Johann Heinrich Alting (17 February 1583 – 25 August 1644),

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

, was born at

Emden Emden () is an independent city and seaport in Lower Saxony in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia and, in 2011, had a total population of 51,528. History The exact founding date of ...

, where his father,

Menso Alting Menso Alting (Eelde, 9 November 1541 – Emden, 7 October 1612) was a Dutch Reformed preacher and reformer. Alting was born in Eelde and was raised in a Catholic family. After visiting several schools in the Netherlands and Germany, he st ...

(1541–1612), was minister. Heinrich studied with great success at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...

and the

Herborn Academy The Herborn Academy ( la, Academia Nassauensis) was a Calvinist institution of higher learning in Herborn from 1584 to 1817. The Academy was a centre of encyclopaedic Ramism and the birthplace of both covenant theology and pansophism. Its faculty ...

. In 1608 he was appointed

tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in ...

of Frederick, afterwards elector-palatine, 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 ...

, and in 1612 accompanied him to England. Returning in 1613 to Heidelberg, after the marriage of the elector with Princess Elizabeth of England, he was appointed

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...

tics, and in 1616 director of the theological department in the

Collegium Sapientiae The Collegium Sapientiae (Sapience College; College of Wisdom; ''Sapienzkolleg''; ''Sapienz''; ''Sapienz-Collegium'') was a preparatory academy and later theological seminary in Heidelberg in the early modern period. The ''Collegium Sapientiae'' ...

. In 1618, along with

Abraham Scultetus Abraham Scultetus (24 August 1566 – 24 October 1625) was a German professor of theology, and the court preacher for the Elector of the Palatinate Frederick V. Biography Early life Abraham was born in Grünberg in Schlesien in Silesia (af ...

, he represented the university in the

Synod of Dort The Synod of Dort (also known as the Synod of Dordt or the Synod of Dordrecht) was an international Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618–1619, by the Dutch Reformed Church, to settle a divisive controversy caused by the rise of Arminianism. The ...

. When

Count Tilly Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly ( nl, Johan t'Serclaes Graaf van Tilly; german: Johann t'Serclaes Graf von Tilly; french: Jean t'Serclaes de Tilly ; February 1559 – 30 April 1632) was a field marshal who commanded the Catholic League (Ge ...

took the city of Heidelberg (1622) and handed it over to plunder, Alting found great difficulty in escaping the fury of the soldiers. He first retired to Schorndorf; but, offended by the "semi-

Pelagianism Pelagianism is a Christian theological position that holds that the original sin did not taint human nature and that humans by divine grace have free will to achieve human perfection. Pelagius ( – AD), an ascetic and philosopher from t ...

" of the

Lutherans 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 ...

with whom he was brought in contact, he removed to Holland, where the unfortunate elector and "Winter King" Frederick, in exile after his brief reign in

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

, made him tutor to his eldest son. In 1627, Alting was appointed to the chair of

theology 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 th ...

at the

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of t ...

University, where he continued to lecture, with increasing reputation, until his

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

. Though an orthodox

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...

, Alting laid little stress on the sterner side of his creed and, when at Dort he opposed the

Remonstrants The Remonstrants (or the Remonstrant Brotherhood) is a Protestant movement that had split from the Dutch Reformed Church in the early 17th century. The early Remonstrants supported Jacobus Arminius, and after his death, continued to maintain hi ...

, he did so mainly on the ground that they were "innovators." Alting made a fundamental contribution to the historiography of German Reformed Protestantism with his ''Historia de Ecclesiis Palatinis.''Pierre-Olivier Léchot, “Entre irénisme et controverse. La réécriture historique de la différence confessionnelle chez le théologien palatin Heinrich Alting (1583-1644),” in ''L’expérience de la différence religieuse dans l’Europe moderne (XVIe-XVIIIe siècles)'' (Neuchâtel, Alphil, 2012). Unfortunately the work included the doubtful assertion that Elector Frederick the Pious jointly commissioned

Zacharias Ursinus Zacharias Ursinus (18 July 15346 May 1583) was a sixteenth-century German Reformed theologian and Protestant reformer, born Zacharias Baer in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). He became the leading theologian of the Reformed Protestant movement ...

and

Caspar Olevianus Caspar Olevian (or Kaspar Olevianus; 10 August 1536 – 15 March 1587) was a significant German Reformed theologian during the Protestant Reformation and along with Zacharius Ursinus was said to be co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism. That the ...

to compose the

Heidelberg Catechism The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), one of the Three Forms of Unity, is a Protestant confessional document taking the form of a series of questions and answers, for use in teaching Calvinist Christian doctrine. It was published in 1563 in Heidelberg ...

. This dual authorship thesis has been rejected by serious scholarship since the 1960s but remains common in reference works. While this attribution has been set aside, Alting's work remains an irreplaceable source for reconstructing the history of the Reformation of the Palatinate.Walter Hollweg, “Bearbeitete Caspar Olevianus den deutschen Text zum Heidelberger Katechismus,” in ''Neue Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Lehre des Heidelberger Katechismus'' (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1961), 1:124-52.Lyle Bierma, “The Purpose and Authorship of the Heidelberg Catechism,” in ''An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism: Sources, History, and Theology'' (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 49-74. Among his works are: *''Notae in Decadem Problematum Jacobi Behm'' (Heidelberg, 1618) *''Scripta Theologica Heidelbergensia'' (Amst., 1662) *''Exegesis Augustanae Confessionis'' (Amst., 1647).
''Historia de Ecclesiis Palatinis''
(Groningen, 1728; originally published 1644).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alting, Johann Heinrich 1583 births 1644 deaths Participants in the Synod of Dort Academic staff of the Collegium Sapientiae (Heidelberg) University of Groningen alumni People from Emden German Calvinist and Reformed theologians 17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians 17th-century German Protestant theologians German male non-fiction writers 17th-century German writers 17th-century German male writers