## A BBREVIATIONS AE Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works . American Edition. Vols. 1–30: Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan. St. Louis: Concordia, 1955–76. Vols. 31–55: Edited by Helmut Lehmann. Philadelphia/Minneapolis: Muhlenberg/ Fortress, 1957–86. Vols. 56–75: Edited by Christopher Boyd Brown. St. Louis: Concordia, 2009–. AC The Augsburg Confession Ap Apology of the Augsburg Confession AS Erasmus von Rotterdam: Ausgewählte Schriften . 8 vols. Edited by Werner Welzig. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1967. CR Corpus Reformatorum: Philippi Melanchthonis Opera quae supersunt Omnia . 28 vols. Edited by C. G. Bretschneider. Halle: Schwetschke, 1834–60. G Jean Gerson. OEuvres completes . 10 vols. Edited by Palémon Glorieux. Paris: Desclée et Cie, 1960–73. Maurer Wilhelm Maurer, Der Junge Melanchthon . 2 vols. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1969. MPG Patrologiae cursus completus: Series Graece . 161 vols. Edited by Jacques-Paul Migne. Paris, 1859– 1963. MPL Patrologiae cursus completus: Series Latina . 221 vols. Edited by Jacques-Paul Migne. Paris, 1859–1963. Pöhlmann Horst Georg Pöhlmann, trans. and ed. Loci Communes 1521 . Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1997. SA Melanchthons Werke in Auswahl . 7 vols. Edited by Robert Stupperich. Gütersloh: C Bertelsmann Verlag, 1951–52. SD Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord WA D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe , 73 vols. in 85. Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1883–. WA Br D. Martin Luthers Werke: Briefwechsel . 18 vols. Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1930–. WA TR D. Martin Luthers Werke: Tischreden . 6 vols. Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1912–21.
## I NTRODUCTION
Philip Melanchthon’s Loci Communes ( Common Topics ) of 1521 reflects the fusion of humanist and theologian. With the eloquence and philological acumen of a humanist, Melanchthon derides the inconsistencies and subtleties that he finds so objectionable in the writings of the Scholastics and arranges a summary of Christian theology in good, rhetorical fashion around clear and concise passages of Scripture. But with the fervor of a theologian, he takes the confession of Martin Luther as his own, parting ways with his humanist roots and insisting that canonical Scripture alone with its radical message of sin and grace, Law and Gospel, captivity and freedom, be the source and norm of a Christian’s confession and life.
With this influential work, published in the tumultuous year of 1521, as Luther, the Reformation’s Elijah, was hidden in Wartburg, Melanchthon, the grammarian and classicist, made his debut as theologian and emerged as Wittenberg’s Elisha. In the years leading up to 1521, Melanchthon had shined as a star of humanism in Germany and was compared to Erasmus, whose critical edition of the Greek New Testament, among many other works, had made him world renowned. 1 In keeping with his humanist roots, Melanchthon had articulated the Gospel in largely ethical terms up to 1519, seeing Christ as the perfect moral example and speaking in generalities about God’s grace. 2
Melanchthon’s theological breakthrough in these early years was his realization of the utter incapacity of fallen man to come to God by his own powers. 3 Melanchthon’s acceptance of this aspect of
Luther’s theological anthropology meant his rejection of humanist theology and its stress on man’s natural, ethical potential. 4 If man is utterly dead in his sins, his only hope for salvation and life must be completely out of his own hands. If all human powers are thoroughly bound in sin, he cannot do good in God’s eyes. God’s grace alone frees him from the shackles of his slavery. And as Luther had articulated more and more clearly in the years leading up to 1521, the ground and reason for God’s grace is found in Christ alone, who became man, suffered, died, and rose again to safeguard God’s mercy to the human race. God’s grace is not based in our obedience to God’s Law. Rather, God’s Law shows the sinner how sinful he is and would lead him to despair were he not to hear the gracious promise of the forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake. So these topics —sin, grace, Law, and Gospel—are the central topics of the Christian faith, the central themes of Scripture, and the central focus and experience of the Christian life. This is the thesis of Melanchthon’s Common Topics of 1521.
To place the Loci Communes of 1521 in their proper context, I will first offer a brief survey of Melanchthon’s life up to 1521, then address the three theological and intellectual movements most influential on this, Melanchthon’s first major theological work— Scholasticism, humanism, and the theology of Martin Luther.
