Johannes Andreas Quenstedt (13 August 1617 – 22 May 1688) was a German

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

dogmatician in the Lutheran scholastic tradition. Quenstedt was born at

Quedlinburg Quedlinburg () is a town situated just north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. As an influential and prosperous trading centre during the early Middle Ages, Quedlinburg became a center of in ...

, a nephew of

Johann Gerhard Johannes Gerhard (17 October 1582 – 17 August 1637) was a Lutheran church leader and Lutheran Scholastic theologian during the period of Orthodoxy. Biography He was born in the German city of Quedlinburg. During a dangerous illness, at the ...

. He was educated at the

University of Helmstedt The University of Helmstedt (german: Universität Helmstedt; official Latin name: ''Academia Julia'', "Julius University"), was a university in Helmstedt in the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel that existed from 1576 until 1810. History Founded ...

, 1637–43, and at the

University of Wittenberg Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

, 1644, where afterwards he lectured on geography; was adjunct professor in the philosophical faculty, 1646–49; ordinary professor of logic and metaphysics and associate professor of theology, 1649–60; and ordinary professor of theology, 1660–88 until his death. Quenstedt represents the old orthodox reaction after the period of reconstruction had set in. The fruit of his thirty years of work in the university lectureship was published in the ''Theologia didactico-polemica sive systema theologicum'' (Wittenberg, 1685; Leipzig, 1715), a work according to the strictest standard of

Lutheran orthodoxy Lutheran orthodoxy was an era in the history of Lutheranism, which began in 1580 from the writing of the ''Book of Concord'' and ended at the Age of Enlightenment. Lutheran orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Calvinism and tridentine Rom ...

, based upon the ''Theologia, positiva acroamatica'' of his teacher, Johann Friedrich König, and characterized by external dogmatization instead of a development of the subject from within, and abounding in artful scholastic refinements. Quenstedt was noted among his contemporaries for his mild,

irenic Irenicism in Christian theology refers to attempts to unify Christian apologetical systems by using reason as an essential attribute. The word is derived from the Greek word ''ειρήνη (eirene)'' meaning peace. It is a concept related to a comm ...

spirit and retiring, pious disposition, which is also shown by his ''Ethica pastorum et instructio cathedralis'' (1678), in which he advises to temper severity with gentleness in resisting

heretics Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

, and to distinguish between the tempters and the tempted; warns against pedantry in the pulpit; and recommends the reading of

Johann Arndt Johann Arndt (or Arnd; 27 December 155511 May 1621) was a German Lutheran theologian who wrote several influential books of devotional Christianity. Although reflective of the period of Lutheran Orthodoxy, he is seen as a forerunner of Pietism, a ...

's ''Vom wahren Christenthum''. His other works include the ''Dialogus de patriis illustrium doctrina et scriptis virorum'' (Wittenberg, 1654), and a collection of dissertations, ''Exercitationes de theologia in genere ejusque principio sancta scriptura'' (1677).

Bibliography

*Coors, Michael, ''Scriptura efficax. Die biblisch-dogmatische Grundlegung des theologischen Systems bei Johann Andreas Quenstedt. Ein dogmatischer Beitrag zu Theorie und Auslegung des biblischen Kanons als Heiliger Schrift'' (Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009) (Forschungen zur systematischen und ökumenischen Theologie, 123).

External links

*
Studium Excitare: Biography of Johannes Andreas Quenstedt
by Caleb R. Bassett
Sepultura Veterum
by Johannes Andreas Quenstedt
D. Aegidii Strauchii Astrognosia
by Johannes Andreas Quenstedt
Theologica Didactico-Polemica, ch. 5: De Articuli Fidei, sect. I, q. 5
by Johannes Andreas Quenstedt (in English)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quenstedt, Johannes Andreas 1617 births 1688 deaths People from Quedlinburg 17th-century German Lutheran clergy German Lutheran theologians Clergy from Saxony-Anhalt German male non-fiction writers 17th-century German Protestant theologians 17th-century Latin-language writers 17th-century German writers 17th-century German male writers University of Helmstedt alumni University of Wittenberg alumni Academic staff of the University of Wittenberg