Johann Valentin Andreae: Band 4: Geistliche Schriften

According to Andreae himself, ›Christlicher Herkules‹ (1615) is a veiled portrait of his friend, the scholarly Tobias Heß, who was suspected of heresy. The text is also a stylistically and motivically highly artificial example of the adaptation of Greek mythology into a Christian context. Johann Arndt’s successful › Vier Bücher vom wahren Christentum‹ (1610) caused conflict with Lutheran orthodoxy when it was published. As a sign of his theological resistance, Andreae, as a follower of Arndt, summarised his teachings aphoristically in two small anonymous writings ›Wahres Christentum‹ (1615) and ›Vergleiche, gezogen aus dem ›Wahren Christentum‹ Johann Arndts‹ (1621). This edition makes the three spiritual writings accessible with an introduction, a translation and numerous annotations.