Melanchthon on Rhetoric and as Helper to Luther
Green, Lowell C. Foreword by Scott Keith. How Melanchthon Helped Luther Discover the Gospel: The Doctrine of Justification in the Reformation. Irvine: 1517 Publishing: 2021. 243 Pages. Paper. $19.95. https://shop.1517.org/products/how-melanchthon-helped-luther-discover-the-gospel
Melanchthon, Philipp. Edited by William P. Weaver, Stefan Strohm, and Volkhard Wels. Opera Omnia: Opera Philosophica Volume 2/2 Principal Writings on Rhetoric. Berlin: DE GRUYTER, 2017. Cloth over board. €125.19/$154.99. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110561197/html
We focus on two very different volumes here. One is an introduction to Melancthon. The second is a very helpful academic book that should bear fruit in seminaries, colleges, high schools, and beyond in teaching rhetoric to young people.
Our first title is a reprint of a book some have called a classic.
Note the new introduction by Scott Keith.
This book is not claiming Melanchthon rediscovered the gospel. That honor belongs to his friend and mentor, Martin Luther. Nevertheless, Dr. Lowell C. Green argues that Melanchthon helped Luther in the task. Dr. Green knew that in choosing the title, How Melanchthon Helped Luther Discover the Gospel, he risked arousing the prejudice of those who look on Melanchthon with suspicion. Green is not blind to Melanchthon's faults; at times, he is critical of him. But, he debunks the myth that when Melanchthon came to Wittenberg in 1518, Luther had already developed his Reformational doctrine. Green shows that Melanchthon brought the tools of humanism to the aid of the emerging agitation. Although maintaining a subordinate role to Luther, Melanchthon helped him repeatedly at the turning points of the Reformation.
Green asserts that Melanchthon was the first to speak of the authority of the Bible over the church. In his Baccalaureate Theses of 1519, Melanchthon became the first to articulate the forensic nature of justification. Most surprisingly, Melanchthon helped Luther move from the medieval view of faith as credulitas or adhaesio (adherence) to the Reformational view of faith as fiducia (trust) and assurance of salvation. Luther testified that he learned this from Melanchthon in 1518.
As late as 1519, Luther had not yet abandoned the medieval view of grace as an infused substance. Melanchthon again led the way in 1520 when he declared that grace was simply the attitude of God-His favor. In his 1521 Loci Communes Melanchthon not only pointed out that grace is not something in us, but he made the important distinction between "grace" and "the gift of grace" (the Holy Spirit). Luther generously acknowledged the brilliance of Melanchthon's Loci Communes. This and other accolades Luther showered on Melanchthon are an indication of young scholar's influence on the great reformer's central teachings.
Lowell C. Green was one of America's foremost Luther scholars, and his body of work continues to inform and shape Reformation studies today. This edition of How Melanchthon Helped Luther Discover the Gospel is the fruition of more than twenty-five years of Luther studies. Dr. Green's central thrust was to challenge the "Young Luther" cult which originated in the early 1900s and gained such a stranglehold on Luther studies in the 1950s and 1960s. In this volume, Green marshals the evidence gathered over a lifetime of study, joining his voice to a choir of scholars who challenge the central thesis of the "Young Luther" movement.
After thoroughly demonstrating that Luther's early works contained a medieval or Roman Catholic "analytical justification," Green traces the emergence of the Reformational doctrine and a real break with medieval theology beginning in 1519.
Green amply demonstrates that the mature Luther subscribed to and frequently expressed the doctrine of justification in forensic terms so that the glory of our salvation could be ascribed wholly to Christ and for the comfort of conscience against the accusing power of the law.
(Publisher's Website)
This book was rather challenging to find (at least for me) before this new edition. We are thankful for its availability.
Melanchthon remains a confusing figure to many Lutherans. Some have no idea who he is. Some have no idea what the Augsburg Confession is, much less its Apology (Defense). If I had to summarize the two Lutheran Confessions courses I had at the seminary (Concordia Seminary, St. Louis; Class of 2000), they could be described as:
Confessions I: Melanchthon good.
