Adriaan Koerbagh

Adriaan Koerbagh (* 1633 in Amsterdam , † October 1669 in Amsterdam; pseudonym Vreederijk Waarmond ) was a Dutch critic of religion and morality.

Life

Koerbagh studied in Utrecht and Leiden . He graduated as a doctor of medicine and also had a degree in law . He was considered one of the most consistent representatives of the Enlightenment by rejecting church and state as unreliable institutions. He criticized the technical language of theologians and lawyers as a means to blind people and thereby enable them to maintain power. By placing reason before dogma , Koerbagh can be described as a free thinker . True science is not theology, but natural science. He also called the Bible the work of man, while God, as with Baruch Spinoza, is in truth equated with nature. Religion is irrational and uses violence to maintain power. He later had to feel this statement by Koerbagh himself when he had to flee to the autonomous Culemborg and finally to Leiden , pursued by the church . He was considered a sharp critic of the Dutch Reformed Church . Betrayed by his printer, Koerbagh was eventually sentenced to ten years in prison, but died under the conditions after just one year. Koerbagh's criticism of church and state was thus appropriate in such a way that it ultimately cost him his life.

Work (selection)

• t Nieuw Woorden-Boeck der Regten (1664)
• Een Bloemhof van allerley lieflijkheyd (1668)
• Een Ligt schynende in duystere plaatsen, om te verligen de voornaamste saaken the Godsgeleerdtheyd en Godsdienst

Individual evidence

1. ^ Frank Mertens through W. van Bunge (2011) "Introduction", M. Wielema " Adriaan Koerbagh. A light shining in dark places, to illuminate the main questions of theology and religion ". Leiden: Brill, p. 1-39.