BROCKHMAND, JESPER RASMUSSEN. — Leading figure of Lutheran theology in Denmark, from 1620 he was professor in Copenhagen and from 1638 bishop of Zealand.
He made his boldest theological contribution with his Systema universae theologiae (1638), with which he largely revolutionized the traditional Lutheran conception of Justification, asserting that its sole cause is the bond existing between Christ and the soul, a bond realized in mystical Union.
He also wrote a work of controversy in three parts: Controversiarum sacrarum (1626–28), the third of which, Ἀνερόπολας pontificatus, is a detailed refutation of the arguments advanced by St. R. Bellarmino against Luther; and the Epistome systematis theologiae (1649).
BIBL.: F. Nielsen, in Realencyklop. für protest. Theologie und Kirche, III, 3rd ed. (1807), pp. 412–15; O. Ritschl, Dogmengeschichte des Prot., IV, 1928, p. 212 ff. Pietro Chimimelli