Andreas Osiander
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Andreas Osiander (Andreas Hosemann) (Ansbach, Bavaria, 19 December, 1498 – 17 October 1552 in Königsberg, Prussia) was a German Lutheran theologian.
Career
Born Andreas Hosemann in the town of Ansbach, Osiander studied in Leipzig, Altenburg and Ingolstadt before being ordained as a priest in 1520. In the same year he began work at an Augustinian convent in Nuremburg as a Hebrew tutor. In 1522, he was appointed to the church of St. Lorenz in Nuremburg, and at the same time publicly declared himself to be a Lutheran. During the First Diet of Nuremburg (1522), he met Albert of Prussia, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, and played an important role in converting him to Lutheranism. He also played a prominent role in the debate which lead to the city of Nuremburg's adoption of the Reformation in 1525, and in the same year Osiander married.Osiander attended the Marburg Colloquy (1529), the Diet of Augsburg (1530) and the signing of the Schmalkalden articles(1531). The Augsburg Interim of 1548 made it necessary for him to leave Nuremburg, settling first at Breslau, then (in 1549, at Königsberg as professor of the newly founded Königsberg University, appointed by Albert of Prussia. Osiander lived and worked in Königsberg until his death in 1552. Osiander's son Lukas (1534-1604), and grandsons Andreas (1562-1617) and Lukas (1571-1638) also worked as theologians. His niece married the future-Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer.
Works
Osiander published a corrected edition of the Vulgate Bible, with notes, in 1522 and a Harmony of the Gospels in 1537. In 1543, Osiander oversaw the publication of the book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the revolution of celestial spheres) by Copernicus, and added an unsigned preface explaining that the model described in the book was not intended as a description of the way the Universe really is, but as a mathematical device to simplify calculations involving the movement of planets.Gribbin, John, Science: A History, Penguin Books Ltd, ISBN: 0140297413, 2003 In 1550 Osiander published two controversial disputations, De Lege et Evangelio and De Justficatione. In these, he set out his view that justification by faith was instilled in (rather than ascribed to) humanity by Christ's divinity, a view contrary to those of Martin Luther, although he agreed with Lutheranism's fundamental opposition to Roman Catholicism and Calvinism. These beliefs were maintained after his death by Johann Funck (his son-in-law) but disappeared after 1566.Notes
References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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