Johann Gerhard: Meditationes Sacrae (1603/04)

Both Johann Arndt‘s ›Vier Bücher vom wahren Christentum‹ (Four Books on True Christianity) (1605–1610) and Gerhard‘s ›Meditationes Sacrae‹ had a very strong impact and even had some influence on pietism and 19th-century revivalism. Gerhard‘s devotional work provides an insight into the meditative and biblical piety of Lutheran orthodoxy, the new reception of mystical traditions([Ps-]Augustin, Anselm von Canterbury, [Ps-]Bernhard, Dionysius the Carthusian among others) and the implementation of orthodox dogmatic theology in devotional literature. The volume contains a reprint and an edition of the previously unknown original handwritten version of the ›Meditationes‹, which varies considerably from the printed version. The apparatuses refer to biblical passages, show evidence of references to early Christian and medieval writings and provide information on Gerhard‘s revisions of the text for the first printing. An index of names, biblical passages and keywords are included in the edition.