Christoph Ostorodt

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Christoph Ostorodt , also Krzysztof Ostorodt (* around 1560 in Goslar ; † August 8, 1611 in Buschkau near Danzig ) was a preacher and leading exponent of German-Polish Unitarianism .

life and work

Christoph Ostorodt was born in Goslar around 1560 as the son of a Lutheran preacher. From 1581 he studied in Königsberg , where he first came into contact with Unitarians. After completing his studies, he became the principal of a school in Schlochau in Pomerania (Polish: Człuchów ) not far from the Polish border. In 1585 he finally joined the Polish Brothers ( Ecclesia Minor ), the Unitarian Church in Poland and Lithuania , and was baptized as an adult at the Synod of Chmielnik that same year . Due to his anti-Trinitarian view, he lost his position as rector in Schlochau and then moved to nearby Danzig, where he came into contact with the Unitarian city secretary Matthias Radecke . He later became a preacher in Raków ( Rakau represented), which was then one of the centers of the Polish Unitarians. In 1598 he accompanied the Polish aristocrat Andreas Wojdowski on a trip to the Netherlands, where he was able to win Ernst Soner for Unitarianism. Soner later built up the Unitarian Circle at the University of Altdorf . In the Netherlands he also met representatives of the Anabaptist Mennonites , with whom he agreed on confessional baptism and Christian pacifism . In particular, there was an exchange with Hans de Ries . Later Ostorodt was also in contact with Danzig Mennonites about a possible union of the two churches. However, the Netherlands was also the site of a serious incident when Ostorodt and Wojdowski were detained in Amsterdam in 1598 , expelled by the Dutch Parliament and their books burned . The Reformed theologians Franciscus Gomarus , Franz Junius the Elder and Lucas Trelcatius issued an expert opinion in August 1598 that branded Unitarian literature as blasphemous . These incidents ultimately led to the establishment of the Rakau Academy in 1602 in order not to expose Polish Unitarian students to the risk of possible religious persecution abroad in the future .

In 1604 Ostorodt published his main text, Teaching of the Most Important Main Points of the Christian Religion , which contained an overview of socian theology and which was to become one of the most famous writings of early modern socinianism . The book came out a year before the Rakau Catechism , edited by Valentin Schmalz , among others . In 1605 he took over the Unitarian congregation in Buschkau near Danzig as a preacher. With regard to the practice of faith, Ostorodt took an Anabaptist approach, which had been even more characteristic at the beginning of the Unitarian movement, and came into conflict with Schmalz and other leading representatives of the Polish Brethren. At the church synod in Raków in 1610, at which Schmalz, Johann Völkel , Hieronymus Moskorzowski and Adam Goslaw were present, it became clear that Ostorodt could not assert himself with his positions. Ostorodt, however, stuck to his Unitarian-Anabaptist views. One year after the Synod in Raków, Ostorodt died in Buschkau.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Friedmann: Ostorodt, Christoph (d. 1611) , In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (English)
  2. ↑ Kęstutis Daugirdas: The Beginnings of Socinianism - Genesis and Penetration of the Historical-Ethical Religious Model in the University Discourse of Evangelicals in Europe . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-525-10142-1 , p. 210 ff .
personal data
SURNAME Ostorodt, Christoph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ostorodt, Krzysztof
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Preacher and representative of German-Polish unitarianism
DATE OF BIRTH around 1560
PLACE OF BIRTH Goslar
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1611
Place of death Buschkau near Gdansk