystical teachings into new frameworks that rejected spiritual hierarchy.

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9780190073183

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Reviews

Enemies of the Cross provides a masterful analysis of how early Protestant reformers viewed suffering as both a source and sign of theological truth, even though they disagreed sharply about the content of this truth. Evener demonstrates convincingly that one simply cannot understand the early development of Protestantism without taking stock of suffering and the central role it played in Reformation epistemology, theology, and spirituality. An impressive achievement. * Ronald K. Rittgers, author of The Reformation of Suffering: Pastoral Theology and Lay Piety in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany * Vincent Evener's thorough study abandons simple distinctions between mysticism and Protestantism or between mainstream and liberal reformers. He shows the common ground among such varied theologians as Luther, Karlstadt, and Muntzer as well as how their different approaches to piety led to distinct approaches to politics. Anyone who wants to understand how conflicts among the reformers emerged should read this excellent book. * Volker Leppin, author of Martin Luther: A Late Medieval Life *

Author Information

Vincent Evener is Associate Professor of Reformation and Luther Studies at United Lutheran Seminary. He is the co-editor of Protestants and Mysticism in Reformation Europe, and the author of numerous articles and book chapters on Reformation history, theology, and spirituality.

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