Jim West on Bullinger

Readers of this blog have from time to time been encouraged to look at Jim West’s blog zwingliusredivivus. Jim is an expert on Zwingli, in particular, and his posts are always thought provoking. His blog can be found at: http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com.


In a recent post (dated 28 January 2011) Jim writes the following:

“Shortly after Bullinger assumed the pastor-ship of the Grossmunster in Zurich following Zwingli’s tragic slaughter by the vicious miscreants at Kappel-am-Albis he preached a sermon titled ‘Das Amt des Propheten und wie es würdig ausgeübt werden kann.’ His theme was Mt 17:5- Dies ist mein geliebter Sohn, an dem ich Wohlgefallen habe. Auf ihn sollt ihr hören!

It was quite a wide ranging (and long!) sermon. Indeed, it would be more than fair to say that Bullinger right then earned a reputation as a rather long winded, but always gripping and fascinating, sermonizer. In it, he described the meaning of the term ‘prophet’ (which he applied to preachers), their task as exegetes, which books were to be considered ‘biblical’, and the disposition of the interpreter and the hearer. The latter he summarized really quite nicely when he said:

‘Natürlich sollen sie gelesen werden, aber mit Urteilsvermögen: als Mitschüler, nicht als Richter sind sie zu lesen.’

Well and rightly said. Bullinger’s excellent sermon didn’t make it into the ‘Decades’ in English (because it was much earlier than that collection) so consequently it isn’t available outside of German (that I know of). And that’s a shame. It’s fantastic and so nicely sets the agenda for Bullinger’s entire ministry that it is a pivotal theological document. It was preached on the 28th of January, 1532.”