Eilhard Lubin, Academic Unorthodoxy, and the Dynamics of Confessional Intellectual Cultures

Abstract:The standard narrative of post-Reformation confessionalization suggests that confessional cultures clamped down on intellectual creativity in order to protect orthodox theology. Taking the case of Lutheranism, this article examines Eilhard Lubin's successful defense of his subversive ideas about God, creation, and evil. I put forward the concept of "academic unorthodoxy"—based on the plural, social character of orthodoxy and the potential for disciplinary boundary-work—as a complex but analytically rich approach to the relationship between confessional orthodoxy and intellectual diversity, specifically in early modern Lutheranism but applicable to early modern confessional cultures in general.