## T HE L IFE OF P HILIP M ELANCHTHON (1497–1521)
Philip Melanchthon was born Philip Schwarzerd on February 16, 1497, in Bretten, the son of a well-off armorer, Georg Schwarzerd. His father died when he was 11 years old, poisoned by well water that had left him incapacitated for years. After his father’s death, Philip’s mother sent him to Pforzheim, where Philip’s maternal grandmother lived, to attend the prestigious Latin school there. Through his grandmother, Philip became close to the famous humanist scholar John Reuchlin, his grandmother’s brother and therefore Philip’s own granduncle. In typical humanist fashion and under the influence of his granduncle, Philip hellenized his last name and began to be called Melanchthon (“black earth”).
Philip excelled in Latin and Greek and in short time was ready to graduate to university studies. In October 1509, at the age of twelve, he began his studies at the University of Heidelberg. Within two years he had completed his Bachelor of Arts and immediately began his studies for the Master of Arts. When a year later he had completed the requirements for this degree also, his application was denied by the faculty, who cited his young age and childlike appearance as their reason. The rejection, however, was fortuitous. Melanchthon’s humanist learning had already surpassed that of many of his professors at Heidelberg, which possessed a more conservative faculty still working with Scholastic models of linguistics, logic, and philosophy in the tradition of the via antiqua. 5
Urged by his granduncle Reuchlin, Melanchthon decided to seek his Master of Arts at the University of Tübingen, a university of a slightly more humanist bent and with professors following the via moderna. In Tübingen, Melanchthon flourished. Despite taking up with fervor the pseudoscience of astrology, with which he continued to be enamored his entire life, he supplemented his university studies with private readings in theology and the classics. He took special interest in Ciceronian rhetoric, Aristotelian logic (which he wanted to redeem from Scholastic corruption), and Scripture. On January 25,
1514, he obtained his Master of Arts and was certified to teach at the university.
Melanchthon was known as an energetic teacher from the start. As he taught, he continued his humanist studies, becoming more and more involved in the movement and identifying with such men as Reuchlin and Erasmus in opposition to Scholasticism. The Hebrew scholar Reuchlin, in fact, was already in quite the controversy due to his defense of Jewish literature (and therefore Jews) against a Dominican campaign seeking imperial approval to confiscate and destroy all Jewish literature in the Empire on the grounds that they were anti-Christian. Melanchthon saw firsthand that many of the old guard in academia—including even the faculty at the University of Paris—were willing to undermine the study of Hebrew and advances in humanist learning because of uninformed prejudices and under the guise of ill-conceived inquisitions. Melanchthon’s preface to Reuchlin’s Letters of Famous Men demonstrates that at the early age of seventeen he was well on his way to becoming a famous and recognized humanist scholar. 6
As a professor, Melanchthon was hard at work both teaching and publishing. Besides translating some classical works, he compiled a new edition of the comedian Terence in 1516, setting his plays to meter for the first time, and published his Greek grammar in 1518, a much used and quite popular primer, a major boon for humanist studies in Northern Europe. He taught rhetoric based on classical models and lectured on classical authors such as Livy and Virgil. Moved by the controversies of the day and a convinced humanist, Melanchthon also turned to theological study. The theology of the humanists was in large part a kind of practical ethic as opposed to the complicated Aristotelian system of the Scholastics.
Still, Melanchthon had to deal with the old guard of conservative Scholasticism even at Tübingen. More and more Melanchthon was viewed by the faculty there as a modern innovator, a dangerous and subversive teacher. In contrast, his reputation as a scholar among the humanists was growing all around Northern Europe—even in England, where his Greek grammar was received with enthusiasm.
Melanchthon knew he had to leave Tübingen and began to seek where he could teach in a freer atmosphere. A position at Ingolstadt opened up, but, when offered the job, Melanchthon turned it down. His granduncle, John Reuchlin, had advised against accepting the position, thinking that Melanchthon would have the same kind of troubles there as at Tübingen.
Thus Melanchthon was almost as overjoyed as his granduncle when the latter informed Melanchthon that he had secured a position for him to be professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg, a small university newly founded in 1502, but anxious to be a representative of the new learning and quickly growing in fame because of Martin Luther. The Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, had asked Reuchlin who would best be suited for the position, and Reuchlin had informed him that among Germans Melanchthon was a humanist second only to Erasmus. 7 Despite opposition from Luther, who preferred a different candidate, the Elector chose Melanchthon. On August 25, 1518, Melanchthon arrived in Wittenberg, a small and unimpressive town in comparison with Heidelberg and Tübingen.
