Gottfried Arnold

Arnold, Gottfried (Annaberg, Saxony, 1666-1714, Perleberg), Pietist and mystic, whose awareness of the great gulf between the Church and primitive Christianity led to a life devoted to the fostering of a more truly Christian outlook. After attending Wittenberg University, Arnold moved to Dresden in 1689 where, through the help of his mentor P. J. Spener, he worked as a private tutor. He then settled in Quedlinburg where he sought to spread his gospel through a circle of friends and wrote his first work, Wahre Abbildung Der Ersten Christen (1696). After a short period as Professor of History in Gießen (1697-8) he returned to Quedlinburg, disillusioned with the secularity of academic life. Here he began the monumental work which made his name a household word for nearly a century. The Unpartheyische Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie (1699-1700) treats ecclesiastical history as a conflict between the tendency of the Church to petrify into rigidity and the efforts of heretics in every age to renew it. From 1701 pastor at the court of Saxe-Eisenach, Arnold, whose ecclesiastical unorthodoxy exposed him to persistent attack, enjoyed the protection of Prussia from 1702 to 1705 when he took up the cure in Werben, Altmark. From 1707 to his death he was pastor and diocesan inspector in Perleberg. His Geheimnis der Göttlichen Sophia (1701, repr. 1963) and Historie und Beschreibung Der Mystischen Theologie (1703, repr. 1970) and his lyric poetry testify to his preoccupation with the mystic tradition. His numerous hymns, which were not collected in his lifetime, were especially popular in the pietistic community. The best known of them is ‘So führst Du doch recht selig, Herr, die Deinen’.

Kupferstich von Gottfried Arnold

Gottfried Arnold (September 5, 1666, Annaberg, Erzgebirge - May 30, 1714, Perleberg) was a German Lutheran theologian.

Arnold was born at Annaberg, in Saxony (Germany), where his father was schoolmaster. In 1682 he went to the Gymnasium at Gera, and three years later to the University of Wittenberg. Here made a special study of theology and history, and afterwards, rough the influence of Philip Jacob Spener, the father of pietism, became tutor in Quedlinburg. His first work, Die Erste Liebe Christo, appeared in 1696. It went through five editions before 1728, and gained the author much reputation.

In the year after its publication he was invited to Gießen as professor of church history. He disliked it so much that he resigned in 1698, and returned to Wittenberg. In 1699 he began to publish his largest work, described by Leo Tolstoy (The Kingdom of God is within You, ap. iii.) as remarkable, although little known, Unparteiische Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie, in which he has been thought to show more impartiality towards heresy than towards the Church (cf. Otto Pfleiderer, Development of Theology, p. 277). His next work, Geheimniss der gottlichen Sophia, seemed to indicate that he had developed a form of mysticism. Soon afterwards, however, his acceptance of a pastorate marked a change of view, and he produced a number of noteworthy works on practical theology. He was also known as the author of the pietistic section of Protestant historians (1850).

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The article is available here: [1]

Private library

• Reinhard Breymayer: "Der wiederentdeckte Katalog zur Bibliothek Gottfried Arnolds", in: Dietrich Blaufuß und Friedrich Niewöhner (Hrsg.): Gottfried Arnold (1666-1714). Mit einer Bibliographie der Arnold-Literatur ab 1714 (zusammengestellt von Hans Schneider). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1995 (Wolfenbütteler Forschungen, hrsg. von der Herzog August Bibliothek, 61), pp. 55-143.

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