Adapting Lutheran Preaching: The Postil of Danish Reformer Hans Tausen (1539)

Abstract

Abstract The Danish reformer Hans Tausen has been characterized as a “Danish Luther” in both Danish and foreign-language church historiography. Recent scholarship, however, has challenged this characterization, interpreting Tausen instead as an urban, humanistic reformer who transmitted a kind of Zwinglian theology. The present article sheds light on Hans Tausen’s 1539 Postil, which has so far been neglected in international research on early modern postils. The drafting of Tausen’s Postil is closely connected with the new legislation for the Danish Lutheran Church presented in the Danish Church Ordinance of 1537–1539. Twentieth-century Danish research has indicated that the Postil was either an original work by Tausen or a precise adaptation of Luther’s own sermons. Previous research overlooked the way in which Tausen worked with several models and templates as inspiration for his postil, the most influential being the postils of Stephan Roth. The Tausen-Postil reflects Tausen’s ability to respond to the changing tides in favour of Wittenbergian theology in Denmark from the mid-1530s. As such, it serves as evidence for the transfer of contemporary Lutheranism from Germany to Scandinavia.