Johann Franz Christoph Steinmetz

Johann Franz Christoph Steinmetz (born January 21, 1730 in Landau , † December 14, 1791 in Arolsen ) was a German Protestant theologian .

Life

Steinmetz, the son of a preacher, had attended the school in his birthplace and was sent to Halle at the age of ten to further his education in the local orphanage . The uniformity and the compulsion in that educational institution were nevertheless so oppressive for him that he once made the decision and carried out with youthful vivacity to escape the educational institution by fleeing. But they found him again and brought him back.

At the age of 16 he began studying theology at the University of Halle . He owed most of his scientific education to Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten . Through him he got used to a regular way of thinking and precision in expression, without fearful adherence to the method peculiar to that systematic theologian of wanting to demonstrate and distinguish everything. Through Baumgarten he came to a critical treatment of theology and was stimulated to do his own research.

After completing his academic career, his limited financial circumstances forced him to accept the position of city teacher in Arolsen in 1750. He taught sixty to seventy children five hours a day and had to spend the same amount of time on private lessons. A trip undertaken in 1761 to collect donations in Frankfurt am Main , Mainz , Cologne , Dusseldorf and other places for the building of the Protestant town church in Arolsen was important for his further life .

The acquaintances he made on this trip gave him the position of field preacher in the first Waldeck Regiment in Holland in 1755, whose love and respect he earned through his education and his moral way of life. He lived in these circumstances for six years, during which time he became familiar with French literature. In 1763 stonemason became a preacher in Helsen , while at the same time he had to administer the office of court preacher in Arolsen.

As a result, he became acquainted with the princely family, who appointed him the real court preacher in Arolsen in 1763 and consistorial councilor in 1768. After turning down some lucrative offers, he was appointed superintendent in 1780 and superintendent general of Waldeck- Pyrmont in 1790 . In old age he felt the decrease in his strength. From the age of sixty-two he suffered frequent dizziness and severe headaches. A heart attack ended his life.

Act

Steinmetz had educated himself early on through a thorough study of the older languages, which as a theologian he believed he could not do without. History, geography, and French literature were the subjects to which he devoted his leisure hours, without losing sight of his major, theology and especially homiletics. The examination of candidates for the preaching office, which he was responsible for as a spiritual Ephorus, had compelled him to keep pace with his age in learned theology. He did not necessarily agree with all newer religious views, but neither was he caught up in the orthodoxy of the old. Before confronting new views, he must have convinced himself of their correctness through his own thought.

Tolerance against dissenters was his guiding principle, which saved him from any undesirable development with the Reformed and Catholic communities in Arolsen. Knowledgeable about rhetoric, he did not cling to dry dogmatics and inflated mysticism. The writings of John Tillotson (1630–1690) and Jaques Saurin (1677–1730) provided the basis for his pulpit speeches, which could also be supplemented by a thorough study of philosophy with other materials. The collection, which he had printed in 1771, contains only a small part of his pulpit lectures. Logical arrangement, energy of language and striking images and parables can be seen in those sermons. He was animated by a keen zeal to work for the spiritual and moral improvement of the people.

His changeful living conditions had made him indulgent in judging people and their mistakes and weaknesses. But this mild judgment never degenerated into indulgence against recognized injustice. Without fear of man, he confronted the harmful prejudices of his time. He used his influence to support the poor and the needy, as he could do little in this regard with his own resources. Steinmetz achieved great merits as a teacher of his community and as head of the clergy. He took appropriate measures to improve worship and to abolish some useless or disadvantageous customs. In addition to the usual Sunday doctrine of the catechism, he held a biblical catechetics during the week in which he explained the most important passages of the New Testament to children. As a result of his efforts, a synod held in Waldecki succeeded in abolishing the formula of concord , which had previously been included in the symbolic books there and to which the clergy had to be obliged.

He also caused a mere handshake to replace the ordinary oath on the symbolic books of the Lutheran Church. He did his greatest service to improve the liturgy in order to put a stop to the increasing indifference to public devotionals. After giving a Latin speech at the Synod in Korbach on the need for an improved liturgy, he changed the ordination ceremony for the preachers with the permission of the Consistory. He tried to make it more edifying and more adapted to the spirit of the age. With great success he submitted to the publication of a new hymn book, which appeared in print in 1790 and, in addition to several appropriately modified songs, also contained some that he had composed himself.

Works

• Sermon about the death of Prince Carl von Waldeck, along with news of his last hours. Mengeringhausen 1763 (also printed in the script: Strange deathbeds of three high generals, some of them princely persons. Halle 1765).
• Collection of some sermons. Mengeringhausen 1771.
• The conversion of a Jewish family to Christ; plus an appendix. Mengeringhausen 1772.
• David's prayer Ps. 51, 12-14, explained in a sermon. Mengeringhausen 1777.
• What we have to do, and immediately also to consider, so that we do not annoy and aggravate the youth; a sermon on Matth. 18, 1-11. Mengeringhausen 1781.
• Sermon on Ps. 26: 8; held at the inauguration of the town church in Arolsen. Mengeringhausen 1787.
• New Waldeck hymnbook for public and domestic worship. Mengeringhausen 1790.

literature

• Paul Tschackert :  Steinmetz, Johann Franz Christoph . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 36, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, p. 5 f.
• Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Verlag Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, 1835, Neustadt an der Orla, Vol. 4, p. 353, ( online ).
• Louis Friedrich Christian Curtze: History of the Protestant church constitution in the principality of Waldeck. Speyersche Buchhandlung, Arolsen, 1850, ( online ).
• Johann Georg Meusel : Lexicon of the German writers who died from 1750 to 1800. Gerhard Fleischer d. J., Leipzig 1813, ( online ).
• Friedrich Karl Gottlob Hirsching : Historical literary handbook of famous and memorable people who lived in the eighteenth century. Verlag Schwickert, Leipzig 1809, Vol. 13, p. 269, ( online ).
• Gottfried Lebrecht Richter: General biographical lexicon of old and new sacred song poets. Verlag Gottfried Martini, Leipzig 1804, p. 388, ( online ).
• Friedrich von Schlichtegroll : Nekrolog on the year 1791. Verlag Justus Perthes, Gotha 1793, 2nd year, 2nd volume, p. 249, ( online ).