Introduction
Introduction
Johann Gerhard was born in 1582 in the medieval city of Quedlinburg, Saxony, located seventy-five miles west of Wittenberg and just north of the Harz mountains. His parents were distinguished citizens of Quedlinburg, involved in local politics and the lives of their children.1 Gerhard received a quality education, studying medicine at the University of Wittenberg and theology at the University of Jena. He was appointed professor of theology at the University of Jena in 1616 and served there until his death in 1637. Although Gerhard is best known for his dogmatic and apologetic writings, especially his impressive Theological Commonplaces (1610–22), he also wrote a number of practical theological works that took the faith taught in the classroom and proclaimed from the pulpit into the homes and lives of believers.2
Johann Gerhard’s world of seventeenth-century Lutheranism is usually described by church historians in terms of two significant theological movements that emerged on the eve of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) and matured amidst that war’s brutality and devastation.3 The first theological group, the pietists, is described as embracing a warm and liberating devotion concerned with the practical matters of faith and the cultivation of piety. The second theological group, the dogmaticians, is alternatively described as embracing a cold and lifeless orthodoxy concerned with the believer’s intellectual assent to pure teaching or doctrine.4 These straightforward distinctions between those concerned with piety and those with doctrine fail to capture a figure like Gerhard. For example, Gerhard’s childhood pastor, Johann Arndt (1555–1621), considered by some the father of German pietism and whose True Christianity was the most widely read and published work of the seventeenth century, was also stubbornly orthodox and suffered social persecution from his Calvinist duke for his confessional stance on Lutheran matters of faith and liturgy.5 Johann Gerhard, the most significant dogmatician of his day and the authoritative voice of seventeenth-century Lutheran Orthodoxy, published numerous devotional works and meditations on piety, such as Sacred Meditations (1606), Handbook of Consolations (1611), and Schola Pietatis (1622–23). Although Arndt and Gerhard were not always in theological agreement and present for us differing views of confessional Lutheranism, they both demonstrate that piety and dogmatic theology were not separate ventures in their lives or publications.6 Indeed, it was Arndt’s pastoral care that led Gerhard to pursue the study of theology.7
What makes a figure like Johann Gerhard compelling and, in some sense, unique, is his ability to move freely from the rigor of the classroom lecture to the simplicity of the preached word, from the arena of polemical and ecclesial debate to the bedside of a sick and dying friend without compromising his theological commitments. In this sense, the devotional works by Gerhard the pastor do not compete with the dogmatic works by Gerhard the professor but rather show the complementary concerns of Gerhard the theologian. No matter the literary or ecclesial setting, his concern is always the same: proclaiming the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of all people. Although true of other writers from the seventeenth century, it is especially the case with Gerhard that we risk misunderstanding him if we isolate or privilege one aspect of his theological labor over that of another.8 If Gerhard’s concern was to express faithfully the truth of scripture in his writings and sermons and if he understood his expression of that truth to be the same in terms of content, albeit different in style and delivery, any privileging of one type of work, either dogmatic or devotional, diminishes our understanding of him and, in the end, presents an incomplete picture of Gerhard the theologian. For this reason, we should not hesitate to read the Handbook alongside the Theological Commonplaces and hear the voice of Gerhard the theologian as he instructs and comforts us with the truth of scripture.
Handbook of Consolations
Johann Gerhard’s Handbook belongs to a larger body of Christian devotional writings referred to by scholars as ars moriendi, art of dying, literature. These works sought to provide practical encouragements for those approaching death and those attending to the sick and dying. This literature emerges in the fifteenth century amidst the economic and social unrest caused by plague, disease, famine, and war. Life was fragile and uncertain and a need existed to comfort the young and old as they prepared to exit this life for the next.9 During the Reformation, Martin Luther directed his attention to this popular literature and made it a part of his reform efforts.10 He sought to correct the false views of Christ’s saving work and “the uncertainty of salvation” taught in the fifteenth-century literature.11 Luther directed people struggling with sickness or the approach of death to the comfort and certainty of Jesus Christ’s saving work for them. In 1531, as he looked back on his decade and a half of reforming efforts, Luther wrote, “Now it has come, praise God, to this: men and women, young and old, know the catechism. They know how to believe, live, pray, suffer, and die.”12 Here we see that for Luther the Reformation was not just about doctrine and the content of the faith but also about faithful dying and therefore faithful living. Such faithful living, praying, suffering, and dying, however, could only come about by preaching and teaching the purity of the Gospel and its peace and joy that passes all human understanding. When people know that they are justified by grace through faith in Christ alone, they can approach death with confident hope and assurance in God’s promise of salvation in Christ for them. Moreover, for Luther, when people know what it means to die in faith, clinging to Christ alone as Redeemer and Justifier, they know what it means to live, pray, and suffer faithfully.
