Eight Writings on Christian Beliefs

Book

Caspar Schwenckfeld. Eight Writings on Christian Beliefs. Edited by H.H. Drake Williams III. Translated by Edward J. Furcha et al.  Kitchener: Pandora Press, 2006.

Reviewer

Jonathan Seiling, Emmanuel College, Toronto School of Theology

Caspar Schwenckfeld was a devout early follower of Luther and, later, one of the key Spiritualist leaders of the Reformation in Germany. This translated and edited collection of his confessional writings seeks to correct the presumption that since he was a Spiritualist par excellence, he was therefore anti-confessional. The selected texts also demonstrate that he believed Scripture to be the basis of confessions and the standard against which all confessional statements must be judged. That so few of his writings are available in English, despite the enormity of his corpus and his importance for both the Lutheran and radical Reformation movements, makes this volume of general importance for English language Reformation scholarship.

The selections vary widely in length, ranging from two to eighty-five pages. Each text is heavily annotated with endnotes. A foreword and introduction also clarify the collaborators’ aims, and highlight the surprisingly high degree of authority that Schwenckfeld gave to ecclesiastical tradition and the witness of Church Fathers as authentic interpreters of both Scripture and tradition. There is a mistake in the Introduction, however, where the text of the Apostles' Creed is inserted for the version of the Nicene Creed expanded at Constantinople in 381. (As well, the editor implies that the 325 version is used in liturgies, which is also incorrect.)

Although the translations by seven different scholars are fluent and read reasonably well, they are not free of error. On page 77, “Christ commanded to preach the gospel to every creature” omits der gnaden from the original. The text should thus read “Christ commanded to preach the gospel of grace to every creature” (cf. Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum 17: 108, 11). On page 81, auss der ordnung des schoepffers und der Creatur is translated as “from the order of creation and its creatures” but should read “from the order of the Creator and creation” (cf. CS 17: 112, 8). This same error is repeated on page 127 (cf. CS 18: 501, 4).

There is also a problem of consistency of terminology in places, e.g., where gedichten, vernunftt glauben appears both as “fictional, reasoned faith” (102) and as “made-up, rational faith” (103). This key phrase could be better rendered as “feigned, rational belief,” which echoes the use of gedichten in other Reformation-era writers like Müntzer. Also, despite an endnote (170, n. 55) explaining that selig, though translated as ‘saved’ (39) literally means ‘blessed’, the translators later do translate it as ‘blessed’, which is inconsistent and obscures the meaning.  In n. 405, a Scripture passage attributed to Ecclesiastes is actually from Sirach/Ecclesiasticus.

These errors indicate the need for caution in using this translation. However, since they can largely be detected by noticing inconsistencies in the thought, a discerning reader should still be able to make good use of the text, suspecting that inconsistencies and ambiguities might stem primarily from the translations and only secondarily from Schwenckfeld’s own thought.

These writings would also be useful to scholars outside Reformation studies, including theologians interested in the role of creedal language and the classic Christian creeds in the birth of Protestantism. Schwenckfeld’s christology, often dismissed as docetic, can be understood in some of these writings in relation to his reformulation of the classic creedal expressions. The topics of freedom of conscience and religious toleration are also central to the core of his teaching.

Additionally, this volume would assist in a comparison of early confessionalism as found in the various streams of the radical Reformation traditions. Schwenckfeld’s insistence on integrating ethics with confession will be of interest to contemporary theological ethicists who may unknowingly share some of this arch-Spiritualist’s central concerns. The connection seen in these texts between Schwenckfeld’s christology and doctrine of the Trinity also reveals the reasons for his call for a suspension of the sacraments (Stillstand).

While it is unfortunate that so few translations of Schwenckfeld’s writings are available in English, the present volume may provide impetus to put more concerted, scholarly effort into making this important Reformation leader’s ambiguous legacy more accessible in English, and better understood.