A Grace of Sense - theological aesthetics

After Luther’s death in 1546, the real presence of the body of Christ in the Lord’s Supper became the shibboleth of orthodoxy in Lutheranism. It was thought that one could thereby distinguish between Philippists or Crypto-Calvinists and genuine Lutherans. A major proponent of the Lutheran position was the Reformer of Württemberg, Johannes Brenz (1499-1570). The writings that gave Brenz a place in the history of theology are De personali unione (1561) and De maiestate Domini (1562). In these treatises he continues and deepens the argumentation of the real presence advocated in the Stuttgart Confession (1559). His opponents were Swiss reformers Peter Martyr Vermigli and Heinrich Bullinger, who commented his writings. Vermigli died while writing a reply for De personali unione . At his deathbed, his friend Bullinger comforted him with the word of God: “But our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3,20) and Vermigli replied: “But not in Brenz’ heaven, that is nowhere.” The Christologi...