Michael Walther the Elder

Michael Walther the Elder

Michael Walther the Elder (born April 6, 1593 in Nuremberg , † February 9, 1662 in Celle ) was a German Lutheran theologian.

Life

Michael Walther the Elder was born the son of the Nuremberg merchant and council member Johann Walter and his wife Magdalena (née Klebsattel, 1570–1651). After losing his father at an early age, his mother wanted him to become a merchant like his father. After he had learned to write and arithmetic, he was sent to Taus in 1603 , where he was supposed to learn the trade. It was found that he was endowed with such good spiritual gifts that he was considered for study. That is why he moved to Hof in 1604 , where he learned the Latin language.

There he also attended grammar school and on February 22, 1610 moved to the University of Wittenberg , where he felt the desire to begin a medical degree. He also attended the lectures of Daniel Sennert, among other things . However, his mother wanted to make a theologian out of him, so he switched to studying theology. At that time, however, you had to complete an undergraduate degree in philosophy. After he had acquired the academic degree of Magister on April 12, 1614 under the dean Johannes Wanckel , he lectured himself and attended lectures at the theological faculty with Leonhard Hutter , Friedrich Balduin , Wolfgang Frantz and Balthasar Meisner .

At Easter 1615 he continued his studies at the University of Gießen with Balthasar Mentzer the Elder . At the end of the year he returned to Wittenberg, where he fell ill the following year, so that he went to Nuremberg to cure. There he also gave lectures at the University of Altdorf and went to the University of Jena at Easter 1617 . There he heard lectures from Johannes Major , Johann Gerhard and Johann Himmel and in the same year received his habilitation as an adjunct at the philosophical faculty.

In 1618 he was offered a position as court preacher to the Duchess Elisabeth of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. For this he was ordained in Jena and took up this position on New Year's Day 1619. The Duke Friedrich Ulrich von Braunschweig transferred him in 1622 as successor to Kaspar Pfaffrad (1562-1622) a position as professor of theology at the state-owned University of Helmstedt . There he received his doctorate in theology the following year. With his Helmstedt faculty colleagues Georg Calixt and Konrad Hornejus , he had a quarrel over theological questions about "strict Lutheranism".

After the duchess's death, Walther went to the court of Count Rudolf Christian of East Friesland in Aurich in 1626 , where he took over the position of court preacher and at the same time became the first general superintendent for East Friesland . In this function he rewrote the East Frisian church order in 1631, which lasted for a long time. From there he rejected theologically honorable appointments from universities and potentates.

Only in 1642 did he move to the court of Duke Friedrich von Braunschweig-Lüneburg as general superintendent in Celle . He became associated with it postularischer coadjutor of the pin Ratzeburg and elect dean of the archbishopric of Bremen . He was active in these functions until the end of his life. His body was buried on March 14, 1662 in Celle.

Act

Walther wrote over 50 theological writings. He is one of the older Protestant Bible Students who, in the spirit of Lutheran orthodoxy , dealt with the critical questions on this subject. His Officina biblica includes a thematic overview of the theological conception of the time. In the first section, Walther deals with the canonical books which he ascribes to the prophets and apostles. In the New Testament, he distinguishes the canonical books of the first order from the canonical books of the second order, which he does not ascribe to the prophets and apostles.

In the second section of the work he goes into the Apocrypha, brings together all the materials available at the time and critically questions the exegetical questions. In his way of working, he adheres to the usual church traditions. The third section of the work deals with the lost sacred books and those he calls forgeries. In general, in his extensive literary work, a harmony of the Old and New Testament must be established, every contradiction in the same must be balanced out and edited accordingly.

family

He married Margaretha in Halberstadt in 1620, the daughter of the Osterwiker city judge Matthias Gleißenberger. Six sons and eight daughters were born in his 42 years of marriage. Of these, a son and five daughters survived him. Of these are known:

1. Michael Walther the Younger
2. Margaretha Walther, married the former lawyer of the city of Ulzen and later lawyer in Celle Conrad Hildebrand
3. Sophia Christina Walther married the Superintendent of Sulingen M. Ernst Christian Philippi
4. Anna Juliana Walther
5. Eleonora Walther
6. Elisabeth Walther

Selection of works

• Introitus ad Psalterii facrarium, sive distincta & succinta…. Helmstedt 1624
• Dissertationum Theologicarum quaternio. Rinteln 1630
• Harmonia Biblica sive Conciliatio lecorum Veteris & Novi Testamenti apparenter sibi contradicentium. Strasbourg 1620, Rostock 1631, Nuremberg 1640, 1654, 1665
• Tractatus de Manna. Accessit disssertatio Teologica de munerbius, quatenus per Conscientam ea liccat dare & accipere? & judicum Theologicum de miserabili excidi Magdeburgensi. Leiden 1633, Rostock 1637
• Officina Biblica, de Scriptura Sacra in Genra, & in specie de libris ejus Canonicis, Apocryphis, deperditis, spuriis. Leipzig 1636, Wittenberg 1668, 1703
• Gemitus columbae Lutheranae. Hamburg 1633

literature

• Rudolf Steinmetz: The general superintendent of Lüneburg-Celle. In: Journal of the Society for Lower Saxony Church History (ZGNKG), 1915, pp. 99–111.
• Johann Karl Fürtegott Schlegel: Church and Reformation history of Northern Germany and the Hanoverian states. Verlag Helwing, Hannover 1829, Volume 2, pp. 482, 554.
• Ernst Ludwig: Theodor Henke: Georg Calixt and his time. Halle 1856, Volume 1, p. 324, Volume 2, Section 1, pp. 37, 57; 2nd section pp. 47, 132, 136
• E. Tilemann: Doctor Michael Walther, the first Lutheran general superintendent in East Friesland . In: Hannoversche Pastoral-Korrespondenz. Year 29, 1901, pp. 249–252, 262–264, 275–277.
• Friedrich Uhlhorn: History of the German Lutheran Church. Dörffling & Franke, Leipzig, 1911, Volume 1, pp. 199, 212
• Johannes Meyer: Church history of Lower Saxony . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1939
• Fritz Roth : Complete evaluations of funeral sermons and personal documents for genealogical and cultural-historical purposes . Self-published, Boppard, Volume 9, pp. 3-4
• Menno Smid: East Frisian Church History. Self-published, 1974, p. 318
• Wolfgang Sommer: Fear of God and Principality. The understanding of the authorities in sermons by Justus Gesenius and Michael Walther. In: Pietism and Modern Times - A yearbook on the history of modern Protestantism. Volume 6 Focus: sovereign and regional church in the 17th century. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1981, ISBN 3-525-55877-5 ; and Wolfgang Sommer: Politics, theology and piety in Lutheranism in the early modern period. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1999, ISBN 3-525-55182-7
• Christian Lippelt: Walther, Michael . In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Dieter Lent u. a. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon: 8th to 18th century . Appelhans, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , pp. 728f.
• Carl Gustav Adolf Siegfried:  Walther, Michael . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 41, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, p. 119 f.
• Walther, Michael, a scholar of God. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 52, Leipzig 1747, column 1856 f.

Web links

• Publications by and about Michael Walther the Elder in VD 17 .
• Works by and about Michael Walther the Elder  in the German Digital Library