Johann Gottfried Scheibel

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Johann Gottfried Scheibel
Signature Johann Gottfried Scheibel.PNG

Johann Gottfried Scheibel (born September 16, 1783 in Breslau , Silesia , † March 21, 1843 in Nuremberg , Bavaria ) was a German deacon and later pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran St. Elisabeth Church and professor in Breslau. He is a church father of the Evangelical Lutheran (Old Lutheran) Church in Prussia and its successor, the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church .

Life

Beginnings and studies

Johann Gottfried Scheibel was born in Breslau on September 16, 1783, the only son of Johann Ephraim Scheibel , Rector at the St. Elisabeth Gymnasium in Breslau. He began studying theology at the University of Halle in 1801. With Georg Christian Knapp (1753-1825), the young Scheibel learned biblical dogmatics beyond the Enlightenment and Pietism. During his studies he got into a crisis of faith that was shaped by natural philosophy and the beginning age of romanticism. He sought and lived through the confrontation with the zeitgeist of the time until he came to a confessional Lutheran stance. Here the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper was decisive. However, he first approached the Lutheran conception of the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper through intensive Bible study before he could repeat it for himself. Scheibel also came to the conclusion that a fellowship at the altar with Christians of other denominations than the Lutheran was not possible.

Activity as a theologian

The young academic applied for a teaching post at the Silesian Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in 1811 and was appointed extraordinary professor of theology by the responsible minister of education. In 1818 he became a full professor. With his confessional Lutheran creed, Scheibel stood alone in the university landscape. Rationalism had captured theology and shaped it.

From 1827 Scheibel was a deacon at the Lutheran St. Elisabeth Church, the main church in the city of Wroclaw. He gathered a personal congregation which, due to his preaching style, grew from 115 to about 900 souls. Scheibel is considered to be the revival preacher in Wroclaw. This community later formed the core and the avant-garde of the Lutheran resistance against the introduction of the Prussian Union .

Introduction of the Union

On September 27, 1817, King Friedrich Wilhelm III. from Prussia a request to the consistories, synods and superintendentes of the monarchy, in which he wanted the Evangelical Lutheran Church to unite with the Evangelical Reformed tradition into one church. Even if this appeal caused little response in the parishes, a Lord's Supper was celebrated between Lutherans and Reformed people at the University of Wroclaw . Only Scheibel stayed away from this sacrament celebration. In his sermon on November 2, 1817, he laid out the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper, which was widely used due to the reprint. Because of his Lutheran creed, Scheibel was largely isolated among his university colleagues.

In 1822 the King Friedrich Wilhelm III. elaborated agenda. However, this agend did not initially prevail. There was a dispute over the agenda . Scheibel resolutely denied the Reformed king being allowed to interfere in the internal affairs of the Lutheran Church. Politics should not determine the church. Nevertheless, it was not about breaking away from the sovereign church regiment . He was concerned with the right to self-determination and freedom of religion and conscience in connection with Lutheran worship, confession and church. The Lutheran Church must have the right to be able to live the standards of its confession in its worship services unabridged, self-determined and without state interference. With this argument he provided the basis for the opposition to the Prussian Union and promoted the beginnings of the old Lutheran church becoming.

In 1830 this argument became important for the Lutherans of Silesia due to the nationwide introduction of the Union . His petitions to the king to be allowed to hold communion celebrations according to the Lutheran rite were rejected. Because he did not want to take over the union agenda, he was suspended from his office. The king and the united church authorities hoped that the resistance against the union could be stopped. Scheibel was removed from office in 1832 and expelled from the country as an avowed Lutheran. He found acceptance in Lutheran Saxony, from where he continued the confessional struggle with the means of journalism. In addition, he worked in Dresden as a teacher at the Freiherrlich von Fletcher teacher seminar . This was followed by ten years of persecution of the Old Lutherans by the state in Prussia with the express approval and support of the new uniate regional church. However, others took the place of Scheibel, so that the reorganization of the Lutheran Church in Prussia progressed. In 1838 he was also expelled from Saxony because the Prussian government was exerting pressure. So he found his new home in Nuremberg, Bavaria .

meaning

Scheibel is considered the church father of the Old Lutheran Church because he was committed to the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions in the fight against rationalism and the Protestant Union . It thus occupies an important place in the history of the church in the 19th century, since it pointed the way towards denominational Lutheranism in its time and still points today. Because of his attachment to scripture and Lutheran creeds, he saw himself in opposition to the prevailing spirit of rationalism and the king's claim to absoluteness. To this day Scheibel's deep insight that there is an indissoluble connection between confession , worship and church is groundbreaking.

Johann Gottfried Scheibel and in his entourage the old Lutherans can be seen as champions for freedom of religion and conscience in Germany.

Work (selection)

See also

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Johann Gottfried Scheibel  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Felix Haase : Festschrift for the centenary of the University of Breslau. The literary activity of the Breslau theological faculties from 1811 to 1911. Goerlich & Coch, Breslau 1911, pp. 246–248.
personal data
SURNAME Scheibel, Johann Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lutheran theologian in Germany
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1783
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1843
Place of death Nuremberg , Germany