PFAFF, CHRISTOPH MATTHÄUS. - Lutheran theologian, b. in Stuttgart on 24 Dec. 1686, d. in Giessen on 19 Nov. 1760. He promoted Pietism (v.) at the court of Württemberg, as ducal tutor, and as a professor at the University of Tübingen and then at Giessen.
Owing to the dogmatic indifference characteristic of Pietism, he promoted the union of the Protestant Churches, provoking the reaction of intransigent Lutherans. A versatile but superficial writer, he owes a contested renown to the publication of four fragments of Irenaeus proved to be apocryphal, perhaps falsified by him.
As a canonist, his name is linked to the first formulation of a theory concerning the structure of the Lutheran Church, which had wide application in the 19th century: the so-called "collegial system," according to which the Church would be essentially an association (collegium aequale), in which originally the full right to regulate the associated life would belong to the totality of the faithful; the priests would be merely simple officials of the association, and the territorial lord would hold ecclesiastical power as summus episcopus only by the tacit or express consent of the association; this system prepared in Germany the separation between Church and State.
Bibliography3 worksA. Harnack, Die Pfafflichen Irenäus-Fragmente, Berlin 1900; E. Schling, Geschichte der protestantischen Kirchenverfassung, 2nd ed., ibid. 19
BIBL.: A. Harnack, Die Pfafflichen Irenäus-Fragmente, Berlin 1900; E. Schling, Geschichte der protestantischen Kirchenverfassung, 2nd ed., ibid. 1914; O. Rietschl, Dogmengeschichte des Protestantismus, IV, Berlin 1927, p. 469 ff.
Bendiscioli, Mario. “Pfaff, christoph matthäus.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX, coll. 1309–1310. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952. https://azioneromana.com/article/pfaff-christoph-matthaus.
MLA
Bendiscioli, Mario. “Pfaff, christoph matthäus.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952, coll. 1309–1310. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/pfaff-christoph-matthaus.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec9_pfaff_christoph_matthaus,
author = {Bendiscioli, Mario},
title = {Pfaff, christoph matthäus},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IX},
pages = {1309--1310},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1952},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pfaff-christoph-matthaus}
}
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