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JOHANN ARNDT (1555-1621)

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 628 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHANN See also:

ARNDT (1555-1621)  , See also:German Lutheran theologian, was See also:born at See also:Ballenstedt, in See also:Anhalt, and studied in several See also:universities . He was at Helmstadt in 1576; at See also:Wittenberg in 1577 . At Wittenberg the crypto-Calvinist controversy was then at its height, and he took the See also:side of See also:Melanchthon and the crypto-Calvinists . He continued his studies in See also:Strassburg, under the See also:professor of See also:Hebrew, Johannes Pappus (1549-161o), a zealous Lutheran, the See also:crown of whose See also:life's See also:work was the forcible suppression of Calvinistic See also:preaching' and See also:worship in the See also:city, and who had See also:great See also:influence over him . In See also:Basel, again, he studied See also:theology under See also:Simon Sulzer (1508-1585), a broad-minded divine of Lutherah sympathies, whose aim was to reconcile the churches of the Helvetic and Wittenberg confessions . In 1581 he went back to Ballenstedt, but was soon recalled to active life by his See also:appointment to the pastorate at Badeborn in 1583 . After some See also:time his Lutheran tendencies exposed him to the anger of the authorities, who were of the Reformed See also:Church . Consequently, in 1590 he was deposed for refusing to remove the pictures from his church and discontinue the use of See also:exorcism in See also:baptism . He found an See also:asylum in Quedlinburg (1590), and afterwards was transferred to St See also:Martin's church at See also:Brunswick (1599) . See also:Arndt's fame rests on his writings . These were mainly of a mystical and devotional See also:kind, and were inspired by St See also:Bernard, J . See also:Tauler and See also:Thomas a Kempis .

His See also:

principal work, Wakres Christentum (16o6-16og), which has been translated into most See also:European See also:languages, has served as the See also:foundation of many books of devotion, both See also:Roman See also:Catholic and See also:Protestant . Arndt here dwells upon the mystical See also:union between the believer and See also:Christ, and endeavours, by See also:drawing See also:attention to Christ's life in His See also:people, to correct the purely forensic side of the See also:Reformation theology, which paid almost exclusive attentionto Christ's See also:death for His people . Like See also:Luther, Arndt was very fond of the little See also:anonymous See also:book, Deutsche Theologie . He published an edition of it and called attention to its merits in a See also:special See also:preface . After Wahres Christentum, his best-known work is Paradiesgartlein aller christlichen Tugenden, which was published in 1612 . Both these books have been translated into See also:English; Paradiesgartlein with the See also:title the See also:Garden of See also:Paradise . Several of his sermons are published in R . Nesselmann's See also:Buck der Predigten (1858) . Arndt has always been held in very high repute by the German Pietists . The founder of See also:Pietism, Philipp See also:Jacob Spener, repeatedly called attention to him and his writings, and even went so far as to compare him with See also:Plato (cf . Karl See also:Scheele, Plato and Johann Arndt, Ein Vortrag, &c., 1857) . A collected edition of his See also:works was published in See also:Leipzig and See also:Gorlitz in 1734 .

A valuable See also:

account of Arndt is to be found in C . Aschmann's Essai sur la See also:vie, &c., de J . Arndt . See further, See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie .

End of Article: JOHANN ARNDT (1555-1621)
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