To Luther and his colleagues in Wittenberg, Melanchthon’s small, boyish appearance was underwhelming and disappointing. But when Melanchthon gave his inaugural address a few days after his arrival, Luther realized that appearances had been deceiving. The address was entitled On Reforming the Studies of the Youth. 8 After hearing Melanchthon speak of educational reform, how by study of the classics in their original languages, by going back to the sources, including especially a fresh look at the works of Aristotle, students could be taught to pursue true philosophy, philology, rhetoric, and dialectic, and not the stale traditions of men pawned off as knowledge, Luther was convinced that Melanchthon was a gift from God, a true godsend for the University of Wittenberg. And he was right. Within two years of Melanchthon’s arrival, the student population had tripled, in large part due to the fame of the young humanist. 9
Melanchthon’s inaugural oration shows that upon his arrival in Wittenberg his concerns were more educational and ethical than
theological. But the next years would prove to be transformational. At first, Melanchthon taught exclusively in the classics, lecturing on Homer and other Greek and Latin authors. His works published in 1518 and the early months of 1519 reflect less Reformation theology than the humanism of Erasmus. 10 But as Melanchthon studied more Scripture and, in turn, read and listened to Luther more, he began to adopt his colleague’s theology as his own, convinced that it was the theology of Scripture and that Scripture was the only reliable source of Christian doctrine. The turning point in this first stage of Melanchthon’s theological development was his attendance at the debate in Leipzig between John Eck, a theologian of Scholastic bent from the University of Ingolstadt, and Martin Luther.
In June and July of 1519, Luther and his colleague Andreas Carlstadt debated with Eck—Carlstadt over the bondage of the will, and Luther over papal supremacy, purgatory, and indulgences. Although only a spectator, Melanchthon was soon drawn into the debate. He had written a letter to his friend John Oecolampadius describing the debate and giving some slight criticisms of Eck along with lavish praise of Luther. Eck, upon reading the letter, responded with a vitriolic attack on the “grammarian” who dared offer his judgment against a doctor of theology. 11 The critique stung, as can be seen even two years later in the Common Topics. 12 But while he received insult from the Scholastic theologian Eck, he received the constant encouragement of Luther. In a reply of August to Eck, Melanchthon argued that Scripture was the only reliable norm for Christian doctrine. 13 A short time later, Melanchthon defended his baccalaureate theses, submitted in fulfillment of the Bachelor of Theology at the University of Wittenberg. Here he clearly argues that human nature cannot love God of itself and that Christian righteousness consists in the gracious declaration of God. He subordinates the authority of councils to Scripture and rejects the binding authority of the doctrine of transubstantiation. 14 His theses on faith, written within a year after his baccalaureate theses, clearly teach that sinners are justified through faith, and anticipate many doctrinal points in the Common Topics. 15 The same developing
thoughts on faith, justification, the Law, and grace can be seen in the forerunners of the Common Topics of 1521, the Theological Introduction to the Epistle of Paul to the Romans of 1519 and The Chief Points or Topics of Theology of 1520. 16 We will return to these works shortly.