Following Luther, many of his disciples and colleagues continued to publish sermons and handbooks seeking to console and comfort the sick and dying.13 Particularly successful was Johann Spangenberg, pastor of Nordhausen, a town roughly one hour south of Gerhard’s hometown of Quedlinburg through the Harz mountains, who published a Booklet of Comfort for the Sick and on the Christian Knight.14 This booklet was reprinted sixteen times from 1542 to 1597. Spangenberg was friends with Luther and was called to the city of Nordhausen in 1524 to introduce Luther’s reforms.15 For the next twenty-two years, Spangenberg introduced the Reformation through preaching, teaching, and writing. He reorganized and strengthened the local school system and dedicated his Booklet of Comfort to his students. Life was as fragile and precarious in the sixteenth century as it was in the fifteenth and these pupils would have had an acquaintance with disease and death at a very young age. Spangenberg, therefore, seeks to teach them the art of dying and how to comfort through teaching and prayer those who are sick.16 His advice, as evidenced by the many printings of this booklet, had wide appeal and many thousands of individuals were either brought comfort through Spangenberg’s work or sought to give such comfort to their loved ones.
It is this Reformation tradition of applying the comfort of the Gospel to the practical concerns of Christian living and dying that Johann Gerhard continues in his own Handbook of Consolations. In this little work, Gerhard brings together his extensive understanding of scripture, theology, and church history in a practical and easy-to-understand manual of comfort for those who are sick and dying. As Gerhard tells us in the preface to the work, he had recently published a meditation on the suffering and death of Christ. This Handbook would complement that work by encouraging readers to reflect on their own death and prepare themselves to not only live but also die according to the Gospel. In the Handbook, Gerhard presents the comfort of the Gospel under the heading of forty-four different temptations or trials. These temptations are presented as a dialogue between the Tempted, who voices the uncertainties that confront believers as they approach the end of their earthly lives, and the Comforter, who responds to these doubts with scripture and theological reflections by the Church Fathers. The goal of the comforter is to encourage the tempted to trust in Christ, his victory over sin and death, and the promise of eternal life for all who believe in him. Here we see the twofold purpose of Gerhard’s Handbook: it comforts those who struggle with doubt as they approach death, and it provides instruction for those who are bedside comforting the sick and dying.
The consolations offered in the Handbook are not only for the reader but also for the author himself. Gerhard had recently endured the death of his newborn son. As he writes the Handbook, he is grieving the loss of his son and praying for his wife whose health is failing. Gerhard finished his work on May 1, 1611. His wife died before the month was over. Gerhard had no reason to think that his life would extend much further than that of his infant son or young wife. He had long been acquainted with the uncertainties of life and the suddenness of life-threatening illnesses. When he was fifteen, a severe illness came upon him that confined him to bed for nearly a year. This was the illness that brought Johann Arndt to his bedside and it was Arndt’s encouragements during this time that prompted the young Gerhard to pursue the study of theology. Gerhard recovered only to fall victim the following year, 1598, to the plague that swept through Quedlinburg, claiming the lives of more than 3,000 men, women, and children. As soon as signs of the illness appeared, Gerhard’s mother gave him a dose of the only antidote thought to work. She immediately sent for a doctor, we are told, who, not knowing what Gerhard’s mother had done, also administered a dose of the antidote. Gerhard recounts in his diary his firm belief that God spared his life through this double dose.17 On Christmas day, 1603, Gerhard became so ill that he prepared his final confession of faith and last will.18 Only after Gerhard’s doctor cut his vein and bled him for three weeks did he regain his strength and recover.19 In addition to his near fatal illnesses of 1598 and 1603, Gerhard suffered severe sicknesses in 1600, 1605, and 1610.20
When Gerhard finished his Handbook in 1611 in a state of mourning over his son and soon to be for his young wife, he had already escaped death numerous times himself. When he tells us in the preface to the Handbook that these consolations were also for him, we are to believe him. Death did not discriminate between the young and old in Gerhard’s world. Life was uncertain. Illness could arrive tomorrow and death soon thereafter. The Handbook, then, provided the comfort of salvation in Christ alone and the assurance of eternal life for both the reader and its author.
