Osiandrian controversy

The Osiandrian controversy was a controversy amongst the Lutherans, originated in around 1550 by Andreas Osiander, a German divine. He asserted that it was only through the righteousness of Christ, as God, that mankind could obtain justification, and that men became partakers of this divine righteousness through faith. The Osiandrian controversy, a forensic view of justification, was said to have broken the "close connection between alien and proper righteousness and the idea that both were rooted in the cross of Christ."

Criticism and debate

This doctrine was opposed principally by Francesco Stancaro, who ran into the opposite extreme of excluding entirely Christ's divine nature from all concern in the redemption procured for sinners. This controversy led to others, which were highly detrimental to the interests cf the Lutheran church. Philip Melanchthon offered an early opinion on the Osiandrian controversy. Although his letter to Osiander was generally positive, he criticized Osiander, especially to his contemporaries for "not including a discussion of Christ's meritorious death when mentioning Christ's essential righteousness". On 27 May 1551, Joachim Mörlin publicly attacked Osiander from the pulpit, which Osiander defended at the pulpit four days later. Johannes Brenz was also outspoken on the controversy and urged Osiander to "avoid causing division among the Evangelicals at this dangerous time". The controversy continued until around 1566 but continued to be discussed for centuries, notably by Eduard Böhl in the late 19th century who declared it to have had an impact upon reformed theology. In 1555 there were outbreaks of violence in Prussia over the Osiandrian controversy.

References

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Robert Eden's The Churchman's Theological Dictionary (1845)