De coniugio spirituali Jerome Zanchi on Ephesians 5:22-33

A close reading of Zanchi's exegetical work provides evidence that is incompatible with the older view of Reformed orthodoxy as a rigid determinism lacking depth and balance. Zanchi's typological exegesis sets his critique of Lutheran ubiquitarianism in the context of an intense probing of what it means for the Church to be the Bride of Christ. The intimacy of the bond between Adam and Eve ("bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh") suggests marital analogies for understanding the Second Adam's relation to the Church; a positive view of marriage and domestic life underlies Zanchi's eagerness to explore the marital metaphor, which he incorporates into a Calvinism that is enriched by themes borrowed from the medieval traditions summarized in the Glossa ordinaria. Although traces of Calvinistic and Thomistic influence are present in Zanchi's interpretation, significant creativity is evident in his marshalling of traditional resources to address the concerns of Reformed dogmatics in the late sixteenth century.