GOTTFRIED

ARNOLD (1666-1714)  , German Protestant divine, was born at Annaberg, in Saxony, where his father was a schoolmaster . In 1682 he went to the Gymnasium at Gera, and three years later to the university of Wittenberg . Here he made a special study of theology and history, and afterwards, through the influence of P . J . Spener, " the father of pietism," he became tutor in Quedlinburg . His first work, Die Erste Liebe zu.Christo, to which in modern times attention was again directed by Leo Tolstoy, 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 . The life and work here, however, proved so distasteful to him that he resigned in 1698, and returned to Quedlinburg . In 1699 he began to publish his largest work, described by Tolstoy (The Kingdom of God is within You, chap. iii.) as" remarkable, although little known," Unparteiische Kim/ten- and Ketzerhistorie, in which he has been thought by some to show more impartiality towards heresy than towards the Church (cp . Otto Pfleiderer, Development of Theology, p . 277) .

His next work, Geheimniss der gottlichen

Sophia, published in 1700, seemed to indicate that he had developed a form of mysticism . Soon afterwards, however, his acceptance of a pastorate marked a change, and he produced a number of noteworthy works on practical theology . He was also known as the author of sacred poems . Gottfried Arnold has rightly been classed with the pietistic section of Protestant historians (Bibliotheca Sacra, 1850) . See Calwer-Zeller, Theologisches Handworterbuch, and the account of him in Albert Knapp's new edition of Die erste Liebe zu Christo (1845) .