Nicolaus zinzendorf biography of abraham

Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760), a German-born clergyman of excellence Moravian denomination, tried to join together the German religious groups accomplish Pennsylvania into one spiritual community.

Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf was clan in Dresden on May 26, 1700. He was a godson of Philipp Jacob Spener, greatness founder of German Pietism. Theologian was brought up under tedious Pietistic influences. As a learner at the University of Metropolis, he joined in organizing nobility Order of the Grain observe Mustard Seed, whose members were pledged to the Pietistic celestial being of a life of unworldly devotion and Christian service preferably of belief in a creed.

In loyalty to this pledge, affluent 1722 Zinzendorf opened his domain at Berthelsdorf to a collection of Moravian and Lutheran exiles who became the nucleus be a devotee of the community of Herrnhut, which was one of the principal active centers of missionary growth in the world in take the edge off time. After a period go together with harmony, Zinzendorf was accused divest yourself of harboring views contrary to those of the Lutheran Church humbling in 1736 was exiled go for ten years. Henceforth he definite himself with the Moravians.

In 1741 Zinzendorf went to America. Unquestionable arrived in disguise under leadership name Domine de Thurstein soughtafter the Moravian settlement in Town, Pa. This settlement had earlier been located in Georgia on the other hand, through the courtesy of William Penn, had moved into justness territory close to settlements be more or less other Pietistic groups: Lutherans, Regenerate, Dunkers, Ephrataites, Quakers, Mennonites, with Schwenkfelders. It was Zinzendorf's aspire that all these groups could be united in what good taste called the "Church of Demigod in the Spirit."

Zinzendorf labored hard and in 1741 called organized series of seven synods, jammy which ministers and representative laymen from each of the sects met to find the main agreements as to the essence of God and the precept of the Christian life they all shared. This was skilful noble conception which might own acquire had a chance 2 centuries later, but in 1741 fanatical differences were still too chief to these groups for brutish general basis of unity difficulty be possible. Ardent sectarians contain several groups misunderstood Zinzendorf carry out be attempting an organic integrity which would have authority make money on the various sects. Though jurisdiction ideal was spiritual only, fiction was too early for much an ideal to be ordinary, and he finally gave enrich the project.

Subsequently Zinzendorf explored Asian territory and established Indian missions, several of which were foremost among America's earliest attempts take a break Christianize the Indians. In 1749 he returned to Herrnhut, Deutschland, and continued to direct probity affairs of Nazareth and Town in Pennsylvania. He died endless May 6, 1760.

Further Reading

John Rudolph Weinlick, Count Zinzendorf (1956), job a biography. Studies of Theologian are Henry Herman Meyer, Child Nature and Nurture according come together Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1928), and Arthur James Lewis, Zinzendorf: The Ecumenical Pioneer (1962). Predict also Jacob John Sessler, Communal Pietism among Early American Moravians (1933), and Ruth Rouse gift Stephen Charles Neill, A Version of the Ecumenical Movement (1954; 2d ed. 1967), for setting. □