Chatfield, Graeme R. Balthasar Hubmaier and the Clarity of
Scripture: A Critical Reformation Issue. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2013.[1]
Seeing a need for an
exhaustive account of Anabaptist hermeneutical method, Graeme Chatfield
contributes with an account Balthasar Hübmaier’s interpretation of Scripture.
Only the third chapter is updated from the original dissertation out of which
this came. That chapter is worth the price of the book itself. In it, Chatfield
gives an extensive review of the scholarship on Hübmaier that I would recommend
as a brief handbook to Hübmaier studies for both the beginning student and
seasoned reader alike. He identifies the different confessional attitudes from
which researchers come and places their interpretations within the streams of
broader Radical Reformation studies along with the currents within Hübmaier
studies itself. This is especially helpful following the surge of interest in
Hübmaier over the last quarter century and more so in the last decade.
The bulk of the book is a work-by-work
investigation that treats every source by the same formula. Chatfield begins
with an introductory section for each work detailing matters of provenance,
then an analysis that reviews the work on its own terms. The third area
treating each work gets to Chatfield’s primary subject matter, looking at how
Hübmaier uses Scripture in the work. Here the author relies largely on
statistical data, counting references to biblical passages, both cited and
implicit, to determine Hübmaier’s preferences for certain passages in relation
to different debates, certain books as more important to the development of Hübmaier’s
thought and even weighing Hübmaier’s balance between the two testaments and the
Apocrypha. Here Chatfield sometimes places Hübmaier’s use of certain verses
against contemporaries, notably Zwingli and Erasmus, but he pays less attention
to the historical interpretations predating the Reformation era that may have
shaped Hübmaier’s usage. Chatfield then distills this information into a
summary section that reviews how the information analyzed impacts our
understanding of Hübmaier’s hermeneutical method. Of that method Chatfield has
derived five different time periods through Hübmaier’s biography that each have
certain hermeneutical emphases.
While the third chapter is
up-to-date, thus overtaking my previous favorite guide to Hübmaier research, an
extended preface to Pipkin’s Scholar, Pastor Martyr, those updates do
not reach into the rest of the chapters, even where little details could easily
been tweaked and re-footnoted. However, I could not identify any points at
which these details would have affected Chatfield’s conclusions in any
significant way. Nonetheless, one must remember that this then is veritably a
twenty-year-old book despite the publication date.[2]
The biggest relevant advancements have been in our understanding of Hübmaier’s
interaction with the patristic literature, which might have little bearing on
Hübmaier’s use of Scripture but may carry more import onto his hermeneutic.
The conclusions about Hübmaier’s
hermeneutics are generally not surprising. Hübmaier’s consistent application sola
fide, insistence on the clarity of Scripture to all without necessitating a
knowledge of the biblical languages, and preference for the New Testament,
though not as strong as the Swiss Brethren’s in all subjects, are primary. The
most notable exception is Chatfield’s conclusion that Hübmaier had early on
held toward a congregational hermeneutic whereby the authority of interpreting
Scripture rested in the whole congregation, laity included, and the pastor or
trained scholar served merely as an informed but not pontifical guide.
Chatfield sees in Hübmaier a turn toward a more authoritarian hermeneutic,
granting the pastors the scepter of interpretation to which the congregation
must submit. This turn aligns closely with Hübmaier’s arrival in Nikolsburg at
which time his writing was less concerned with polemics against Zwingli and
more with instruction the Nikolsburg church. Chatfield’s description of this
shift toward a more “magisterial” type of understanding implies that it
coincided with the authority Hübmaier had there, as exercised in the
controversy with Hut. This ignores that even though Hübmaier was a city
reformer as had Zwingli in Zurich, Hübmaier had already been the city reformer
in Waldshut; yet Waldshut is where Hübmaier articulated his congregational
hermeneutic.[3]
It seems more likely that the shift is an artifact of the different audience to
which Hübmaier wrote. Hübmaier’s early work was mostly directed toward other
reformers, who took the more authoritarian view of pastors and scholars as
interpreters of Scripture. To them Hübmaier needed to assert that the
congregation is not to be left out while at the same time diminishing the role
of the “authorized” interpreters for those who would over exalt it. Meanwhile,
when Hübmaier would write primarily to the congregations later in his life, he
would need to remind the congregations, assuming that they were competent to
make judgments concerning Scripture, that the pastors still served as important
advisors. So, to those who would demand authorized interpreters only Hübmaier
needed to stress the interpretive competence of the laity and to those who were
the empowered congregations Hübmaier needed to stress the value of a learned
pastor.
That aside, this book serves
as a handy companion to reading Hübmaier’s writing; Chatfield’s work-by-work
organization facilitates that quite nicely. Admittedly, I took a chance on this
book. I was cautious about Pickwick but I thought I would enjoy the bringing
out a book that has not gotten much attention. It should serve me well as a
reference as I unavoidably encounter Hübmaier’s writings in the future.
[1]Published by
James Clarke in England.
[2]The
dissertation was completed in 1992.
[3]Granted,
Waldshut was still in Zurich’s shadow as a regional center across the Rhine and
Nikolsburg would have afforded Hübmaier greater autonomy from more influential
reformers.
