Nature in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times

Johann Arndt’s Book of Nature: Medieval Ideas During the German Reformation

Thomas Willard

Abstract

Sometimes called the grandfather of German Pietism (“der Großvater des deutschen Pietismus”), Johann Arndt (1555–1621) sought to reduce the doctrinal differences among religious reformers in the German-speaking countries by emphasizing the individual Christian’s approach to God as the creator of nature and humankind. To this end, he turned to elements of medieval mysticism. He prepared his own German editions of the anonymous Theologia Germanica, first published in 1528, and the De Imitatione Christi, ascribed to the Dutch theologian Thomas à Kempis and first printed in 1471/1472, as well as an edition of selected sermons given by the Dominican ...