Original scientific paper
The ‘Rock’. Marcus Marulus’ Theological Patrimony Concerning the Interpretation of »You are Peter and upon this Rock i Will Build my Church«
Franz Posset
; Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, USA
Abstract
The lay theologian of Split, Marcus Marulus (1450-1524), shows a distinctive interest in the patrimony not only of the Church Fathers and the Sacred Scriptures but also of classical, pagan antiquity. With his philosophical and theological focus and with his retrieval of biblical and patristic theology he fits squarely into the wider picture of Renaissance humanism, the Devotio Moderna, and the theology-for-piety (Frömmigkeitstheologie) of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Marulus is part of the intellectual movement ad fontes. His voluminous Repertorium is a splendid proof of this return. Marulus’ classical, biblical, and patristic repertoire will be taken into consideration here next to his study of the Biblia Latina itself which he has at hand in an edition of 1489. The center of attention will rest on the heritage of biblical and ancient Christian theology (Patristics) in Marulus’ Latin works with respect to one of the most contentious verses of the entire New Testament, Mt 16:18 and the meaning of the ‘rock’: »And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church«. There are basically three options for interpreting the ‘rock’: (a) the person of Peter, (b) the faith of Peter as he expressed it with respect to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, or (c) Jesus Christ himself as the Rock. Marulus as a Christocentrist prefers the traditional interpretation of the ‘rock’ as handed down from the fathers and the doctors of the Church through the centuries. The idea that the rock in Mt 16:18 would be the person of Peter is an idea that may have become popular in the Catholic Church during the later Catholic Counter-Reformation, but it is completely foreign to the Roman Catholic lay theologian of Split.
Keywords
Marko Marulić; lay theologian; history of exegesis; theology-for-piety; Devotio Moderna; Renaissance humanism; Apostle Peter
Hrčak ID:
120333
URI
Publication date:
22.4.2014.
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