Description

For 400 years historians and theologians have been unable to come to a consensus as to where Johann Arndt (1555-1621) fits on the spectrum of orthodoxy in the Lutheran church, what age he best represented, and how he should be understood, though he is credited as being the father of Pietism. Arndt borrowed from a variety of traditions as he sought to revive the church of the Reformation on the eve of the Thirty Years’ War. This volume is the first to treat exhaustively 52 letters written by Arndt and presents a fuller biographical picture of Arndt, exploring his self-understanding as a prophet of spiritual renewal in the Lutheran church.