Johann Friedrich Esaias Steffens

Johann Friedrich Esaias Steffens (born January 19, 1716 in Wippra , † June 24, 1802 in Stade ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian.

Life

The son of a bailiff received private lessons in his parents' house and then attended school in the imperial city of Nordhausen . He became a pupil of the schools in Schöningen and Stollberg / Erzgeb. Equipped with thorough previous knowledge, but only poorly supported by his poor parents, Steffens began his academic career in 1735 at the University of Göttingen . Initially, he wanted the law to study, but soon switched to theology.

Christoph August Heumann became his main teacher in the areas of exegesis and church and literary history , Joachim Oporin in dogmatics and ethics, Magnus Crusius in homiletics . He heard philosophical lectures from Gottlieb Samuel Treuer (1683–1743), Johann Friedrich Jacobi (1712–1791) and Samuel Christian Hollmann , while Johann Friedrich Cotta and Andreas Georg Wähner taught him the older, especially the oriental, languages.

After completing his academic career, Steffens was briefly a private tutor in Hesse, was fourth school teacher in Celle in 1740 and vice-principal there in 1743. In 1749 he followed a call to Stade as a deacon at the St. Wilhadikirche , in 1751 he became senior and first pastor at the St. Cosmae and Damianikirche and in 1780 senior of the consistory of the General Diocese of Bremen-Verden . He administered these offices until his death at the age of 87. The educated theologian was a popular pulpit speaker.

Works

• Treatise on the fear of God, which is clearly expressed in religious disputes. 1741
• Diss. Epist de Montanismo et ecclesiae et reipublicae olim peste. 1743
• Of the benefits of pagan writers in Christian schools; a program. Celle 1746
• Of the old writing skills; a program. Celle 1749
• Parentation to Mr. Schuder. Stade 1751
• Moses Lowman's Treatise on the Civil Government of the Israelites, translated from English, with annotations. Hamburg 1755
• Joh. Chapman's Eusebius, who claims the good cause of Christianity, from Jos. Hallet's Treatise on the Immorality of the Moral Wise Men. Hamburg 1759–1761 2nd parts
• Drafts of his sermons from 1768 and 1769. Hamburg 1769
• F. L Norden's description of his journey through Egypt and Nubia, with notes by D. Tempelmann, translated into German from the English edition, and provided with a preliminary report. Wroclaw 1779
• Holy conversations of devout Christians with God. Stade 1782
• A treatise on the wisdom of divine providence under the protection of the persecuting Luther. Stade 1784

literature

• Georg Christoph Hamberger , Johann Georg Meusel : The learned Teutschland or lexicon of the now living German writers. Mayerische Buchhandlung, Lemgo, Fifth Edition, 1798, 7th volume, p. 624, ( online )
• 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. 333, ( online ); 1803, vol. 10, p. 705, ( online )
• Paul Tschackert :  Steffens, Johann Friedrich Esaias . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 35, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, p. 559.