While preparing an English translation of the German text of the St. Louis Edition of Luther's complete writings, I decided to read Melanchthon's "Foreword" that was written in 1552, several years after Luther's passing. In the very first paragraph, he stated the following (my emphasis):
“We should thank God that under such great disruptions of the governments and dominions and destructions of the cities, and also under such destruction of the human race, He nevertheless does not let this divine teaching of His be destroyed, and that He also lets us see beautiful clear testimonies, such as the raising of the dead and that the sun is stopped in its course, and many other things more; so that we may know for certain, both that there is one God and that He is gathering a church, and also that this doctrine, which He has given, is the right, certain, immutable truth.”
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Scholars want to emphasize Melanchthon's weakness in the matter of Copernicanism. Patrick Ferry stated that
…over time Melanchthon began to write and speak of Copernicus more approvingly. More significantly, the manner in which he interacted with those who demonstrated Copernican sympathies reveals that, while Melanchthon was personally unconvinced by most of the theory, he remained extremely supportive of and encouraging toward younger faculty members who were inclined otherwise.
Melanchthon may indeed have had a weakness on this. However, in his "Foreword" to Luther's German writings, he could have named many other miracles from the Old Testament, such as the parting of the Red Sea, Daniel's miraculous deliverance from the Lion's Den, etc.. But he chose to highlight the miracle of Joshua 10:13, that "the sun is stopped in its course". — Luther was no longer around to oversee him, to correct him. So Melanchthon could have slipped in a phrase of doubt, but he did not. In spite of his weakness of faith developing after Luther's passing, he confessed to the world, also to the "younger faculty members who were inclined otherwise", that God stopped the sun in its course.
As far as I can tell, Melanchthon's "Foreword" was not published in the CPH American Edition of Luther's Works.) That is about to be rectified…
In his paper, “The Astronomer’s Role in the Sixteenth Century: A Preliminary Study” (History of Science, 18, 1980, 105–147), Robert S. Westman claimed he could find no more than ten people (including four Lutherans), between 1543 and 1600, who accepted the heliocentric reality of the Copernican model.
ReplyDeleteMelanchthon was NOT one of the ten.
I've previously commented on BTL about the way the heliocentric model was taught at Wittenberg after Rheticus left in 1542 - as a "convenient mathematical tool" rather than a model of heliocentric reality.