Brian Brewer, now Assistant Professor of Christian Theology at Truett
Theological Seminary, will soon have published A Pledge of Love: Balthasar
Hubmaier and Anabaptist Sacramentalism, which if not a direct publication of
his doctoral dissertation seems to at least work on the same subject. Since
that publication has been delayed, I have chosen to read the dissertation
instead.[1]
The central investigation is into Hübmaier’s sacramental thought as revealed
through the two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and in other
ecclesiological practices. One of the primary ideas is that Hübmaier retained
much of the sacramental thinking of his Catholic background in his
understanding of church practices.
Beginning with the perfunctory biographical section, Brewer focused the
narrative on Hübmaier’s sacramental practice throughout his various places of
ministry. The bulk of the work is on the Lord’s Supper and baptism–two subjects
that have already been given much attention in Anabaptist scholarship.
Particular attention was paid to the influences of Hübmaier from Luther,
Zwingli and humanism.
Perhaps the most important contention in the dissertation is that of the
fifth chapter. Brewer saw Sacramentalism as a guiding force in many other
aspects of his ecclesiology, namely penance, the ban and preaching. These areas
were not as thoroughly developed as the ordinances since Hübmaier’s writings
were compelled to give the weight of his writing to the controversies of his
day. As an Anabaptist he was necessarily embroiled in baptismal debate with
Zwingli, and as a reformer he was not unaware of the prominent debate on the
Supper. Brewer viewed Hübmaier as tending to import sacramental importance onto
other activities in the church. Had Hübmaier been given the freedom to develop
his thinking in these areas, he may have developed them in a sacramental
direction. However, Brewer recognized that speculation into the trajectory of
Hübmaier’s thought is not entirely productive and that the sacramentology
associated with those other church practices stem largely from the unity of
those practices with the sacramental ordinances.
Brewer continued by discussing Hübmaier’s influence on later traditions.
The main line of influence that Brewer identified was on the Hutterians, whose
beginnings in Moravia absorbed some of Hübmaier’s thinking that had remained a
part of the Moravian Anabaptist consciousness after his Nikolsburg ministry.
That influence may have spread further into Schleitheim Anabaptist
thinking as transmitted through Peter Riedemann.[2]
Brewer downplayed what influence Hübmaier would have had in early Baptists but
recognized that Baptists could legitimately adopt Hübmaier as a like-minded
prototype of Baptistic belief. Interestingly, Brewer turned to Karl Barth,
whose thinking, though not dependent on Hübmaier, paralleled the reformer in
his uneasiness with infant baptism. Barth did not replace the practice with
believer’s baptism but nonetheless observed that it distorted the practice as
instituted in Scripture.
That turn to Barth was demonstrative of Brewer’s final conclusion that
Hübmaier’s theology provides a starting point for ecumenical discussion.
Hübmaier’s relationship to the early Anabaptists, kinship to later Baptists,
magisterial type of reformation alongside mainstream reformers and retention of
important Catholic modes of thought place him in position to recognize how bridges
can be built among those various groups in contemporary church life.
[1]Dr. Brewer
told me that the publisher has had to take extra time with some new printing
equipment. The original release date was to have been in February.
[2]Brewer cited
Heimann, Franz. “The Hutterite Doctrines of Church and Common Life: A Study of
Peter Riedemann’s Confession of Faith of 1540.” MQR 26, No. 1 (Jan. 1952): 22-47; 26, no. 2 (Apr. 1952): 142-144.
Having not yet read this article, the line of influence seems thin but still
merits consideration. This could be an important avenue of future research.
