Biography
Johann Arndt was born on December 27, 1555, in Ballenstedt, in the German region of Anhalt. His father was a Lutheran pastor, and the family was devout. As a boy, he was educated in the local schools and was a good student. At the age of about eighteen, he went to the university, first at Helmstedt and then at Wittenberg, Strasbourg and Basel. He first studied medicine but was struck down by a serious illness and, in the course of his recovery, felt a call to theology. He was drawn to the writings of the medieval mystics, such as Thomas à Kempis and Johann Tauler.
He was ordained as a Lutheran pastor in 1583 and served in a number of places. He first took a post at Badeborn, where he was a pastor for several years. He took a firm stand against the use of exorcism in baptism, a custom which the Duke of Anhalt wished to impose, and he was dismissed from his position in 1590. He was a man of principle, who followed his conscience. He moved to Quedlinburg and then to Braunschweig, where he served as the pastor of St. Martin's Church. He later served at Eisleben and, from 1611, as the general superintendent of Celle, in the Duchy of Lüneburg.
He lived in a time when the Lutheran church had become caught up in doctrinal debate, and the life of the church had grown cold. Many pastors devoted their attention to defending the correct teaching, while ordinary people lived in sin. He grieved over this situation. He wrote his masterwork, Vom wahren Christentum, or True Christianity, to call the church back to a living faith. It was published in four books between 1605 and 1610. It set out a vision of the Christian life as a union of the soul with Christ. He taught that faith must bear fruit in a changed life, in repentance and in love.
The book is a work of piety, filled with Scripture and with the thought of the mystics. He stressed the inner life and the need for a new birth. He wrote that true Christianity consists not in knowledge but in a godly life. He used the image of the book of nature and the book of the Bible as two ways in which God makes Himself known. He also set out the idea that the believer is called to imitate Christ. The work was widely read and went through many editions, and it was translated into many languages. It shaped the generation that came after him.
He is often called the father of Lutheran Pietism. His book was a favorite of Philipp Jakob Spener, the founder of Pietism, who took up its themes. It was also read by Johann Sebastian Bach, who had a copy in his library. His teaching reached to the Moravians and the Wesleys. It inspired a movement of spiritual renewal in the German churches and beyond. He also wrote a work of prayer, The Garden of Paradise, which became a classic.
He was criticized in his own time. Some of the orthodox Lutheran theologians charged that he undermined the doctrine of justification by faith and that he leaned too far toward mysticism. They pointed to his use of medieval writers. He replied that he held to the Lutheran confessions, and that he sought only to apply them. The controversy was sharp, and it took a toll on his health. He faced ill health and anxiety in his final years.
He died on May 11, 1621, in Celle, at the age of sixty-five. His book has been read for four centuries. His life shows that doctrinal precision must be joined to a living faith, and that a pastor with a burden may shape the church for generations.