Zwingli, Huldrych

Questions on this topic? Just ask!

ZWINGLI, HULDRYCH (1484–1531), Swiss Protestant theologian. Born in Wildhaus, Switzerland, Zwingli was educated in Vienna (1500–1502) and later in Basel (1502–1506), where he studied under Thomas Wyttenbach. He read Erasmus during his first pastorate in Glarus (1506–1516). During his second pastorate in Einsiedeln (1516–1518), he began to preach against indulgences. In 1518 Zwingli became preacher in the Zurich Cathedral, a post he retained until his death in 1531. He married Anna Reinhart in 1524.

From the beginning of his work in Zurich, Zwingli declared scripture to be the sole ultimate authority for the life and teaching of the church, thereby repudiating hierarchical authority. He preached against indulgences, stating that Christ's sacrifice is sufficient to remit all penalties for sin. He also preached against ascetic religious orders, fasting, the invocation of the saints, and the doctrine of purgatory. As a fervent Swiss patriot, Zwingli opposed Pope Leo X's recruitment of Swiss mercenaries.

In 1522 the civil authority of the canton of Zurich declared that a disputation should take place between those who advocated and those who opposed the Reformation principle that scripture alone should be the ultimate norm of church life and teaching. In preparation for this disputation, Zwingli, the leader of the Reformation group, wrote his lengthy Sixty-Seven Conclusions, in which he repudiated the authority of the pope, the transubstantiation of bread and wine, the veneration of the saints, the existence of purgatory, and the necessity of fasting. The disputation was held on 29 January 1523; the council of Zurich decided in favor of the Reformation, and Zurich became a canton of the Refor-mation.

Zwingli's attention then turned toward a radical Reformation group, the Anabaptists, which had begun to flourish in Zurich during the early 1520s. The Anabaptists opposed the baptism of infants and denied the validity of such baptisms. They opposed any jurisdiction of the civil authorities in church life. They placed ultimate church authority in the local congregation rather than in larger church or civil councils. They aspired to establish "sinless congregations." In 1526 the government of Zurich, with Zwingli's support, suppressed the Anabaptists. The government also suppressed Catholicism in the canton. In retaliation the papal forces made war on Zurich. In a battle at Kappel on 11 October 1531, Zwingli fell and was executed on the battlefield.

While Zwingli, Luther, and Calvin had in common such great Reformation themes as the justification of the sinner by faith rather than by works and the acknowledgment that the church in all of its teaching is subject to the greater authority of scripture, there were also disagreements among them, principally in their understandings of the church, the Lord's Supper, and the relationship between church and civil authority. Zwingli's influence on subsequent Protestant teaching is apparent chiefly in these areas.

Luther and Calvin identify the church with the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments. Zwingli agrees but offers a more developed understanding of the church as community. He does so by identifying three meanings of the word church and then interrelating those meanings. He defines the church as (1) the communion of saints, the heavenly church called and gathered by Christ, (2) the historical church, made up of those who throughout the world confess Christ as Lord, and (3) the local congregation. It is Christ who chooses the members of his church and gathers them into a fellowship with him. This is the heavenly church that must exist here and now as the historical church, the means by which Christ makes himself visible in the world.

There is no historical church, however, except as it comprises the many local congregations. The unity of the historical church exists not by the mere assertion that all these local congregations belong to it but rather by the fact, known through faith, that all local congregations have been chosen and gathered by the same Lord. Moreover, this unity is emphasized by the fact that every congregation has the same pattern of life to emulate. The earthly Jesus chose and gathered a local congregation, the apostles. Now the risen Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, continues to call and gather local congregations and commands them to emulate the pattern of the first congregation, as it is described in the New Testament. Zwingli, through his interrelation of these three meanings of church, represents Christ's choosing and gathering of his saints as the basic meaning of the church. He then explains preaching and the sacraments as means by which Christ calls and gathers his people into fellowship with him. These same means are to be used by his people to gather themselves around their invisible Lord, thereby making him visible. The invisible "being gathered" and the visible "gathering" constitute Zwingli's church.

