Philipp Jakob Spener: Schriften - Vier Bücher von wahrem Christentum (1610). Buch 1

Johann Arndt (1555–1621) is considered to be one of the most important and distinguished early modern protestant theologians. Arndt’s most successful work by far was Vier Bücher von wahrem Christentum (BWC). The first edition of the first book appeared in 1605, and Arndt frequently and radically revised it for the next three editions until it appeared as part of the first complete edition of all four books in 1610. The work was reprinted hundreds of times and translated into many European and non-European languages, and had a huge international – even global – influence. Here we have a critical edition with commentary of the first book of the BWC. The critical apparatus traces the complex history of the book’s creation and the process of editing, and documents the textual variants in the later editions published during Arndt’s lifetime. The commentary indicates the biblical passages that Arndt references, as well as quotations from ancient pagan, ancient Christian, mediaeval and early modern traditions, and explains lexemes and figures of speech which have fallen out of use, as well as many historical facts. A detailed afterword sets out the editorial principles and provides an introduction to the history of the work. The volume also includes bibliographies of sources and secondary literature and indexes of Bible verses and names.