Zwischen Gelehrsamkeit und konfessioneller Identitätsstiftung

How did advocates of early Lutheranism establish the historical location of the Reformation? What was the connection between the historiography of Lutheranism and its »denominational identity«? Matthias Pohlig studies the question of the patterns of argumentation of a Lutheran »memory« with the objective of constructing an identity and the question of the relationship between this memory and 16th century historiography and the theory of history. Lutheran historiography is based on basic assumptions, which are shared by many, regarding the significance of the Reformation for the history of salvation, the pontifical Antichrist, the esteem in which the German emperors were held as well as basic prophetic-biblical principles. The author shows how history has presented us with two types of Lutheran identity: the memory which is geared to the eschatological figure of Luther and the placing of the Reformation into a larger context.