Confessions II: Melanchthon bad.
Does Melanchthon's later writing and changes to his Loci and the Augusburg Confession taint his legacy? Yes. Is that why the LCMS Lutheran Service Book Calendar of Commemorations (xii) mark Melanchthon’s birth (16 February) rather than his death?
Well, LSB does something similar for John the Baptist. His Nativity on 24 June is on the calendar, but not his death/heavenly birthday.
Tt the Unaltered Augsburg Confession (as it became known by retronym) was presented as a joint confession (and not a private opinion or confession) at a specific point in time. The Confessors could not predict the adjustments that Melanchthon was willing to make in the later Variata that were "misused," shall we say, by non-Lutheran protestants after the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. Charles V allowed "Cuius regio, eius religio" Latin for "Whose realm, his religion", meaning that the religion of the ruler was to dictate the religion of those ruled.
I thank the Lord for Philipp Melanchthon, author of rhetoric textbooks and the original Augsburg Confession. With the rest of the Lutheran Church, I grieve that his later confession departed from its original clarity during Luther's lifetime.
Before we turn to our second title, allow me to share an excursus on rhetoric, interpersonal communication, and a connection between the two.
Brutus. It must be by his death: and for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general. He would be crown'd:
How that might change his nature, there's the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking. Crown him?—that;—
And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorse from power: and, to speak truth of Caesar,
I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reason.
(Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, II, 1, 611)
So far Shakespeare’s Brutus.
“The murder of Julius Caesar was a planned paramilitary operation” according to author Barry Straus. And he claims that “Caesar’s assassins regarded him as a military dictator who wanted to be king and had to be stopped. Brutus and Cassius were indeed key players, as Shakespeare has it, but they had the help of a third man, Decimus, a mole in Caesar’s entourage. One of Caesar’s leading generals and a lifelong friend, it was he, not Brutus, who truly betrayed Caesar” (The Death of Caesar, back cover).
These three men had to talk about the plan. What techniques of classical rhetoric did they repurpose in interpersonal communication to persuade people to take out Caesar? We don’t have all the details we want to know. We don’t have a transcript like Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. If they could apply the tools of classical rhetoric to interpersonal communication, so can we. We can learn from a modern pair of books from the Black Swan Group, led by Chris Voss, his own Never Split the Difference, and Ego, Authority, Failure by Derek Gaunt.
“Prior to 2008, Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group. During his government career, he also represented the U.S. Government at two (2) international conferences sponsored by the G-8 as an expert in kidnapping. Prior to becoming the FBI lead international kidnapping negotiator, Christopher served as the lead Crisis Negotiator for the New York City Division of the FBI. Christopher was a member of the New York City Joint Terrorist Task Force for 14 years. He was the case agent on such cases as TERRSTOP (the Blind Sheikh Case – Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman), the TWA Flight 800 catastrophe and negotiated the surrender of the first hostage taker to give up in the Chase Manhattan bank robbery hostage taking.”
(Excerpt of website biography from https://www.blackswanltd.com/our-team/chris-voss)
Chris Voss' book about lessons learned from terrorist negotiations is a rediscovery of the tools of classical rhetoric possibly used by Brutus (and others) to plot the assassination of Julius Caesar. How can Rhetoric, one of the "neglected parts of the Trivium" help you in the classroom, speaking or writing to other audiences, and in application, with persuading people in one-on-one conversations?
I enjoyed Voss’ book, Never Split the Difference, recommended to me by a brother pastor finishing a term as a Circuit Visitor. That led to a question: Why do these hostage negotiator techniques work?
They work because they repurpose tried and true tools of classical rhetoric for crisis conversations. Whether this is intentional on the part of Chris Voss, Derek Gaunt and the Black Swan group, is a question that remains to be answered.
Interpersonal communication itself is in crisis (with people on their phones and not really talking with one another or paying attention to what’s going on around them). In addition, we should use the tools of classical rhetoric in our own crisis conversations.
This is the social science side, Communication Studies, not part of classical rhetoric as we narrowly define it.