In embracing the teachings of the Reformation, Melanchthon was alienating himself from humanist doctrine, especially the teaching that man’s righteousness resides in his own actions and not in the gracious imputation of God. More than this, the humanists, at first allies with the Scholastic-battling Luther, were uncomfortable with the rough and gritty language of Luther and the unrest in Europe that surrounded his preaching and writing. 17 Reuchlin urged Melanchthon to leave Wittenberg and join the faculty of Ingolstadt, promising that Eck would forgive him and bear no grudge. After Melanchthon kindly refused, Reuchlin never spoke to him again. Melanchthon lost a father figure in Reuchlin (and the promised inheritance of a very valuable library), but gained a father in Luther. 18
Beginning in 1519, Melanchthon began to teach theology at the University of Wittenberg. He began an intense study of Paul’s epistles, especially his Letter to the Romans. It was from these studies and lectures that Melanchthon’s Common Topics of 1521 arose. In his address on Paul and the Scholastics in January 1520, we can see the fruits of these studies. In this speech, Melanchthon mixes the eloquent rhetoric of Erasmus, along with some key Erasmian themes and phrases, with the Law/Gospel paradigm of Luther. On the one hand, he stresses Christ as the greatest exemplar of virtue and the author of happiness, and on the other he articulates the condemnation of the Law and the gracious pardoning of the Gospel in the free forgiveness of sins. 19 Moreover, Melanchthon’s polemic against the Scholastics is no longer from a purely humanist perspective. He opposes them not because they are despisers of higher learning and the classics, but because they are enemies of Paul, who has expressed the Gospel with the greatest clarity. In Luther’s fashion, Melanchthon attacks philosophy itself, which teaches only the external righteousness of outward actions
and posits that practice makes perfect. Melanchthon insists that even as an ape will always be an ape, no matter how he practices, so by practice man cannot change his nature. The grace of God is needed, and this grace is the forgiveness of sins. Still, in this speech of 1520 Melanchthon concentrates more on the transformational, ethical results of God’s grace in Christ than on the forgiveness of sins. By giving his grace of forgiveness, God transforms the Christian so that he delights in obeying the Law. 20 Though this concentration would continue to be important for Melanchthon, he would give more attention to the centrality of forgiveness in his Common Topics of 1521. 21
The turbulent year of 1520 would see Melanchthon drawing closer and closer to Luther, and Luther articulating the Gospel more clearly than ever. Luther’s three great tracts of that year, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On Christian Freedom, set forth with clarity the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church and the need for reform, so that the Gospel could be preached in its purity and the Sacraments administered according to their institution. If Luther was not already the hero of Germany, these works guaranteed his popularity despite Rome’s strenuous objections. Melanchthon’s references to these works in his Common Topics of 1521 show his enthusiastic agreement with them. 22
On June 15, 1520, Luther was threatened with excommunication by the papal bull Exsurge Domine, in which many of his teachings were condemned as heresy. Ordered to recant within sixty days of receipt of the bull, Luther, with Melanchthon at his side, burned the papal bull publicly on December 10, 1520. To this the pope responded with another bull, Decet Romanum Pontificem, by which he formally excommunicated Luther on January 3, 1521. A short five months later, the decision of the emperor was published at the Diet of Worms against Luther, naming him a heretic and an outlaw. But Luther had already left Worms and was whisked away to hiding in Wartburg. Melanchthon was left alone in Wittenberg, without his Elijah.
It was in this period that the Common Topics was published. The polemical tone of the work is therefore understandable, as is Melanchthon’s utter devotion to Luther and the Lutheran cause. Luther had made it clear to Melanchthon in letters from Wartburg that he could die knowing that Melanchthon would articulate the Gospel better than he, that Elisha had surpassed Elijah. 23 Not knowing the future, Luther had passed his mantle on to the twenty-four-year old Melanchthon as his spokesman in Wittenberg. The unqualified and excessive praise that Luther heaps upon Melanchthon’s Common Topics of 1521 speaks to how closely Melanchthon had followed his “dearest father.” 24 But at the same time it speaks to Luther’s acknowledgement of Melanchthon’s unmatched ability to articulate and defend the Gospel clearly, convincingly, and in good order.
Melanchthon decided to publish his Common Topics of 1521 after an incomplete version, meant only for presenting the doctrine of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans in a systematic way to his students, was published without his consent. This document, which Melanchthon calls his lucubratiuncula or “nighttime studies” was entitled The Chief Points or Topics of Theology. As Melanchthon explains in his prefatory epistle to the Common Topics, the work is short and obviously incomplete. Before the illicit publication of The Chief Points, Melanchthon had also composed in 1519 his Theological Introduction to the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, also a result of his lectures on Romans. This work condemned philosophy and Scholasticism in no uncertain terms and offered the content of Romans as an alternative to the philosophical presentation of Peter Lombard, whose Sentences had been used for centuries to teach theology in the universities. 25 Thus the Common Topics of 1521 resulted from an intense study of Paul, and above all, of Romans. This explains the constant reference to Romans throughout the work.
