Carl Friedrich Adolf Steinkopf

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Carl Friedrich Adolf Steinkopf (born September 7, 1773 in Ludwigsburg , † May 29, 1859 in London ) was a German Protestant clergyman and the initiator of the privileged Württemberg Bible Institute .

Life

The son of the painter Johann Friedrich Steinkopf (1737-1825) studied Protestant theology in Tübingen from 1790 to 1795 after attending the Stuttgart grammar school . He then worked for five years as the secretary of the Christianity Society in Basel. During that time he worked as a private tutor in various families. Through his work in the Christianity Society, he made extensive relationships. B. to Lavater and abroad, especially to England. On the recommendation of the Tübingen faculty, Steinkopf was appointed preacher in 1801 by the German Lutheran Church in the Savoy in London. He took up his new office on the 1st of Advent 1801. In England he deepened the relationships already established from Basel with the Religious Tract Society and the London Mission Society. He transferred his enthusiasm for these new missionary movements to his friend and successor in the secretariat of the Christianity Society, Christian Gottlieb Blumhardt (1779–1838), which indirectly initiated the establishment of the Basel Mission in 1815.

The British and Foreign Bible Society , founded on March 7, 1804, elected Steinkopf, who had successfully pushed for the participation of Baptists, Independents and Quakers, as secretary for foreign countries alongside an episcopal and a Baptist clergyman. In addition, from 1808 to 1819 he held the office of Foreign Secretary of Honor of the Tract Society. These two functions took Steinkopf on three trips (1812, 1815 and 1820) a. a. to Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Holland, France and Switzerland, where Bible societies were established in many places through his initiative. On his journey through France, Switzerland and Germany in 1820, he visited over 40 Bible societies he founded and supported. With funds from the London Bible Society, Steinkopf was responsible for the dissemination of Leander van Eß's Catholic translation of the Bible . In 1825 there was a dispute within the Bible Society over the use of the Apocrypha in the Bible, as a result of which the English Bible Society separated from the continental Bible Societies that allowed the Apocrypha. For this reason, Steinkopf resigned from the Bible Society in 1826, after having renounced his position as Foreign Secretary of Honor at the Tract Society in 1819 due to the abundance of his duties. From 1816 he was a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Steinkopf participated in the establishment of other mild foundations, for example in 1806 in the "Society for needy foreigners" and in 1845 in the foundation of the German hospital in London.

Steinkopf's piety was characterized by space. Confessional questions took a back seat to a faith lived personally and in practice. Steinkopf did his chancellorship until the end of his life. After a serious illness in the winter of 1859 he recovered again, preached on Easter and the following Sundays and then died after a short illness at the age of 86.

Steinkopf was married to an Englishwoman who died in 1851. The marriage remained childless.

Works

  • Travel letters: Europe 1812. Translated, introduced and published on behalf of the German Bible Society. ed. by Ulrich Fick , German Bible Society, Stuttgart 1987.

literature

  • C. Schoell: Court preacher to St. James in London: Karl Friedr. Adolf Steinkopf . In: Leaves for Württemberg Church History . 7th year 1892.
  • Rochus von Liliencron :  Steinkopf, Karl Friedrich Adolf . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 35, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, pp. 739-741.
  • W. Eisenblätter: CFA Steinkopf (1773-1859) - On the English influence on continental Christianity at the time of the revival movement. Dissertation, Zurich 1974.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the Württembergische Bibelgesellschaft on the website of the Württembergische Bibelgesellschaft
  2. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, this representation is based on Rochus von Liliencron:  Steinkopf, Karl Friedrich Adolf . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 35, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, pp. 739-741.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Steinkopf, Carl Friedrich Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steinkopf, Karl Friedrich August Adolf; Steinkopff, Karl Friedrich Adolf; Steinkopf, Charles Frederick Adolphus; Steinkopff, Charles Frederick Adolphus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1773
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigsburg
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1859
Place of death London