Our friend and rhetorician Dr. James Tallmon explains:
There is a Social Science division within Speech Communication, and a Rhetoric side. The Rhetorical Studies sub-discipline is traced back to the Greco-Roman world; the Social Sciences trace back to the Enlightenment. (They are at odds, and the Social Sciences, of course, garner all the attention these days.) As a result, the rhetorical side is more compatible with traditional liberal arts education, indeed, are vital to it, but few scholars today approach rhetorical studies that way. There is a remnant in "Composition Rhetoric," in the English Department, but I argue that the richness of the liberal arts approach is realized in the oral tradition (speech). Writing a cogent essay is critical, of course, but being a "Speaker of words and a doer of deeds," so to speak, AND being of use to God in the marketplace, involves cultivating quick wit, intellectual play, and imagination. The best place to develop those skill sets is in debate (practiced in a manner that cultivates intellectual integrity, wisdom, and imagination….)
(personal correspondence)
In brief, the tools of rhetoric may be used or adapted successfully for interpersonal communication, but interpersonal communication isn't properly part of classical rhetoric.
The roots of the conspiracy of Brutus, Cassius, and Decimus against Caesar began with personal conversations.
Shakespeare puts a simple motivation in Brutus' mouth in the play. He "loved Rome more" than he loved Caesar. Caesar was ambitious. His death meant protecting the Roman people from a tyrant. The conspirators had to persuade people that removing Caesar from the scene was a good idea.
Voss and Gaunt make use of quick thinking, intellectual imagination, and tools I’ve identified from Classical Rhetoric in their crisis interpersonal communications. And you can, too, only you’re not negotiating with terrorists.
Our second title is an adventure in rhetoric in three languages.
Thanks to Google books and European libraries, I have paperbacks of reprints of scans of original editions of Melanchthon's texts on rhetoric. To provide accurate translations of them in English, I needed help. And I found it here.
About this book
The need for a new critical edition of Philip Melanchthon's philosophical works is particularly clear in the case of his writings on rhetoric. That Melanchthon played a central role in the transformation of the ancient discipline has been well established by historians. His writings on rhetoric have proven significant sources for several academic fields, including church history, Scriptural interpretation, the history of science, and the reception of classical literature. Remarkably, two of the three principal writings have not been published in their entirety since the sixteenth century.
This volume collects critical editions of the three principal writings to provide a more complete record of Melanchthon’s teaching of rhetoric. It includes critical editions of De Rhetorica (1519), Institutiones Rhetoricae (1521), and Elementa Rhetorices (1531). In addition to the three principal writings, this volume collects a new edition, based on a 1911 edition by Hanns Zwicker, of Dispositiones Rhetoricae (c. 1553), a manuscript compilation of 161 model themes. Scholars will find in this volume the major sources for Melanchthon’s theory and practice of rhetorical instruction.
Author information
William P. Weaver, Baylor University, Waco, TX, U.S.A., Stefan Strohm, Stuttgart and Volkhard Wels, Free University Berlin, Germany.
CONTENTS
Frontmatter
Inhaltsverzeichnis / Table of Contents
Zur Edition der „Melanchthonis opera philosophica“
Volume Introduction
William P. Weaver
DE RHETORICA LIBRI TRES
Editorischer Bericht
Stefan Strohm and Hartmut Schmid
Edition
Stefan Strohm and Hartmut Schmid
Anhang
Stefan Strohm and Hartmut Schmid
INSTITUTIONES RHETORICAE
Editorial Report
William P. Weaver
Institutiones Rhetoricae Philippi Melanchthonis
William P. Weaver
ELEMENTA RHETORICES
Editorischer Bericht
Volkhard Wels
Elementorum Rhetorices Libri Duo
Volkhard Wels
DISPOSITIONES ALIQUOT RHETORICAE
Editorial Report
William P. Weaver and Hanns Zwicker
Melanchthons Dispositiones rhetoricae vom Jahre 1553
William P. Weaver and Hanns Zwicker
Dispositiones aliquot rhetoricae dictatae a Domino Philippo Melanthone Vitebergae
William P. Weaver and Hanns Zwicker
INDEXES
Index of Bible Citations
Index of Citations
Index of Names
Index of Terms
(Publisher's Website)
I've studied rhetoric with focus since 2015. That it was a weak spot for me as a classical Lutheran educator and administrator was embarrassing, so I decided to do something about it. My first step was asking a friend with a Ph.D. in dialectic and rhetoric for a reading list. I developed a study schedule and audited a three-part high school level course adapted from a college course. Since then, I've been invited to teach that high school course and I have lectured annually about rhetoric. In addition, I now weekly teach age appropriate elements of logic and rhetoric to scholars in the 3rd-8th grade.
