Abstract
The term anthropologia as a description of scientific disciplines came into use during the 16th century. According to recent popular opinion, this term was applied to a systematic compendium of theological statements about man from shortly before 1850; theological anthropology as such would trace its origins only to the 1960s and 1970s.
However, works of all prominent founders of the Reformation was sustained by a soteriological anthropocentrism that emphasised theological reflection on man as a sinner and on his justification. From their suggestions, a highly intensive discussion on the states of human nature (status naturae humanae integrae, corruptae, reparatae) took place that found expression in independent treatises.
This is actually the moment when Balthasar Meisner coined the term anthropologia sacra for this discipline (1612). During the same period, the so-called analytic method was introduced into theology, defined as a practical discipline, with the assistance of Bartholomeus Keckermann.
Thanks to this method, the knowledge of man found its own place in the whole systematisation of the discipline, proceeding in the following order: theologia specialiter sic dicta, anthropologia sacra, christologia.