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Johann August Wilhelm Neander (17 January 178914 July 1850) was a German
theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and church historian.


Biography

Neander was born at
Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...
as David Mendel. His father, Emmanuel Mendel, is said to have been a Jewish
peddler A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used f ...
, but August adopted the name of Neander on his baptism as a
Protestant Christian Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to ...
. While still very young, he moved with his mother to
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
. After completing
grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...
(''Johanneum''), he enrolled in a gymnasium, where the study of
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
appears to have especially engrossed him. Some of his early attachments include
Wilhelm Neumann Carl Johann Wilhelm Neumann ( lv, Kārlis Johans Vilhelms Neimanis; russian: Карл Иоганн Вильгельм Нейман; born 5 October 1849 in Grevesmühlen – died 6 March 1919 in Riga) was a Baltic German architect and art historian ...
, writer Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, and the poet
Adelbert von Chamisso Adelbert von Chamisso (; 30 January 178121 August 1838) was a German poet and botanist, author of ''Peter Schlemihl'', a famous story about a man who sold his shadow. He was commonly known in French as Adelbert de Chamisso (or Chamissot) de Bonc ...
. Baptized on 25 February 1806, Neander went to
Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hal ...
to study divinity at the age of 17.
Friedrich Schleiermacher Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (; 21 November 1768 – 12 February 1834) was a German Reformed theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional ...
was then lecturing at Halle. Neander found in him the inspiration he needed, while Schleiermacher found a congenial pupil; one destined to propagate his views in a higher and more effective Christian form. Before the end of that year, the events of the
War of the Fourth Coalition The Fourth Coalition fought against Napoleon's French Empire and were defeated in a war spanning 1806–1807. The main coalition partners were Prussia and Russia with Saxony, Sweden, and Great Britain also contributing. Excluding Prussia, s ...
forced Neander to move to
Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...
. There he continued his studies, made himself an expert on Plato and
Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
, and became especially advanced in theology under GJ Planck. The impulse communicated by Schleiermacher was confirmed by Planck, and Neander seems now to have realized that the original investigation of Christian history was to form the great work of his life. Having finished his university course, he returned to Hamburg and passed his examination for the Christian ministry. After an interval of approximately eighteen months, however, he decided on an academic career at
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...
, where two vacancies had occurred in the theological faculty of the university. He became a teacher of theology there in 1811, and became a professor in 1812. In the same year, he published his monograph ''Über den Kaiser Julianus und sein Zeitalter''. The fresh insight into the history of the church evinced by this work drew attention to its author, and even before he had terminated the first year of his academical labours at Heidelberg, he was called to
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, where he was appointed Professor of Theology. His pupils included
Edmond de Pressensé Edmond Dehault de Pressensé (7 January 18248 April 1891) was a French Protestant religious leader. Biography He was born at Paris, and studied at Lausanne under Alexandre Vinet. He went on to the University of Halle as a pupil of Friedrich ...
. In the year following his appointment, he published a second monograph, ''Der Heilige Bernhard und sein Zeitalter'' (Berlin, 1813), and a third in 1818, his work on
Gnosticism Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...
(''Genetische Entwickelung der vornehmsten gnostischen Systeme''). A still more extended and elaborate monograph than either of the preceding followed in 1822, ''Der Heilige Johannes Chrysostomus und die Kirche besonders des Orients in dessen Zeitalter'', and again, in 1824 another on
Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...
(''Antignostikus''). He had in the meantime begun his great work, to which these efforts were only preparatory studies. The first volume of his ''Allgemeine Geschichte der christlichen Religion und Kirche'' embracing the history of the first three centuries made it appearance in 1825. The others followed at intervals—the fifth, which appeared in 1842, bringing down the narrative to the pontificate of Boniface VIII. A posthumous volume edited by CFT Schneider in 1852, carried it on to the period of the council of Basel. Aside from this work, he published in 1832 his ''Geschichte der Pflanzung und Leitung der christlichen Kirche durch die Apostel'', and in 1837 his ''Das Leben Jesu Christi, in seinem geschichilichen Zusammenhang und seiner geschichtlichen Entwickelung'', called forth by the famous ''Das Leben Jesu'' of David Strauss. In addition to all these he published ''Denkwürdigkeiten aus der Geschichte des Christentums'' (1823-1824, 2 vols., 1825, 3 vols., 1846); ''Das Eine und Mannichfaltige des christlichen Lebens'' (1840); papers on
Plotinus Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos'';  – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher wa ...
,
Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...
,
Theobald Thamer Theobald is a Germanic dithematic name, composed from the elements '' theod-'' "people" and ''bald'' "bold". The name arrived in England with the Normans. The name occurs in many spelling variations, including Theudebald, Diepold, Theobalt, Tyba ...
,
Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest ...
,
John Henry Newman John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, academic, intellectual, philosopher, polymath, historian, writer, scholar and poet, first as an Anglican priest and later as a Catholic priest and ...
, Blanco White and
Thomas Arnold Thomas Arnold (13 June 1795 – 12 June 1842) was an English educator and historian. He was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement. As headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841, he introduced several reforms that were wide ...
, and other occasional pieces (''Kleine Gelegenheitsschriften'', 1829), mainly of a practical, exegetical and historical character. Several of his books went through multiple editions and were translated into English. He died in Berlin on 14 July 1850, worn out and nearly blind with incessant study. His grave is preserved in the
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
''Friedhof I der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde'' (Cemetery No. I of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church and New Church) in
Berlin-Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it has b ...
, south of Hallesches Tor. After his death a succession of volumes, representing his various courses of lectures, appeared (1856–1864), in addition to the Lectures on the ''History of Dogma'' (''Theologische Vorlesungen''), admirable in spirit and execution, which were edited by J. L. Jacobi in 1857.


