Johannes Bugenhagen Pomeranus (1485-1558)
Bugenhagen memorial in Wittenberg
Who was Bugenhagen (aka Dr. Pomeranus)? Why is his name so much fun to say?
Johannes Bugenhagen was Martin Luther's friend, colleague, and pastor during the Reformation. He was the head pastor for the churches around Wittenberg and a professor at the town's university. One of his great contributions was his use of the Common Chest: a way to organize stewardship, community reform, school funding, and poor relief. It was an effective way to put justification by faith into practice.
Remembering Bugenhagen reminds us that the Reformation was not only the work of major historical figures like Martin Luther or John Calvin. Many other men and women worked hard to reform their congregations and put their Christian faith into practice. Bugenhagen and his wife Walpurga, for instance, brought the Reformation to places like Hamburg, Denmark, and his native Pomerania.
Viewing the Reformation as a collaborative event shows us how important it is to keep working together today, for the sake of serving the gospel and our communities.
Bugenhagen's personal motto remains a moving and challenging testimony to faith today:
If you know Jesus well, it is enough, even if you know nothing else.
If you do not know Jesus, whatever else you learn is nothing.
Johannes Bugenhagen was Martin Luther's friend, colleague, and pastor during the Reformation. He was the head pastor for the churches around Wittenberg and a professor at the town's university. One of his great contributions was his use of the Common Chest: a way to organize stewardship, community reform, school funding, and poor relief. It was an effective way to put justification by faith into practice.
Remembering Bugenhagen reminds us that the Reformation was not only the work of major historical figures like Martin Luther or John Calvin. Many other men and women worked hard to reform their congregations and put their Christian faith into practice. Bugenhagen and his wife Walpurga, for instance, brought the Reformation to places like Hamburg, Denmark, and his native Pomerania.
Viewing the Reformation as a collaborative event shows us how important it is to keep working together today, for the sake of serving the gospel and our communities.
Bugenhagen's personal motto remains a moving and challenging testimony to faith today:
If you know Jesus well, it is enough, even if you know nothing else.
If you do not know Jesus, whatever else you learn is nothing.
Bugenhagen's Jonah: Biblical Interpretation as Public Theology
See the whale?
My first book, a published version of my dissertation, studies Johannes Bugenhagen's 1550 commentary on Jonah to explore Lutheran biblical interpretation and to see how the reformers applied their biblical faith to concrete problems.
In 1550, Bugenhagen's problems were legion: Martin Luther had died in 1546, Emperor Charles V won the Smalcald War against German Protestants in 1547; the next year Emperor Charles attempted to bring the Protestants back into the Roman Catholic fold, by force if necessary. To make things worse, by 1549 Lutherans across Germany were fighting among themselves about how to preserve Luther's teachings and handle the challenges they faced.
In all this, Bugenhagen told his audience to trust in God and put their faith and love into practice. Summarizing the Book of Jonah and the situation he faced in Wittenberg, he wrote, "All history is in the image of the passion and resurrection of Christ."
To order the book from Lutheran University Press, click here. It is also available on Amazon.com.
To view or download a promotional pamphlet, click here (a 2-paged PDF file will open)
From the back cover:
"With this first major study of Johannes Bugenhagen in English, Martin Lohrmann allows Wittenberg’s reforming pastor to step out from the shadows of his more famous colleagues, Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, in order to claim his rightful place as Wittenberg’s premier public theologian: chief pastor at St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg, Martin Luther’s confessor, professor of Old Testament and General Superintendent for Saxony (the ecclesiastical equivalent of a Lutheran archbishop).
By using Bugenhagen’s important, and previously unexamined commentary on the prophet Jonah from 1550, the author skillfully combines insights from the history of biblical interpretation with the challenging context of life as an Evangelical (Lutheran) theologian after Luther’s death in 1546. Thus, not only does Lohrmann delineate Bugenhagen’s new insights into the prophet to Nineveh, he also uncovers new information about Luther’s early theological development and powerful evidence for Bugenhagen’s deep involvement in the disputes that shook Lutheran unity after the Smalcald War of 1547.
This book also provides exciting new evidence for the existence of a Wittenberg school of biblical interpretation, one that never divorces exegesis from the immediate theological context, thereby shaping a new prophetic word for the public of Bugenhagen’s day. Anyone interested in gaining fresh insights into the origins of Lutheran theology and biblical interpretation—theologians, church historians, interested pastors and laypersons, and scholars of sixteenth-century thought—will profit immensely from Lohrmann’s research."
