One of the most central figures of the Swiss Reformation was a man named Ulrich Zwingli. Zwingli spent twelve years shepherding the people of Zurich. He led and taught them how to properly worship, how to love and believe the Bible and how to live out the gospel. He helped Zurich understand Reformation. Even though he poured out his life for the people of Zurich, if you go there today you would hardly notice anything about him. The Swiss Reformation remains an afterthought to the people of Zurich today. In the book, Zwingli The Pastor: A Life in Conflict (Lexham Press, 2024), author Stephen Eccher, examines Zwingli’s pastoral ministry at Zurich and how conflict shaped his ministry.
Eccher begins by giving a brief sketch of Zwingli’s life, but this book is not a biographical account of Zwingli’s life. Eccher does a good job of helping his readers understand one of the driving forces behind Zwingli’s pastoral ministry was he was a humanist. In order to understand Zwingli, one must have a proper understanding of humanism. Humanism at this time was the commitment to “go back to the sources”. Eccher states, “Renaissance humanism always had a goal of transforming the person through studies of the past. Once Zwingli experienced this radical transformation, primarily through the Holy Scriptures, this became a guiding didactic premise directing his ministry in the years to come at Zurich” (7). Eccher then traces his steps from arriving in Zurich in 1518, the realization and initiation of reformation in the mid 1520s and his death on the battlefield in 1531.
Eccher’s main purpose of the book is to examine the impact of Zwingli’s pastoral ministry through reformation as well as the hard times he faced during his ministry. Zwingli’s pastoral ministry impact in Zurich began with his new found love for God’s Word and his dependency on the Scriptures over the Catholic traditions. Zwingli changed his preaching style and introduced verse to verse preaching, which caused an influx of people into Zurich to hear this new and unfamiliar style of preaching. His powerful messages began to stir the hearts of the people which led to action. But it was not his words that stirred their hearts, but the Word of God. Zwingli had led the people to love God, love His Word and live it out. At the same time, his preaching also caused some of his followers to incite anti-clerical actions, such as attacking monasteries and destruction of paintings and icons.
Zwingli reformed the worship services to make them more in line with Scripture. He made preaching the center of the worship, he removed images and icons, abandoned all worship music and singing and changed the structure and focus of the Lord’s Supper away from a literal or spiritual presence of Christ in the elements to a memorial view of the elements. Zwingli’s memorial view of the Lord’s Supper would cause a barrier of gospel and Reformation partnership with Martin Luther, who would call Zwingli’s view of the Lord’s Supper “poison” in 1524. As Zwingli was bringing reform to the church in Zurich some of his followers were starting to be frustrated with him and became radicals with more radical views of Reformation. This group desired a regenerate body of believers and the belief of believers baptism as the entrance. This group broke away and became Anabaptist and Zwingli declared them enemies of the gospel and a threat to reform in Zurich.
Zwingli believed in order for him to build a Christian society in Zurich, the gospel of Jesus was the key. He believed the inner transformation of individuals would lead to a transformation of the community. So he labored to unveil the gospel to as many people who had a hunger for it. At the same time, he was met with resistance from the Catholic church as well as some of his followers. Zwingli attacked the authority of the papal in favor of Scripture as ultimate authority, the the idea and sale of indulgences and extrabiblical restrictions from Rome. He spoke out against works based salvation, but believed and promoted that a true gospel transformed life would be seen through external living and actions.
Zwingli would eventually shift from humanist to reformer. In 1519, plague struck Zurich and Zwingli became ill and almost died, but through his near death experience he came to experience the providence of God. Zwingli emerged with a new mission that was centered around the sovereignty of God. Zwingli now truly believed if the gospel was to advance and true reformation was to come to Zurich it would not come through man’s efforts, but through the providence and sovereignty of God. Eccher stated, “By mid-1520s, the preacher had become increasingly disillusioned by the lack of Reformation success based on his humanist agenda” (128). Zwingli believed everything that happens, good or bad, was under the sovereign will of God and so he encouraged the Swiss people to look past any sufferings to the providence of God. This truth fueled the people’s work with meaning and mission. Even though life was hard, Zwingli and the people of Zurich could welcome any hardships knowing they could trust and put their hopes in the hands of a loving God. Eccher stated, “This God was the same Lord he met standing on death’s doorstep in 1519, a God who walked alongside him through the valley of the shadow of death, and a Savior who he believed helped him usher in Reformation and gospel renewal to Zurich” (139).
I would highly recommend Zwingli The Pastor: A Life in Conflict. Eccher does a very good job of helping us better understand the pastoral heart of Zwingli. From the life and ministry of Zwingli, we learn how hard ministry can be. Zwingli had a love for the people of Zurich and wanted to see the gospel come alive in their lives, as well as in the community. Even though Zwingli saw great reform, he also dealt with hard times and heart break, but through these trials would shape his theology and his pastoral ministry (4). Like Zwingli, I pray all Christians would love the gospel and live out the gospel in their lives, even through hard times and trials.
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