Otto Zeinenger (1513–1576) was an obscure yet influential theologian of the early

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. Born in Germany and ordained in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, he moved to

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

in his early twenties. Here he came under the sway of

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

reformer

John Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

, whose devoted student he became. Zeinenger published a number of commentaries on Calvin's ''Institutes'' before Calvin and his followers were forced to leave Geneva in 1538. From this point until Calvin's triumphant return to Geneva in 1541, Zeinenger's whereabouts are unknown. There is some evidence to suggest he traveled to the

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region of southern France, although some have speculated that he traveled as far as

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

or possibly

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. Zeinenger returned to Geneva sometime around 1541 and began preaching to the city's growing Protestant community. Over the course of the next decade, however, he appears to have had a falling-out with Calvin. In the end he was stripped of his ministerial duties, although he continued to write until his death and his unpublished sermons were circulated in dissident Protestant circles for many years. Although Zeinenger's early theological writings are very close to the

natural theology Natural theology, once also termed physico-theology, is a type of theology that seeks to provide arguments for theological topics (such as the existence of a deity) based on reason and the discoveries of science. This distinguishes it from ...

of Jean Calvin, his later writings are less easy to categorize. At times he maintains the strict Calvinist line, while at others he appears to veer off along more

dualist Dualism most commonly refers to: * Mind–body dualism, a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, or that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another ** ...

Manichaean Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...

avenues. These unorthodox adventures are thought by many to explain the rift that grew up between Calvin and his young disciple. However, recent scholarship on Zeinenger's work has argued that the so-called "rift" between Calvin and Zeinenger had less to do with theology and more to do with oratory style. It has been suggested that Zeinenger's often excessive use of rhetorical manipulation offended Calvin's belief that the truth of the Christian faith should be accessible through reason and faith alone. Zeinenger, on the other hand, is reputed (see Simon of Beziers' "Chronicles of Geneva", pp. 217–18) to have said that "lost souls are sometimes more easily directed through misdirection.") Some, including Simon of Beziers, assert that Zeinenger was willing to stoop to "swindling" ("Chronicles of Geneva", pp. 15–19) his audience into accepting Christian doctrine. Most of the authors who dispute the theory of sharp theological split between Calvin and Zeinenger also reject the notion that Zeinenger ever left Switzerland to travel to Bulgaria, Greece, or southern France. The details of Zeinenger's life during this period are notoriously fuzzy.

References

*Lawrence Bloomberg, "The Zeinenger-Calvin Feud Revisited" in ''Rhetoric'' (2003) *Jean Gauthier, "Dissent and Orthodoxy in Calvin's Geneva: A Firsthand Account" in ''Revue européene de la réligion historique'' (1963) *Theo Ringhalter, "A Cathar Revival? Dualism and Orthodoxy in Calvinist Geneva" in ''Pre-Reformation Origins of Protestant Theology'' (1989) *Simon of Béziers, ''Chronicles of Geneva'' (1591) *F. Jerome Wyatt, ''Church, Visible and Invisible: Politics and Religion in Sixteenth-Century Geneva'' (1971) {{DEFAULTSORT:Zeinenger, Otto 1513 births 1576 deaths Swiss Protestant Reformers 16th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians German Calvinist and Reformed theologians Swiss Calvinist and Reformed theologians 16th-century German Protestant theologians German male non-fiction writers 16th-century German male writers

See also

References