Stanford Humanities Center
Barbara Pitkin specializes in the history of Christian thought, with a particular emphasis on the religious developments in late medieval and early modern Europe. She is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford, where she teaches courses on the history and future of Christianity, sixteenth-century reformations, the history of biblical interpretation, and women and religion. Her current research focuses on the mystical theology and biblical exegesis of the German dissident reformer Sebastian Franck. Previous she has published two books on John Calvin’s thought and articles on such topics as Calvin and memory; early modern receptions of Stocism; religion and divine in the Renaissance; Reformation preaching; and the reformation of doubt. She is also a co-editor of the Sixteenth Century Journal.
SHC Project
Sebastian Franck (1499–1542), the Bible, and Mysticism
The audience for this project includes scholars of medieval and early modern history, religious studies, and German studies. My research aims to further and refine existing scholarship situating the German dissident and mystic Sebastian Franck in his intellectual, social, and historical context. Reassessing Franck’s place in the transformations of European religious and political landscapes over the long sixteenth century, the project contributes to new understandings of reformation religious radicalism and mysticism. My approach focuses to a greater extent than previous scholarship on Franck’s actual engagement with and utilization of the Bible as external, written word in service of his inner, spiritualist theology. In his many publications, Franck constantly cites and refers to the Bible, while stressing its contradictory and paradoxical message when interpreted according to the dead or killing letter. Ultimately, for Franck, the Bible can only be appropriated or engaged through paradox or a mystical via negativa. Yet investigation into which Bible passages Franck uses and how he uses them will shed new light on Franck’s rejection of all externals (including the scriptures) as vehicles for true religious knowledge. Drawing on my expertise in the history of biblical interpretation, I situate Franck’s use of the Bible among previous and contemporary patterns of exegesis and explore points of connection and continuity with more mainstream religious reformers’ engagements with scripture. I also relate Franck’s critical ideas about and utilization of the written scriptures and other forms of external communication to his prolific literary activity as translator, author, and publisher.
Selected works:
What Pure Eyes Could See: Calvin’s Doctrine of Faith in Its Exegetical Context (Oxford 1999)
“The Reformation of Preaching: Transformations of Worship Soundscapes in Early Modern Germany and Switzerland,”Yale Journal of Music and Religion (2015)
