Gottfried Arnold

Gottfried Arnold (5 September 1666 – 30 May 1714) was a German Lutheran theologian and historian. Biography 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. He made a special study of theology and history, and afterwards, through the influence of Philip Jacob Spener, the father of pietism, became tutor in Quedlinburg. Arnold's first work, Die Erste Liebe zu Christo, appeared in 1696. It went through five editions before 1728 and gained him a high reputation. In the year after its publication, he was invited to Gießen as professor of church history. He disliked academic politics and academic life so much that he resigned in 1698, and returned to Wittenberg. The next year, Arnold began to publish his largest work, his Kirchen- und Ketzer-Historie Unpartheyische ("Impartial History of the Church and of Heresy"), two volumes in which some thought he showed more sympathy towards heresy than towards any established Church, or especially the clergy (cf. Otto Pfleiderer, Development of Theology, p. 277). The book was described by Tolstoy (The Kingdom of God Is Within You, chap, III.) as "remarkable, although little known".