Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt

Andreas Rudolff Bodenstein (b. 1486–d. 1541) is usually named after his hometown Karlstadt in Franconia (sometimes spelled as Carlstadt). Karlstadt was one of the most influential early reformers in Wittenberg next to his colleague Martin Luther, and an early propagandist of a common Wittenberg theology. Karlstadt was one of the most productive Reformation writers until the mid-1520s, and he initiated and furthered key early debates and issues, including on clerical marriage, the reform of worship, the biblical canon, the question of images, infant baptism, and the understanding of the Lord’s Supper. He was the first to publicly defend and support Luther and Wittenberg’s theological ideas from early opponents and instigated the literary controversy with Eck that led to the Leipzig Disputation. As a result, Karlstadt was also named in the papal bull condemning Luther and his supporters. He was also one of the first within the movement to have a major falling out with Luther, and Luther’s resulting judgment and negative characterization of Karlstadt left his legacy uncertain in the historical narrative for a long time. While Luther was in hiding at the Wartburg after Worms, Karlstadt advanced reform in Wittenberg. He was the first to advocate clerical marriage in his 1521–1522 writings, and he led the first public evangelical mass (communion in both kinds) on Christmas Day 1521. After Karlstadt’s criticism of images was used to support iconoclasm in Wittenberg and Luther returned to reject several reforms to worship associated with what is usually called “the Wittenberg movement,” Karlstadt was censured from preaching or publishing for a time. In spring 1523, he became a minister in Orlamünde (Thuringia), where he was able to successfully implement some of his reform ideas before being expelled from Saxony in September 1524. Although no denomination originated from him, Karlstadt participated in and influenced several strands of the early Reformation in their beginnings and development. In addition to his contributions to the development of the Reformation in Wittenberg, he was also in communication with proto-Anabaptist and Anabaptist leaders (e.g., Thomas Müntzer, Melchior Hoffman) and Swiss reformers (e.g., Ulrich Zwingli, Oecolampadius), before settling down as a professor of Old Testament in Basel during the last years of his life (1534–1541) and influencing the development of a reformed Protestant curriculum. Karlstadt is a complex character that refuses simple categorization, and he has not been an easy figure for historians or theologians to understand. We continue to better understand his use of received sources (Augustine and other Church Fathers, scholastic theology, traditions of jurisprudence, mysticism, etc.), his development as a reformer in his own right, and his contributions to the development of the Reformations in Wittenberg and beyond. This is an exciting time for the advancement of Karlstadt research, as the Karlstadt-Edition in Göttingen, Germany, makes continued progress on the first complete critical edition of Karlstadt’s letters and writings (KGK).

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