Melanchthon's Common Places -- What Is The Gospel?
What's up team it's ya boy Cam! Blogging again for the Wittenberg Project, you dig?! Anyway, myself and Lex are going through Philip Melanchthon's classic 1521 work, Loci Communes (Common Places). It's basically the first Protestant systematic theology book. Luther loved the Loci so much that he thought it should be included in scripture!
But who was Melanchthon? Philip Melanchthon was Martin Luther's young lieutenant, if you will. He was 16 years younger than Luther, but was classically trained and had extensive knowledge of Greek, Latin and Hebrew. He began working at Wittenberg University with Luther at the age of 21. He taught languages, and was a world-renowned expert in New Testament Greek in Luther's time. Other than the Loci, Melanchthon is most famous for writing the Augsburg Confession of 1530 (https://bookofconcord.org/augsburg-confession), and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession of 1530 (https://bookofconcord.org/defense/), which can be listed as some of the most important Protestant writings of the time, and perhaps ever.
Yeah, so Melanchthon was kind of like a big deal. And prior to writing the Augsburg Confession, his Loci Communes was all the rage. Loci was a particular method of memorizing things like scripture by associating a certain thing with a certain place. It's kind of like how you might organize your bookshelf or your cabinet, Marie Kondo style. Melanchthon used the Konmari method before Marie was even born though!
Okay, okay. Let's stay on track. So Lex and I discussed the part of the Loci where Melanchthon starts talking about the gospel, and what that means, exactly.
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
According to Melancthon, the Gospel is the promise of God's grace or mercy, that is, the forgiveness of sin and the testimony of God's kindness to us.
Lex admonished us to be careful not to get lost in the freedom of the Gospel. Let's not go to extremes; legalism or laziness. More to come.
