OSIANDRO (OSIANDER), ANDREA. — Protestant theologian, born on 19 December 1498 at Gunzenhausen (Brandenburg), died on 17 October 1552 at Königsberg. Ordained a priest in 1520 at Nuremberg, professor of Hebrew among the Augustinians, restless and combative, he led the movement which in 1522–25 made all of Nuremberg Protestant. Present at the Marburg Colloquy (1529), he drew up an account of it; in 1530 at Nuremberg he argued against Luther for the necessity of fighting the Emperor by force of arms. At the Diet of Augsburg (1530) he had close relations with Melanchthon, whose conciliatory spirit, however, he harshly criticized.
As an unbearable atmosphere developed in Nuremberg, O. took advantage of the Interim of 1548 to take refuge with Albert of Prussia, who appointed him professor at the University of Königsberg (1549). His personal views on Justification gave rise there to the controversy known as Osiandrism (October 1550). As early as 1524 O., in a work that remained almost unnoticed (Ein gut Unterricht und getreuer Ratschlag aus heiliger göttlicher Schrift), had defended a thesis at variance with the fundamental ideas of Protestantism: whereas Luther maintained that Justification consists in the extrinsic imputation of Christ’s righteousness to individual human beings through the act of trusting faith, O. held that the Word, in which all divine life resides, is truly and inwardly communicated to the soul at the moment when it hears the external word, Scripture (a reflection of the Eternal Word), and makes it its own (internalizes it) through faith: consequently, the real indwelling of Christ in individual souls, who acts as the head in the members, brings with it all divine righteousness and moves them from within to perform good works. This mysticism, which approaches Catholicism, alarmed O.’s opponents.
when he revived it at Königsberg in three short works: De lege et Evangelio; An Filius Dei fuerit incarnatus, si peccatum non introivisset in mundum. Item de imagine Dei (18 December 1550); Von dem einigen Mittler Jesu Christo (8 September 1551, Latin translation, De unico mediatore Jesu Christo: 24 October 1851). In these he also defended the Scotist thesis of the necessity of the Incarnation, even on the hypothesis that Adam had not sinned, since otherwise the similitudo Dei, which is the Word, would have been communicated neither to man nor to creation, and therefore the universe would have remained an opus imperfec-
tum, without its supernatural summit, toward which it is ordered. O. is also commonly credited with the theory of Eucharistic Impanation, in perfect parallel with that of Justification: just as the Word received through faith communicates real righteousness to the soul, so the words of Consecration communicate to the bread and wine the real presence of Christ’s Body and Blood, establishing an almost hypostatic union. This is, in any event, the interpretation given by Bossuet (Histoire des variations, I, II, chap. 3) to O.’s ambiguous words.
His opponents, and Calvin as well, attacked above all the thesis of Justification: O. replied with equal vehemence, but died in the heat of the struggle; his faithful disciple Luca Funck was condemned to death in 1557, and consequently Osiandrism disappeared in Prussia, while in 1567 Lutheranism triumphed unchallenged. Some secret followers of O. nevertheless remained in Germany, in a dynasty of theologians who cultivated the doctrine until the eighteenth century. The Newman (v.), while he was still Anglican, has particular affinities with this current of thought.