Austra Reinis

The longest days and nights ever lived under the sun: Martin Luther’s Jonah in the Sermons of Michael Helding (1506-1561) and Philip Wagner (1526-1572)

The Lutheran emphasis on the word of God as the source of Christian faith led to a renewal of preaching in German churches, both Lutheran and Catholic. My research focuses on the sermons Michael Helding (1506-1561) preached on the biblical book of Jonah during Lent of 1551. Helding had become Archbishop of Merseburg, an enclave in Saxony, the previous year. His task was to persuade his subjects in Merseburg, who had recently adopted the Reformation, to return to the Catholic fold.

I argue that Helding based his sermons on Johannes Wild’s sermon collection on Jonah published in Mainz in 1550. These sermons, in turn, were heavily dependent on Martin Luther’s exegetical tract, Der Prophet Jona ausgelegt (1526). Thus the sermons of both Helding and Wild are examples of Catholic preaching which allows itself to be inspired by Luther’s exegetical insights while rejecting – and correcting – those of Luther’s doctrines the Catholic preachers considered heretical.