Notes on the Text and Translation
The popularity of Gerhard’s Handbook is seen in its numerous printings and translations. First printed in Latin in 1611 subsequent editions of the Handbook appeared in 1613, 1618, and 1622. German translations were produced by Johann Friedrich Schroeder (1611), Christoph Scharschmied (1738), and Carl Julius Boettcher (1877).21 The Handbook also appeared in eight other European languages throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: English (1614, 1623), Czech (1616), Danish (1619), French (1628, 1637, 1654), Icelandic (1656), Swedish (1679, 1702, 1776), Hungarian (1742), and Russian (1783, 1784).22 In 1997 an English paraphrase was prepared by John Drickhamer based on Boettcher’s German translation of 1877.23 The present translation is the first complete English translation based on Gerhard’s original Latin since the seventeenth century. The critical edition used for the translation was prepared by Matthias Richter and published by Frommann-holzboog in 2002.24
A few liberties have been taken in the translation of Gerhard’s text. The paragraph divisions are, for the most part, mine. The critical edition does not divide the text according to paragraphs. Although Gerhard only occasionally names the Church Father he is quoting, I have, for the sake of clarity, inserted the name of the Church Father into the text when introducing Gerhard’s quote. Gerhard also uses Greek and Hebrew in his text, often in a manner that is redundant. Occasionally he will quote the Greek Fathers, like Basil of Caesarea or Gregory of Nazianzus, in Greek. If Gerhard’s use of Greek or Hebrew is significant, I have indicated it in the notes but have avoided putting it in the main text.
Gerhard’s use of the early and medieval Church Fathers is extensive. To assist the reader, I have provided a reference to both the Latin/Greek text of the Church Father and to an English translation of the text when available. Richter’s critical edition has been especially helpful in locating Gerhard’s quote in the works of the Fathers. Some of his references, however, are not correct and therefore my notes depart from his in places. For assistance in identifying the many abbreviations used in the footnotes for the Church Fathers, consult the Abbreviations page at the front of this volume.
Although Gerhard’s scripture references have been translated from his Latin, I have, when possible, conformed to the language of the English Standard Version (Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers, 2001). When scripture is quoted, I have put the text in italics. I have done this so that the reader will see when Gerhard is speaking in his own words or when he is using the words of scripture to make his point. Gerhard, however, is much freer in his rendering of scripture than a strict translation of the Hebrew or Greek would normally allow. For example, he does not hesitate to alter the pronoun or the person and number of the verb to fit the context of his dialogue. In all cases, I have retained Gerhard’s rendering of scripture.
I would like to express my gratitude to Frommann-holzboog for permission to use the critical edition of Gerhard’s Handbook prepared by Matthias Richter. I would like to thank my editor, Jim Tedrick, for his interest in this project. I would like to thank Dr. Gerald Bray for his assistance with a number of difficult passages in the Handbook. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Julie, for her careful editing of the translation and encouragement throughout the project.
Birmingham, Alabama
Lent 2009
1. Erdmann Rudolph Fischer, The Life of John Gerhard, trans. Richard Dinda and Elmer Hohle (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2001), 14–17.
2. Gerhard’s sixteen-volume dogmatic work, the Loci Theologici (1610–22), or Theological Commonplaces, is presently being published for the first time in English by Concordia Publishing House. Two volumes have appeared: Theological Commonplaces, vol. 1: On the Nature of Theology and Scripture, trans. Richard Dinda (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2006) and Theological Commonplaces, vol 2: On the Nature of God and the Trinity, trans. Richard Dinda (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2007).
3. During the Thirty Years’ War, Gerhard suffered repeated assaults and threats on his life. His biographer, Erdmann Rudolph Fischer, recounts numerous attempts by those in sympathy with Rome to abduct Gerhard. Fisher also details the repeated destruction of Gerhard’s property and goods during the war. See, Fischer, Life of John Gerhard, 141–42 and 146–47.
4. For this overly simplified contrast, see The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), 1089; The New Westminster Dictionary of Spirituality (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 416. For many other examples, see Carter Lindberg, “Introduction,” The Pietist Theologians (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 6.