Before we leave this section, a brief explanation of the term Common Topics is needed. The Latin Loci Communes is a translation of the Greek topoi koinoi and finds its origin in Aristotle. But Aristotle’s conception of the “common topic” is far from
Melanchthon’s. Whereas Melanchthon thinks of common topics in Ciceronian terms, namely as indices or guides showing where to find the material whereby to defend a proposition, Aristotle thought of common topics as propositions common to dialectical investigation. The difference is important, because it underlines Melanchthon’s rhetorical approach to theological method, especially in this first edition of his Loci. The subject matter of theology is already present in Scripture. The job of the theologian is to learn the common topics of Scripture, the doctrinal veins of Scripture, so that he may be driven further into Scripture to confirm what Scripture expresses clearly elsewhere. 26 Whereas Scholastic theology argued technical theological points using logical syllogisms and complex dialectic, Melanchthon sees his job as showing what the clear Scriptures simply say. He does this rhetorically, that is, by gathering together several key subjects or topics that Scripture treats in abundance. 27
In this sense, as Melanchthon himself insists more than once in this work, the Common Topics of 1521 is more a hermeneutical handbook than a dogmatic treatise.
## T HEOLOGICAL C ONTEXT
Scholasticism was the theological movement, beginning in the twelfth century and lasting up to the Reformation, that stressed the systematic articulation of Christian doctrine through dialectic and logical inference and deduction. In its critical examination and organization of the statements of the ecclesiastical fathers, Scholasticism applied Aristotelian logic and Platonic categories to develop logically defensible systems of Christian theology. Scholasticism dominated the universities of Europe and coincided with their invention and growth. In the early sixteenth century, humanists decried its sterility and Luther its theology.
Melanchthon’s criticism of Scholasticism in the Common Topics of 1521 centers upon a few prominent Scholastic theologians, but includes a condemnation of the Scholastic method in general. First of these Scholastics is Peter Lombard (c. 1100–60), whose Four Books of Sentences was used in the universities to teach Scholastic method and doctrine for centuries. In his Sentences, Lombard arranges Christian teaching under doctrinal headings, working from God and his attributes to the Church and her sacraments. The work consists largely of quotations from Augustine and other Church Fathers. The significance of the work is not only in its content but also in its later use as a stepping stone for further development of Scholastic distinctions and theological divisions. The work was used as a textbook from its writing in the mid-twelfth century, and many major Scholastic theologians from that time on wrote commentaries on it. Luther himself began his career as a professor teaching and commenting on the Sentences, and Melanchthon studied them to earn his Bachelor of Theology. This work of early Scholasticism begins to arrange doctrine according to logical categories and introduces philosophical distinctions to explain theological problems, but is not excessively involved in Aristotelian or Platonic categories.
Melanchthon’s chief complaint against Lombard is that he cites the Fathers instead of Scripture. 28
More objectionable to Melanchthon were later Scholastics, preeminent among whom was Thomas Aquinas (1225–74), a commenter on the Sentences who cites Aristotle as if he were citing Scripture. Aquinas defined and articulated Christian doctrine in Aristotelian categories, and his famous magnum opus, the Summa Theologica, gave philosophical articulation to such theological doctrines as original sin, man’s free will, and the sacrifice of the mass—hotly debated articles for Luther and Melanchthon in 1521. Even more inimical to Reformation doctrine was the teaching of the late Scholastic Gabriel Biel (c. 1420–95), who had been a professor at Tübingen, Melanchthon’s alma mater, and whom Luther had studied at length. Biel, a nominalist, so stressed the ability of the free will that he asserted man’s power to fulfill the Law of God even outside the Holy Spirit—though he posited this only as a theoretical ability. 29
Melanchthon was opposed to this Scholasticism both because he was a humanist and because he was a firm supporter of Lutheran theology. The humanist objection to Scholasticism is summed up well in Melanchthon’s inaugural address to the faculty of the University of Wittenberg in 1518:
Certain men, led either by the wantonness of their natures or by love of argument, fell upon Aristotle, whom, already obscure and rather complex in the Greek, they found translated into Latin in mutilated and mangled form, so that he rivaled the raving conjectures of Sibyl. Yet imperceptive men fastened onto this version of Aristotle. Gradually the better disciplines were neglected, we lost knowledge of Greek, and in general bad things began to be taught instead of good things. From this state of things proceeded Thomas, Scotus, Durand, Francis, Dominic, and others—a gang more numerous than the descendants of Cadmus. In addition, it came about that not only were the ancients despised in favor of the study of novelties, but if any of them survived in that
time, they were banished from memory and thus perished, so that one wonders whether those authors of sophistries did anything more harmful than that in their insanity they allowed so many thousands of ancient writings to be utterly neglected. To such men was then all at once committed the authority of human and divine law, and from their decrees the youth was educated. 30
The humanist motto ad fontes, “to the sources,” is clearly seen in this programmatic address, and a little further on, Melanchthon will connect the failure to study the ancients with the deterioration of ecclesiastical rites and Christian morals. 31 Upon his arrival at Wittenberg, this was the thoroughly humanist goal of Melanchthon: to reform the educational system and thereby to reform the morals of people and Church.