Personal influences


People

Neander's personal influences included his own family. His father did not have a very positive influence in young Neander's life. Shortly after Neander's birth, his mother Esther divorced her husband and moved the whole family to Hamburg. She struggled on a daily basis to support her children financially. As a result, the family experienced a great deal of poverty. However, Neander cherished this period in his life, and described it in endearing terms as “men in all ages who…have been indebted to their pious mothers” for planting the seeds of faith in their hearts. This period in Neander's life had a profound effect on both his personal faith, and his attitude towards life in general. Neander was often described as ‘wide-hearted’, ‘truthful’, ‘sincere’, ‘free from all the stuff of vanity’, ‘affectionate’, ‘innocent and pure of heart’. These personal qualities can be attributed to his mother's influence. To what degree these influences affected the writings of Neander has not yet been established in the literature. Neander felt indebted to his teacher and later his friend and colleague Schleiermacher, of whom similar sentiments are evident in his perceived purpose of recording church history.
“To exhibit the history of the church of Christ, as a living witness of the divine power of Christianity; as a school of Christian experience; a voice, a sounding through the ages, of instruction, of doctrine, and of reproof, for all who are disposed to listen.”
Schleiermacher's attitude towards history influenced that of his student and colleague, which in turn would have also influenced Neander's work.


Biblical conversion from Judaism to Christianity

The conversion of Augustus Neander from Judaism to Christianity was the largest change in his life, and had a heavy impact upon both himself and his writing. Neander, along with his brothers and sisters, followed later by their mother, eventually left the synagogue and embraced Christianity. In his own personal conversion, Neander was especially influenced by the Apostle John, due to the similarity in the sentiment of John's writings to that of Neander's beloved Plato. Neander's conversion has often been likened to the conversion of Saint Paul of Tarsus. While his transition from Judaism to Christianity was far less abrupt than that of his predecessor, he is thought to resemble the Apostle Paul in other ways. Neander's purity of motive, the strength of his conviction, his devotion to Christianity, and his similar zeal for freedom from a life of legalism are all aspects of Paul's character that are reflected in the character of Neander. His conversion had a profound impact on his work and gave rise to an incredible conviction of the importance of faith, and is also considered to be one of the most sincere and intelligent events of his life. The impact that it had on both his person and his work was evident in his passion for the Lord, his relationship with his students, and his attitude towards church history.


Church history

In his ''General History of the Christian Religion and Church'' (''Allgemeine Geschichte der christlichen Religion und Kirche'') his chief aim was for everyone to understand what was individual in history. In the principal figures of ecclesiastical history he tried to depict the representative tendencies of each age, and also the types of the essential tendencies of human nature generally. His guiding principle in dealing both with the history and with the present condition of the church was "that Christianity has room for the various tendencies of human nature, and aims at permeating and glorifying them all; that according to the divine plan these various tendencies are to occur successively and simultaneously and to counterbalance each other, so that the freedom and variety of the development of the spiritual life ought not to be forced into a single dogmatic form" (
Otto Pfleiderer Otto Pfleiderer (1 September 1839 – 18 July 1908) was a German Protestant theologian. Through his writings and his lectures, he became known as one of the most influential representatives of liberal theology. Biography Pfleiderer was born at S ...
).


References


External links

Works Archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neander, August 1789 births 1850 deaths 19th-century German Protestant theologians German historians of religion Historians of Christianity Christian Hebraists German people of Jewish descent German Protestants Heidelberg University faculty Humboldt University of Berlin faculty University of Halle alumni Writers from Göttingen People from the Electorate of Hanover Writers from Hamburg German male non-fiction writers 19th-century male writers Messianic Jews