Primary sources like Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, and Boethius are very important. Melanchthon is an important teacher of rhetoric because he is a Lutheran and was a friend and academic colleague of Matin Luther himself. What he presents is a repetition of the rhetors mentioned above. In that, he is secondary, passing on what needs to be continued to be taught and practiced as the heritage of Western Civilization. As a Lutheran, at least for me, Melanchthon becomes a primary Lutheran source, a primary Reformation-Era source.
Most disappointing to me is how little-known Melancthon is in English as the Teacher of Germany. More of his books are finding their way into print in English translation. Some of the reasons for reluctance, even resistance, have been mentioned already in this long review.
The volumes presented here need to be available in English so that Melanchthon's insights can be taught, his unique contributions practiced, and so that Lutherans may have a more well-rounded, fair, and honest assessment of him, Augsburg Confession, Apology, Variata, Dialectic, Rhetoric, etc., warts and all.
After years of search bookstores and online, I finally have paperbacks of three of the included works and Google scan pdfs of two. This collection will be invaluable for translators!
This volume collects critical editions of the three principal writings to provide a more complete record of Melanchthon’s teaching of rhetoric. It includes critical editions of De Rhetorica (1519), Institutiones Rhetoricae (1521), and Elementa Rhetorices (1531). In addition to the three principal writings, this volume collects a new edition, based on a 1911 edition by Hanns Zwicker, of Dispositiones Rhetoricae (c. 1553), a manuscript compilation of 161 model themes. Scholars will find in this volume the major sources for Melanchthon’s theory and practice of rhetorical instruction.
Weaver's Volume Introduction was eye-opening. He explains clearly the difference between the four works and helps you understand what you are about to read. Heading 2.1 on the 1519 work helped me find a reprint copy (xxxviii) after years of fruitless searching!
Most of what I had previously read about Melanchthon's writing did not even mention the 1553 work.
I very much appreciated the essays in English. That's my native language. The German essays ended up being useful to me, though my German isn't completely fluent. The Latin texts are the true treasure here. Weaver, Strohm, and Wels provide a very readable academic version of the Latin texts of the 1519, 1521, 1531, and 1553 works and for that I am truly thankful.
Rev. Paul J Cain is Senior Pastor of Immanuel, Sheridan, Wyoming, Headmaster Emeritus and Instructor of Liberal Arts at Martin Luther Grammar School and Immanuel Academy, a member of the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education, First Vice-President of the Wyoming District of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Chairman of its Board of Directors, Rhetoric Teacher for Wittenberg Academy, a regent for Luther Classical College, a Director for Steadfast Lutherans and Associate Editor of Curriculum for Steadfast Press, and Editor of Lutheran Book Review. He has served as an LCMS Circuit Visitor, District Worship Chairman, District Evangelism Chairman, District Education Chairman/NLSA Commissioner, and District Secretary. A graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Rev. Cain is a contributor to Lutheran Service Book, Lutheranism 101, the LSB Hymnal Companion hymn and liturgy volumes, and is the author of 5 Things You Can Do to Make Our Congregation a Caring Church. He is an occasional guest on KFUO radio. He has previously served Emmanuel, Green River, WY and Trinity, Morrill, NE. Rev. Cain is married to Ann and loves reading and listening to, composing, and making music.
