Pagina 15 - Catalogus nr 6.indd

[ 13 ] MENIUS, Justus (1499-1558). Von der Gerechtigkeit die für Gott gilt.Wider die newe alcumistische
TheologiamAndreae Osiandri. [Colophon: Erfurt, Gervasius Stürmer], 1552. 4to. [78] lvs. Modern
marbled paper-covered boards. 1.200,-
First and only edition of a polemical treatise against Osiander’s views on justification. The origins of the Osiandrian
controversy go back to 1550, when Osiander, professor of theology at the newly founded University of Konigsberg,
defended eighty-one theses on justification. He argued that justificationmust be viewed as a making alive by divine
indwelling and not as a forensic declaration of forgiveness, a strikingly different interpretation of justification
by faith than the Wittenberg circle held. After the publication of the disputation it remained relatively quiet, but
when Osiander published a defense of his position in 1551, a firestorm ignited. Menius, the reformer of Thuringia,
was one of the first theologians who published a response against Osiander. His treatise elaborately deals with the
contrast between Osiander’s theology and the theology of Wittenberg, providing sharp arguments against Osiander
wherever possible. In addition Menius also disputed one of Osiander’s later treatises, published in January 1552,
arguing that its contens not only contradicted Luther’s views, but also Osiander’s earlier positions.
VD 16 M 4591.