Confessional Identity in the Swiss Reformation

Amy Nelson Burnett analyses the emergence of early Reformed theology and the formation of confessional identity in the Swiss Confederation. Focusing on the eucharistic debates of the 1520s and the long-term consolidation of the Basel Reformation, she highlights the diversity that shaped the early Reformed tradition beyond Zurich and Geneva.

Amy Nelson Burnett offers a comprehensive analysis of the emergence of early Reformed theology and the construction of confessional identity within the Swiss Confederation from two complementary perspectives. In Part I, she focuses on the eucharistic controversy that fractured the evangelical movement in the mid-1520s and ultimately led to the institutional differentiation between Lutheran and Reformed traditions. The author explores not only the diverse positions in the debate over the Lord’s Supper but also the underlying issues of interpretive authority, particularly the proper exegesis of Scripture and the reception of the church fathers. In Part II, she turns to the long-term consolidation of the Reformation in Basel, from the city’s official renunciation of papal authority in 1529 to the ascendancy of Reformed Orthodoxy at the end of the century. By highlighting especially the theological and ecclesiastical contributions of Johannes Oecolampadius and Martin Bucer, Amy Nelson Burnett reveals the multifaceted nature of the early Reformed tradition and underscores the importance of developments occurring beyond the familiar centers of Zurich and Geneva.

Part I: The Lord's Supper
The Problem of Presence: Lessons from the First Eucharistic Controversy
Hermeneutics and Exegesis in the Early Eucharistic Controversy
"Things I Never Said or Thought"? Erasmus' Exegetical Contribution to the Early Eucharistic Controversy
Streitkultur Meets the Culture of Persuasion: The Flensburg Disputation of 1529
John Calvin and the First Eucharistic Controversy
"According to the Oldest Authorities": The Use of the Fathers in the Early Eucharistic Controversy
Reading Augustine in the Early Eucharistic Controversy
"What the Fathers Thought": Melanchthon and Oecolampadius on the Eucharist
Martin Bucer between Oecolampadius and Melanchthon on the Lord's Supper
"Late Zwinglianism" and the Nature of the Sacraments
Forged in Controversy: The Understanding of the Sacraments in the Confessio Helvetica Posterior
Part II: Basel and the Swiss Reformation
"It Varies from Canton to Canton": Zurich, Basel, and the Swiss Reformation
Domesticating the Reformation in Basel, 1529-1548
A Tale of Three Churches: Pastors and Parishes in Basel, Strasbourg, and Geneva
Heinrich Bullinger and the Problem of Eucharistic Concord
Bucer's Last Disciple: Simon Sulzer and Basel's Confessional Identity in the Later Sixteenth Century
Basel, Beza and the Development of Calvinist Orthodoxy in the Swiss Confederation
Education in the Service of Church and State: The University of Basel and the Reformation
Local Boys and Peripatetic Scholars: Theology Students in Basel, 1542-1642

• By (author) Amy Nelson Burnett