Date of Award
Spring 5-1-2026
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
First Advisor
Marcus Plested
Second Advisor
Mickey Mattox
Third Advisor
Mark Johnson
Fourth Advisor
Robert Kolb
Abstract
This dissertation offers a historical–theological analysis of the Christology of Jacob Andreae (1528–1590), arguing that his significance cannot be reduced to his role as a confessional organizer or architect of the Formula of Concord. Against such interpretations, the study contends that Andreae was a constructive theologian whose Christology was forged through the doctrinal crises of the sixteenth century and whose pursuit of ecclesial concord was inseparable from Christological adequacy. Part I situates Andreae’s theology within the controversies that shaped his career, including the Leipzig Interim, the Colloquy of Worms, the rise of Crypto-Calvinism in Wittenberg, and the Colloquy of Montbéliard. These disputes exposed fault lines within Lutheran theology concerning Christ’s presence, agency, and relation to the means of grace. The historical analysis demonstrates that Andreae’s pursuit of unity was not grounded in minimal formulation or strategic ambiguity, but in the conviction that concord required a Christology capable of sustaining proclamation, worship, and sacramental realism. His formation in late-medieval logic and disputation equipped him to test doctrinal claims without evacuating their ontological substance. Part II offers a sustained Christological analysis based on five sets of disputation theses written and supervised by Andreae between 1564 and 1583. It argues that Andreae developed a coherent Christology in which the hypostatic union entails a real communion (κοινωνία, Gemeinschaft) of natures grounded in the unity of Christ’s person. This communion functions as the internal logic of the incarnation, enabling truthful predication, divine action, and genuine presence. From this foundation, Andreae articulates the genus maiestaticum as the operative consequence of the personal union rather than a speculative metaphysical excess. The dissertation further demonstrates that communicated majesty grounds Christ’s true presence in the created world, legitimates the adoration of the incarnate Christ, and renders possible Christ’s bodily self-giving in the Lord’s Supper. Sacramental presence thus emerges as the decisive test of Christological adequacy. By tracing this logic across Andreae’s disputations and historical context, the study clarifies the Christological trajectory underlying the Formula of Concord and restores Andreae as a central figure in confessional Lutheran theology.