More than anyone else, Melanchthon owes his humanist training to his granduncle. 32 From his earliest studies at Pforzheim, Melanchthon had come under the influence of this talented and enthusiastic humanist. Reuchlin’s continued patronage, encouragement, and support followed Melanchthon through his mastery of Latin and introduction to the classics at Pforzheim to his university studies at Heidelberg and Tübingen. And by Reuchlin’s commendation, Melanchthon received his professorship at Wittenberg. Reuchlin himself embodied the type of humanism that Melanchthon would embrace, a return to philology and the study of ancient literature.
Though many other humanists influenced Melanchthon through friendship, teaching, or writing, Erasmus stands out among them. In the years following his arrival at Wittenberg, Melanchthon is often characterized as being “between Erasmus and Luther.” 33 Above all, it is Erasmus’s championing of rhetoric that influenced Melanchthon. This is seen clearly in Melanchthon’s adoption of the loci communes method of biblical interpretation. It was Erasmus who recommended that such a method be used in interpreting Scripture. 34 Erasmus had employed it himself, but as Melanchthon notes, found only ethical topics. 35 This is, of course, perfectly in line with Erasmus’s brand of
humanism, which emphasized the potential of the human spirit and therefore the ethical righteousness of the free will—ironically making Erasmian humanism the theological ally of Scholasticism. So, while adopting Erasmus’s rhetorical method, Melanchthon uses it to show that Scripture rejects the idea of the human spirit’s natural potential. According to Melanchthon, the loci communes of Scripture are the doctrines of sin, Law, grace, and Gospel. These are also the common topics of Martin Luther.
It is hard to overstate Luther’s influence on Melanchthon’s Loci Communes of 1521. Melanchthon constantly refers to Luther. Even when he makes no explicit reference to Luther and his works, the stamp of Luther’s theology is clearly imprinted. In fact, the Loci Communes of 1521 is, in large part, a digest of the early Luther’s theology: a strong condemnation of papal and Scholastic claims regarding the freedom of the will; 36 the articulation of the Law as God’s condemnation of the guilty sinner and of the Gospel as God’s favor toward undeserving sinners with no regard to human merit; 37
the insistence that a Christian can be sure of his salvation; 38 that the sacraments have been given for this assurance; 39 a rejection of popes and councils as authoritative sources of doctrine; and the championing of Scripture as the pure and unadulterated Word of God. 40
But Melanchthon is not merely digesting Luther. Melanchthon’s arrangement of Christian doctrine according to common topics is, of itself, a valuable contribution to the Lutheran cause, but he also has his own theological emphases. So Melanchthon’s division of man into two parts, the affections and the intellect, is developed in line with Paul’s language in Romans to explain how man cannot turn to God through his own powers. 41 So also, Melanchthon does not back down from his humanist emphasis on the ethical life of a Christian. While justification by faith in God’s mercy for Christ’s sake is his main stress, Melanchthon will not speak of justification outside of its connection with the renewal of the convert’s senses and the incipient sanctification of a life directed toward God. 42 While these and other emphases are not in conflict with Luther’s theology (Luther had
spoken of the sinful “affections” overpowering the intellect and was concerned with the sanctified life), Melanchthon makes them his own and articulates them with his characteristic order and precision.
Melanchthon benefited from his humanistic studies and his association with Luther, and these influences can be clearly seen in his Loci Communes of 1521. But it would be wrong to relegate Scholasticism’s influence on Melanchthon merely to the negative realm. Despite his constant condemnation of it in this work, Melanchthon adopted many Scholastic formulations. Working with Aristotle, he was able to adapt Scholastic classifications to his own use, as when he speaks of sin as energia (energy/active force, as opposed to mere potential) to stress its depth and culpability. 43 In later editions of his Loci, Melanchthon would largely eliminate his invective against the Scholastics and adopt more and more of their terminology and classifications.