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[German Version] (Apr 24, 1614, Leipzig – Sep 12, 1680, Dresden), prominent exegete and preacher of Lutheran orthodoxy (II, 2.a). After studying at Leipzig (M.A. in 1633), Strassburg, and Wittenberg, he returned to Leipzig in…

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[German Version] (Nov 5, 1607, Cologne – May 14, 1678, Wieuvert, Friesland), daughter of Dutch Reformed parents, she lived in Utrecht after 1623 and was allowed to study at the university there (e.g. with G. Voetius). Her outstanding erudition and linguistic facility, coupled with artistic talent, gained her renown as the “prodigy of her time.” She corresponded with many scholars, including R. Descartes and Christian Huyghens, and defended the right of women to engage in scientific studies ( Dissertatio de ingenii muliebris ad doctrinam et meliores litteras aptitudine, 1643). Late…

[German Version] The Book of Concord is the most widely circulated collection of Lutheran articles of faith (I). It was published (in German) under the title Concordia. Christian, Reiterated, Unanimous Confession of the Undersigned Electors, Princes, and Estates who Embrace the Augsburg Confession and of the Theologians of the Same Doctrine and Faith on Jun 25, 1580, the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the Augsburg Confession. It contains the three major creeds (Apostles' Creed, Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, Symbolum Quicumque [Athanasian Creed]), the Augsburg Confession in the textual versio…

[German Version] (Sep 7, 1642, Leipsdorf, Saxony – Oct 22, 1721, Leipzig).…

[German Version] I. Church History 1. Germany and Europe a. Definition. Pietism was a religious revival movement in late 17th- and 18th-century Protestantism (I, 1), alongside Anglo-Saxon Puritanism (Puritans) the most significant post-Reformation religious movement. Emerging within both the Lutheran and the Reformed churches, Pietism broke with orthodox Protestantism regulated by the authorities, which it perceived as a moribund Christianity of habit, pressed for an individualized and spiritualized rel…

[German Version] 1. Andreas (Dec 14 or 19, 1496 or 1498, Gunzhausen – Oct 17, 1552, Königsberg [today Kaliningrad, Russia]), Reformer of Nuremberg (Nürnberg) and center of a violent controversy over his doctrine of justification. Osiander matriculated at Ingolstadt in 1515, where he learned Greek and Hebrew and was influenced by Humanism and especially by J. Reuchlin and the Kabbalah. In 1520 he was ordained to the priesthood; in the same year, he was employed to teach Hebrew by the Augustinian Herm…

[German Version] (Jun 15, 1635, Duisburg – Jan 1, 1693, Bremen). After studying from 1654 to 1658 in Utrecht (with G. Voetius), Duisburg (with Johannes Clauberg [1622–1665]), and Leiden (with ¶ J. Coccejus), Undereyck set out on an extensive study tour, visiting Switzerland, France, and England. His piety was shaped by Dutch precisianism (J. van Lodenstein). As a pastor in Mühlheim an der Ruhr from 1660 to 1668, Undereyck pressed for conversion and rebirth (Regeneration), called on people at home, and eng…

[German Version] (Mar 27, 1588, Kutten near Angerburg, East Prussia – Apr 30, 1653, Königsberg). Born into the Polish nobility, Myslenta learned German only in adult life. He studied theology in Königsberg, Wittenberg and Giessen (1619 Dr.theol. in Gießen). Then he studied oriental languages under T. Erpenius in Leiden and J. Buxtorf senior in Basel. For six months he pursued rabbinic and talmudic studies in the ghetto in Frankfurt am Main. From 1619 he was professor of Hebrew language and profess…

[German Version] (Nov 25, 1642, Vaihingen an der Enz – summer 1693, Rotterdam) began his studies at Tübingen in 1661, receiving his M.A. in 1664. In 1666 he was appointed lecturer at the Tübingen Stift, and in 1671 he became a deacon in Bietigheim, where he became an adherent of J. Böhme under the influence of L. Brunnque…

[German Version] (Oct 10, 1570, Langenstein near Halberstadt – May 30, 1649, Wittenberg). Studied in Helmstedt and Wittenberg; 1597, rector in Norden, East Friesland; 1602, professor of logic and metaphysics in Wittenberg; 1613, also of ethics; 1623, professor of theology. Jakob Martini followed C. Martini in the reestablishment of metaphysics, to which he devoted three works. In his Vernunft-Spiegel (1619; Mirror of reaso…

[German Version] (Avenarius; Oct 8, 1516, Cheb [Ger. Eder], Czech Republic – Dec 5, 1590, Zeitz), who became a Lutheran between 1540 and 1542, served as pastor in several towns of Electoral Saxony (1564–1571 Falkenau, near Cheb). He was briefly a professor of theology (1571 Jena, 1576 Wittenberg); from 1576 to his death, he served as superintendent of the Stift in Zeitz. Known to his contemporaries as a Hebraist (Hebrew grammar 1571, Hebrew dictionary 1588), ¶ he was remembered by later generations as the author of a Luther…

[German Version] (Dec 6, 1650, Leipzig – Mar 30, 1712, Stettin). After his studies in Leipzig and Strasbourg, he became Saturday preacher in Leipzig in 1672, superintendent in Leisnig in 1673, s…

[German Version] (Dec 29, 1673, Sondershausen – Feb 12, 1749, Dresden). As the son of the Wittenberg professor of theology Caspar Löscher (1636–1718), Valentin Löscher also studied in Wittenberg. After a study tour (extending as far as Holland and Denmark), he received a master's degree and became an adjunct to the faculty of philosophy in 1692. He was appointed pastor and superintendent in Jüterbog (1699), superintendent in Delitzsch (1702), professor of theology in Wittenberg (1707), pastor of t…

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[German Version] (Johann: Jul 1, 1649, Osnabrück – Jan 31, 1727, Gut Thymer bei Zerbst, Anhalt; Johanna, née Merlau, Apr 25, 1644, Frankfurt am Main – Mar 19, 1724, Gut ¶ …

[German Version] (May 3, 1536, Salzwedel – May 4, 1603, Salzwedel), author of Lutheran devotional books. After studying at Rostock (with D. Chyträus and Simon Pauli), he became a deacon in Salzwedel and later pastor of the Neustädische Kirche there. Despite calls from other places, he remained faithful to his home town until his death. In his view, Christians should eschew penance and asceticism, knowing only the treasures of God’s grace received in baptism ( Freudenchristentum, “joyful Christianity”). A collection of his writings was published by J. Arndt ( Von der güldenen Zeit, 1622…

[German Version] (1568, Antwerp – Dec 17, 1621, Helmstedt) studied in Rostock under D. …

[German Version] (Mar 4, 1579, Riga – Dec 16, 1643, Riga). After studying at Wittenberg (with L. Hütter) and Rostock, he was appointed preacher at St. Petri in Riga as well as superintendent of schools; later he was appointed cathedral preacher. He published attacks on the Jesuit Counter-Reformation (Baltic count…