--Timothy J. Wengert, emeritus, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia
In 1550, Bugenhagen's problems were legion: Martin Luther had died in 1546, Emperor Charles V won the Smalcald War against German Protestants in 1547; the next year Emperor Charles attempted to bring the Protestants back into the Roman Catholic fold, by force if necessary. To make things worse, by 1549 Lutherans across Germany were fighting among themselves about how to preserve Luther's teachings and handle the challenges they faced.
In all this, Bugenhagen told his audience to trust in God and put their faith and love into practice. Summarizing the Book of Jonah and the situation he faced in Wittenberg, he wrote, "All history is in the image of the passion and resurrection of Christ."
To order the book from Lutheran University Press, click here. It is also available on Amazon.com.
To view or download a promotional pamphlet, click here (a 2-paged PDF file will open)
From the back cover:
"With this first major study of Johannes Bugenhagen in English, Martin Lohrmann allows Wittenberg’s reforming pastor to step out from the shadows of his more famous colleagues, Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, in order to claim his rightful place as Wittenberg’s premier public theologian: chief pastor at St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg, Martin Luther’s confessor, professor of Old Testament and General Superintendent for Saxony (the ecclesiastical equivalent of a Lutheran archbishop).
By using Bugenhagen’s important, and previously unexamined commentary on the prophet Jonah from 1550, the author skillfully combines insights from the history of biblical interpretation with the challenging context of life as an Evangelical (Lutheran) theologian after Luther’s death in 1546. Thus, not only does Lohrmann delineate Bugenhagen’s new insights into the prophet to Nineveh, he also uncovers new information about Luther’s early theological development and powerful evidence for Bugenhagen’s deep involvement in the disputes that shook Lutheran unity after the Smalcald War of 1547.
This book also provides exciting new evidence for the existence of a Wittenberg school of biblical interpretation, one that never divorces exegesis from the immediate theological context, thereby shaping a new prophetic word for the public of Bugenhagen’s day. Anyone interested in gaining fresh insights into the origins of Lutheran theology and biblical interpretation—theologians, church historians, interested pastors and laypersons, and scholars of sixteenth-century thought—will profit immensely from Lohrmann’s research."
--Timothy J. Wengert, emeritus, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia
The Quotable Bugenhagen:
From the Commentary on Jonah, 1550
- The saints have gone to ruin, like Jonah did, and have returned to God through their confessions
- We ministers of Christ's gospel and sacraments are in fact dispensers (not creators) of the mystery of God, the body and blood of Christ
- Christ is our kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven
[translations by M. Lohrmann]
From Luther's Table Talk [LW 54:15-16]
Luther said: Right here at this table, when the rest of you were in Jena [in 1527], Pomeranus sometimes consoled me when I was sad by saying,
“No doubt God is thinking: What more can I do with this man? I have given him so many excellent gifts, and yet he despairs of my grace.” These words were a great comfort to me. As a voice from heaven they struck me in my heart, although I think Pomeranus did not realize at the time what he had said and that it was so well said.
From Bugenhagen's Funeral Sermon for Martin Luther, 1546
- Our dear father Dr. Martin Luther has now attained what he often desired. And if he were to return to us again now, he would reprimand our
mourning and faint-heartedness with the word of Christ from John 16: "If you loved me you would rejoice because I go to the Father, and you would not begrudge me this eternal rest and joy." Christ has conquered death for us. Why, then, are we afraid? The death of the body is for us a beginning of life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord, who has become for us a noble, precious sacrifice.
[translation by K. Hendel]
From the Commentary on Samuel, 1525
- God does not bless us on account of our merits or demerits, but on account of two things which scripture insists upon: mercy and truth.
- [On King David's music]: The art of instrumental music back then was delightful in itself, just as it is now. But unlike we who rejoice in dirty
songs, they only sang to God about praise and mercy, composing psalms and hymns that the devil could not bear and in which faith was played
and sung. This was no doubt true of David’s songs, too. Therefore, as often as you sing from a spirit of instruction to the Lord, you understand
how to play the harp with David, especially when those songs restore the senses from the snare of the devil through God’s word.
[translations by M. Lohrmann]
During the writing of the Smalcald Articles (1537), Melanchthon was frustrated with things and said this to a mutual friend about Bugenhagen:
- He is a hot-tempered man and an uncouth Pomeranian. (They stayed friends!)
