Page "Huldrych Zwingli" Paragraph 13

On 1 January 1519, Zwingli gave his first sermon in Zurich.

Deviating from the prevalent practice of basing a sermon on the Gospel lesson of a particular Sunday, he began to read through the Gospel of Matthew giving his interpretation during the sermon, known as the method of lectio continua.

He continued to read and interpret the book on subsequent Sundays until he reached the end and then proceeded in the same manner with the Acts of the Apostles, the New Testament epistles, and finally the Old Testament.

His motives for doing this are not clear, but in his sermons he used exhortation to achieve moral and ecclesiastical improvement which were goals comparable with Erasmian reform.

Sometime after 1520, Zwingli's theological model began to evolve into an idiosyncratic form that was neither Erasmian nor Lutheran.

Scholars do not agree on the process of how he developed his own unique model.

One view is that Zwingli was trained as an Erasmian humanist and Luther played a decisive role in changing his theology.

Another view is that Zwingli did not pay much attention to Luther's theology and in fact he considered it as part of the humanist reform movement.

A third view is that Zwingli was not a complete follower of Erasmus, but had diverged from him as early as 1516 and that he independently developed his theology.