For Zwingli, the Lord's Supper could not be understood in isolation but only as a moment in Christ's calling and gathering of his saints. The Lord's Supper is a pledge of loyalty by God's people made to their Lord, who commands this of them. It is one moment, but a central moment, of Christ's calling and gathering activity; it is not a moment in which Christ becomes suddenly present. Rather, Christ is understood to be present in the whole of that calling and gathering activity, which is the church. Zwingli does not deny that transubstantiation takes place in the Lord's Supper. He declares, however, that it is not the elements of bread and wine but rather the people who are changed; they are changed into saints by the calling and gathering activity of Christ. Luther and Calvin differed with Zwingli; both, in different ways, continued the tradition of the church that focuses attention upon the elements of bread and wine. Zwingli and Luther quarreled about this focus at the Marburg Colloquy of 1529.

According to Zwingli, Christ not only gathers a church, he also ordains the existence of the civil community, a body of free citizens. The authority of the civil community, while ultimately Christ's, rests derivatively in the consent of the citizenry. The church and civil society each has responsibilities toward the other. The civil rulers are to keep the peace and rule according to a concept of justice derived from scripture. Preachers are, therefore, to proclaim not only the gospel but also the demands of human justice that are derived from the gospel announced in scripture. The members of the civil community are guided away from self-interest by such preaching. The civil rulers, then, have the power and responsibility to protect the church's preaching of justice and the responsibility to be guided by it. The church and its preachers have no direct power to rule in civil affairs, but they have the responsibility of preaching human justice to citizens and civil rulers.

Zwingli's emphasis on the preaching of God's justice as the basis of the human justice of the civil community and on the importance of the consent of the governed distinguishes his teaching from Luther's. Luther taught that the function of civil rulers is, primarily, to restrain disorder. Zwingli's emphasis on the preacher as the people's tribune before the civil rulers and his willingness to accept some civil jurisdiction over church life distinguish his teaching from Calvin's. Calvin advocated a stronger separation between the ecclesiastical and the civil authorities.

Huldreich Zwinglis Sämtliche Werke. 14 vols. Corpus Reformatorum, vols. 88–101. Berlin, Leipzig, Zurich, 1905–1959.

Bromiley, Geoffrey W., ed. Zwingli and Bullinger. Library of Christian Classics, vol. 24. Philadelphia, 1953. Selected texts of Zwingli and Bullinger translated into English with a good, short introduction to the life, works, and theology of Zwingli.

Hadidian, Dikran, ed. Huldrych Zwingli Writings. 2 vols. Allison Park, Pa., 1984.

Courvoisier, Jaques. Zwingli, a Reformed Theologian. Richmond, Va., 1963. A brief, competent introduction to Zwingli's theology.

Furcha, E. J., and H. Wayne Pipkin, eds. Prophet, Pastor, Protestant: The World of Huldrych Zwingli after Five Hundred Years. Pittsburgh, Pa., 1984. Essays by ten able Zwingli scholars.

Gäbler, Ulrich. Huldrych Zwingli im 20. Jahrhundert: Forschungsbericht und annotierte Bibliographie, 1897–1972. Zurich, 1975. Authoritative Zwingli bibliography.

Gäbler, Ulrich. Huldrych Zwingli: His Life and Work. Translated by Ruth C. L. Gritsch. Philadelphia, 1986. An intellectual biography by a leading Zwingli scholar.

Köhler, Walther. Huldrych Zwingli. Leipzig, 1943. Part of the foundation of twentieth-century Zwingli scholarship.

Locher, G. W. Die Zwinglische Reformation im Rahmen der europäischen Kirchengeschichte. Göttingen, 1979. A comprehensive and scholarly examination of Zwingli's theology.

Locher, G. W. Zwingli's Thought: New Perspectives. Leiden, 1981. An excellent, medium-length survey of Zwingli's thought.

Potter, G. R. Zwingli. New York, 1976. An accurate and thorough intellectual biography.

Stephens, W.P. Zwingli: An Introduction to His Thought. Oxford, 1984. A readable and reliable introduction to Zwingli's thought.

This is the complete article, containing 1,435 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).