[in Hendel, 2004]
- The saints have gone to ruin, like Jonah did, and have returned to God through their confessions
- We ministers of Christ's gospel and sacraments are in fact dispensers (not creators) of the mystery of God, the body and blood of Christ
- Christ is our kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven
[translations by M. Lohrmann]
From Luther's Table Talk [LW 54:15-16]
Luther said: Right here at this table, when the rest of you were in Jena [in 1527], Pomeranus sometimes consoled me when I was sad by saying,
“No doubt God is thinking: What more can I do with this man? I have given him so many excellent gifts, and yet he despairs of my grace.” These words were a great comfort to me. As a voice from heaven they struck me in my heart, although I think Pomeranus did not realize at the time what he had said and that it was so well said.
From Bugenhagen's Funeral Sermon for Martin Luther, 1546
- Our dear father Dr. Martin Luther has now attained what he often desired. And if he were to return to us again now, he would reprimand our
mourning and faint-heartedness with the word of Christ from John 16: "If you loved me you would rejoice because I go to the Father, and you would not begrudge me this eternal rest and joy." Christ has conquered death for us. Why, then, are we afraid? The death of the body is for us a beginning of life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord, who has become for us a noble, precious sacrifice.
[translation by K. Hendel]
From the Commentary on Samuel, 1525
- God does not bless us on account of our merits or demerits, but on account of two things which scripture insists upon: mercy and truth.
- [On King David's music]: The art of instrumental music back then was delightful in itself, just as it is now. But unlike we who rejoice in dirty
songs, they only sang to God about praise and mercy, composing psalms and hymns that the devil could not bear and in which faith was played
and sung. This was no doubt true of David’s songs, too. Therefore, as often as you sing from a spirit of instruction to the Lord, you understand
how to play the harp with David, especially when those songs restore the senses from the snare of the devil through God’s word.
[translations by M. Lohrmann]
During the writing of the Smalcald Articles (1537), Melanchthon was frustrated with things and said this to a mutual friend about Bugenhagen:
- He is a hot-tempered man and an uncouth Pomeranian. (They stayed friends!)
[in Hendel, 2004]
New Books about Bugenhagen
Kurt K Hendel, translator & editor, Johannes Bugenhagen: Selected Writings, Volumes 1 & 2 (Fortress, 2015).
Irene Dingel and Stefan Rhein, eds. Der späte Bugenhagen (Evangelische Verlaganstalt, 2011). In German.
Martin Lohrmann, Bugenhagen's Jonah: Biblical Interpretation as Public Theology (Lutheran University Press, 2012).
Irene Dingel and Stefan Rhein, eds. Der späte Bugenhagen (Evangelische Verlaganstalt, 2011). In German.
Martin Lohrmann, Bugenhagen's Jonah: Biblical Interpretation as Public Theology (Lutheran University Press, 2012).
Some Other Books & Articles about Bugenhagen [English only]
Johannes Bugenhagen. A Christian Sermon over the Body and at the Funeral of the Venerable Dr. Martin Luther, Preached by Mr. Johann
Bugenhagen Pomeranus, Doctor and Pastor of the Churches in Wittenberg. Introduction and translation by Kurt Hendel.
Kurt K. Hendel, “Johannes Bugenhagen, Organizer of the Lutheran Reformation,” Lutheran Quarterly 18 (2004): 43-75.
Martin Lohrmann, “A Newly Discovered Report of Luther’s Reformation Breakthrough from Johannes Bugenhagen’s 1550 Jonah Commentary,”
Lutheran Quarterly 22 (2008): 324-330.
Martin Lohrmann, "Bugenhagen's Pastoral Care of Martin Luther," Lutheran Quarterly 24 (2010): 125-136.
Franz Posset, “John Bugenhagen and the Comma Johanneum,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 49 (1985): 245-251.
Bugenhagen Pomeranus, Doctor and Pastor of the Churches in Wittenberg. Introduction and translation by Kurt Hendel.
Kurt K. Hendel, “Johannes Bugenhagen, Organizer of the Lutheran Reformation,” Lutheran Quarterly 18 (2004): 43-75.
Martin Lohrmann, “A Newly Discovered Report of Luther’s Reformation Breakthrough from Johannes Bugenhagen’s 1550 Jonah Commentary,”
Lutheran Quarterly 22 (2008): 324-330.
Martin Lohrmann, "Bugenhagen's Pastoral Care of Martin Luther," Lutheran Quarterly 24 (2010): 125-136.
Franz Posset, “John Bugenhagen and the Comma Johanneum,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 49 (1985): 245-251.