5. Normally Philip Spener is dubbed the father of German pietism. For alternative interpretations, see F. Ernest Stoeffler, The Rise of Evangelical Pietism (Leiden: Brill, 1965), 202–03; Johannes Wallmann, Philipp Jakob Spener und die Anfänge des Pietismus (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1970), 14; Heiko Oberman, “Preface,” Johann Arndt: True Christianity, trans. Peter Erb (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1978), xiii. On Arndt’s refusal to change the Lutheran liturgy, see Bodo Nischan, “The Exorcism Controversy and Baptism in the Late Reformation,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 18 (1987): 31–50.
6. Arndt’s deep and lasting influence on Gerhard should not be overlooked. Cf. Robert Preus, The Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism, (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1970), vol. 1, 52–53. It should also be noted that Gerhard remained loyal to Arndt and supportive of him despite the many charges of unorthodoxy brought against him. See, for example, the letters from Gerhard to Arndt and to Nicholas Hunnius appended to Fischer, The Life of John Gerhard, 416–19 and 425–27.
7. Fischer, The Life of John Gerhard, 22.
8. On this particular problem in Gerhard studies, see the review of literature in Johann Anselm Steiger, “Pastoral Care according to Johann Gerhard,” Lutheran Quarterly 10:3 (1996): 319–21. See also, Johann Anselm Steiger, Johann Gerhard (1382—1637): Studien zu Theologie und Frömmigkeit des Kirchenvaters der lutherischen Orthodoxie, (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Germany: Frommann-holzboog, 1997). Steiger has published a great deal of work that seeks to correct our understanding of Gerhard and seventeenth-century Lutheranism.
9. For a good introduction to this literature and its development from the fifteenth century to the sixteenth, see Austra Reinis, Reforming the Art of Dying: The Ars Moriendi in the German Reformation (1519–1528) (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2007).
10. Many of these early works are collected in LW 42: A Meditation on Christ’s Suffering (1519); A Sermon on Preparing to Die (1519); Fourteen Consolations (1520); Comfort When Facing Grave Temptations (1521). In 1545 and 1547 two of Luther’s colleagues published selections from his writings and sermons that offered comfort to the dying and those facing spiritual anxiety. See, Caspar Cruciger, ed., Etliche Trostschriften vnd Predigten fu[set umlaut over u]r die, sie in Todes vnd ander Not vnd anfechtung sind (Wittenberg: Creutzer, 1545); Georg Ro[set umlaut over o]rer, ed., Vieler schoenen Spruche aus Goettlicher Schrifft auslegung, daraus Lere vnd Trost zu nemen, Welche der ehrnwirdige Herr Doctor Martin Luther seliger, vielen in jre Biblien geschrieben (Wittenberg: Lufft, 1547). Both of these works are discussed in Robert Kolb, For all the Saints: Changing Perceptions of Martyrdom and Sainthood in the Lutheran Reformation (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1987), 129.
11. Austra Reinis, Reforming the Art of Dying, 246.
12. “Luther’s Warning to His Dear German People,” LW 47:52; quoted in Robert Kolb, “Introduction,” A Booklet of Comfort for the Sick & On the Christian Knight by Johann Spangenberg, trans. Robert Kolb (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2007), 9.
13. Austra Reinis, Reforming the Art of Dying, 83–242. Reinis discusses the works of fourteen different theologians from 1521–28 who published sermons, handbooks, or instructions for the sick and dying.
14. Johann Spangenberg, A Booklet of Comfort for the Sick & On the Christian Knight, trans. Robert Kolb (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2007).
15. Kolb, “Introduction,” A Booklet of Comfort, 11–13.
16. Kolb, “Introduction,” A Booklet of Comfort, 19–20.
17. Fischer, Life of John Gerhard, 25, n. 6.
18. For Gerhard’s confession and will, see Fischer, Life of John Gerhard, 33–40.
19. Fischer, Life of John Gerhard, 40.
20. Fischer, Life of John Gerhard, 139.
21. Johann Schroeder is one of the few people named by Gerhard in his preface to the Handbook. See the preface to the Handbook below.
22. For the publishing history of Gerhard’s Handbook, see Johann Gerhard, Enchiridion Consolatorium (1611), ed. Matthias Richter, two volumes (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-holzboog, 2002) 2:368–76.
23. John Gerhard, Manual of Comfort: Especially for the Severely Ill, trans. and abridged by John M. Drickhamer (New Haven, MO: Christian News, 1997).
24. Johann Gerhard, Enchiridion Consolatorium (1611), ed. Matthias Richter, two volumes (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-holzboog, 2002).