ARNOLD, GOTTFRIED

Evangelical mystic and Church historian; b. Annaberg, Saxony, Sept. 5, 1666; d. Perleberg, May 30, 1714. After absorbing pietism from Philipp spener in Dresden, he drifted toward radical spiritualism. In line with the teaching of Abbot Joachim of Floris and Sebastian Franck, his Die erste Liebe (1696) depicted the early Church as a golden period from which subsequent ages fell. His controversial, richly documented Unpartheyischen Kirchenund Ketzerhistorie (1699), though announcing the principle of impartiality, virtually presented the heretics, especially the mystics, as the true Christians. In it Church and piety, dogma and experience are considered incompatible; Church history becomes the history of regenerate men. This subjective emphasis anticipated the idealistic principle that history is the education of mankind; it influenced the historiography of the Enlightenment (Johann Semler, Johann Lorenz von Mosheim), of Johann Gottfried von Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Walther Koehler. Subsequently moderating his religious views, he settled down as a pastor in Allstedt (1702) and Werben (1704), and as superintendent in Perleberg (1707). He was a prolific author of historical works, devotional treatises, and hymns; translator of Miguel de Molinos and Mme. Jeanne Guyon; and editor of Angelus Silesius.

Bibliography: Gottfried Arnold, ed. e. seeberg (Munich 1934), excerpts. e. seeberg, G. Arnold, die Wissenschaft und die Mystik seiner Zeit (Meerane, Germany 1923). w. nigg, Das Buch der Ketzer (Zurich 1949). e. hirsch, Geschichte der neuern evangelischen Theologie, 5 v. (Gütersloh 1949–54; rep. 1960) v.2. b. heurtebize, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant, 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables générales 1951–) 1.2:1987. m. schmidt, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 7 v. (3rd ed. Tübingen 1957–65) 1:633–634. e. w. zeeden, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 1:896.

[r. h. fischer]