ZWINGLI the PASTOR

A Life in Conflict

STEPHEN BRETT ECCHER

Zwingli the Pastor: A Life in Conflict

Copyright 2024 Stephen Brett Eccher

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

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Image of Zwingli memorial on p. viii is used by permission of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en) and is owned by Roland zh. Image has been modified from full color to grayscale.

Print ISBN 9781683597353

Digital ISBN 9781683597360

Library of Congress Control Number 2023942787

Lexham Editorial: Todd Hains, Andrew Sheffield, Mandi Newell

Cover Design: Jim LePage

For my mom and dad,

with all my love and my deepest affection

Ulrich Zwingli statue outside the Wasserkirche (Water Church) erected in 1885 to commemorate the quadricentennial anniversary of the Reformer’s birth

Contents

Acknowledgments

Author’s Clarification

Introduction

Chapter 1

The Swiss Preacher

Chapter 2

The Reformation of Worship

Chapter 3

Unveiling the Gospel

Chapter 4

The Sovereign Lord of Zurich

Chapter 5

Gospel Partnerships

Chapter 6

The Broken Body of Christ

Conclusion

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Subject & Author Index

Scripture Index

Acknowledgments

It is hard for me to imagine this work coming to fruition without the thousands of students I have been blessed to meet and teach at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary over the course of my career. Each of my students, both past and present, has always sharpened, challenged, and inspired me in my work. They have collectively steered me away from the esoteric aspects of the past and continually grounded me in the “so what” questions of history. As inquisitive students eager to prepare for ministry, they have helped me frame my academic labors for the benefit of Christ’s bride, the church. Of those students, a special thanks to Drew Dickerson, Chandler McClean, Justin Myers, Joshua Pegram, Samuel Santiago-Bullington, and those students in my “History and Theology of the Reformation” and “Calvin and the Reformed Tradition” classes who read and critiqued chapter drafts of this book. Drew and Sam in particular served this project well as research assistants, and I am thankful for their contributions.

As a professor and author, I am inevitably a confluence of the teachers who taught me. And mine were some of the best. Former teachers and friends like David Allen Black, the late Dan Goodman, John Hammett, Perry Hildreth, Jason Lee, Steve McKinion, Gary Poe, and David Rayburn were those who first instilled in me a love for history, theology, and the Reformation.

My deepest gratitude to my friends at the University of St. Andrews and its Reformation Studies Institute. Bruce Gordon, Bridget Heal, Roger Mason, and Andrew Pettegree in particular stoked my love ...