Johann Tennhardt

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Johann (es) Tennhardt (also Tennhart ; born June 2, 1661 in Dobergast (Saxony); † September 12, 1720 in Kassel ) was an inspired visionary .

The farmer's son Tennhardt became a barber and wig maker after attending the Zeitz Princely School, which ended prematurely . Early inclination towards mystical and edifying writings ( Johannes Tauler , Johann Arndt , Pierre Poiret ) and first visionary experiences as early as adolescence should determine his later path. In 1688 he settled in Nuremberg , where he married a wealthy bourgeois daughter in 1691. The early death of his wife in 1695 led to a prolonged crisis in the course of which he gave up his profession as a wig maker (with the biblical justification 1 Cor 11.4-7  EU ) with increasing loss of his property.

His “vocation experience”, which he himself dated to 1704, subsequently led to the comprehensive written fixation of his visionary new revelations as a “chancellery list” of divine “dictation words”, in treatises and letters.

His criticism of the ruling orthodoxy and its “mouth Christianity” is sharp. Tennhardt's criticism of the orthodox teaching structure extended to content such as child baptism , rejection of the real presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper and the rejection of justification " solely from faith " (in favor of ascetic practice and the resulting opening to the "inner word of God"). Nonetheless, the sharpness of the dispute about Tennhardt can be explained more by his criticism of the lukewarm and self-righteous conduct of office by large parts of the Orthodox clergy - an accusation with which Tennhardt was not alone in the outdated time of Orthodoxy.

In 1710 friends published his autobiographical work God alone shall be the glory , along with a number of first inspirations. After multiple imprisonment and a partial revocation of his claims, after a persistent printing ban in Nuremberg, Tennhardt finally renounced his Nuremberg citizenship and settled in Frankfurt. Here his “warning about unnecessary separation” appeared, a clear demarcation from the factually and spatially close proximity to the inspired, such as Johann Friedrich Rock , or to the growing, almost exclusively separatist inspiration communities . But the deeper reason for this demarcation is probably to be sought in Tennhardt's conviction that he is the only true “instrument” of God.

Later, occasional attempts to portray Tennhardt as the “forerunner” of the “seer” and “visionary theologian” Emanuel Swedenborgs do him too much of the honor. The judgment of Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling may come closer to the reality that Tennhardt was one of those “enthusiasts”, “who meant well, but in their minds there was a very subtle shift, a misunderstood desire for conversion and unreasonable crickets; if she had treated the clergy more sensibly, they would have made less movement ”.

literature

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credentials

  1. ^ Theobald or the enthusiasts, Samtl. Writings, Vol. VI, 1838, p. 23
personal data
SURNAME Tennhardt, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tennhardt, Johannes; Tennhart, Johannes; Tennhart, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German visionary
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1661
PLACE OF BIRTH Dobergast (Saxony)
DATE OF DEATH September 12, 1720
Place of death kassel