Truth is unkillable: The life and writings of Balthasar Hubmaier, theologian of Anabaptism

The study of Anabaptism began emerging in the early 1960s due to the scholarship of George Hunston Williams, William R. Estep, and Franklin Littel. These authors introduced a history far different and much more balanced than had been achieved in the previous four centuries. Indeed, Anabaptism as a field is now studied among historians, instead of being placed as a footnote to the Reformation. Balthasar Hubmaier (1480/5--1528) epitomized this movement which was diverse and greatly persecuted. His life was a representation of many reformed believers who sacrificed their lives for their beliefs. His prolific pen wrote on such monumental topics as religious liberty, ecclesiology, soteriology, and Believers' Baptism, which can still be greatly beneficial to modern Christians in clarifying arguments in these difficult areas.;This begins with an introduction to Anabaptism and its historiography. Chapter 1 details Hubmaier's life from his Catholic upbringing to his Anabaptist martyrdom in Vienna. Chapter 2 critically analyzes Hubmaier's writings in order to introduce the priest through his them. Chapter 3 focuses on Hubmaier's participation in the Reformation. Hubmaier mutually shared ideas with such stalwarts as Zwingli, yet was also dissociated from many theological communities due to his baptistic beliefs. Chapter 4 is an examination of Hubmaier as a theologian. He was primarily concerned with two subjects: ecclesiology and soteriology. In fact, he concentrated much of his work on the baptism and the Lord's Supper because he believed they were the means to a pure church based on New Testament patterns. He also asserted his belief of the local church as integral to the sanctification of the believer. Although he was completely orthodox in his theology, he was charged and executed for sedition and heresy. The dissertation concludes with a summation of the arguments expressed in chapters 1 through 4, along with the author's personal evaluation of Hubmaier's life and writings.