He was born in the German city ofQuedlinburg. During a dangerous illness, at the age of fourteen he came under the personal influence ofJohann Arndt, author ofDas wahre Christenthum, and resolved to study for the church. He entered theUniversity of Wittenberg in 1599, and studiedphilosophy and theology. A relative then persuaded him to change his subject, and he studied medicine for two years. In 1603, he resumed his theological reading atJena, and in the following year received a new impulse from J.W. Winckelmann and Balthasar Mentzer at Marburg. He graduated in 1605 and began to give lectures at Jena, then in 1606 he accepted the invitation ofJohn Casimir, Duke of Coburg, to the superintendency ofHeldburg and mastership of the gymnasiumCasimirianum Coburg; soon afterwards he became general superintendent of the duchy, in which capacity he was engaged in the practical work of ecclesiastical organization until 1616, when he became the senior theological professor at Jena, where the remainder of his life was spent.[1]
Here, withJohann Major andJohann Himmel, he formed the "Trias Johannea." Though still comparatively young, Gerhard was already regarded as the greatest livingtheologian ofProtestant Germany; in the "disputations" of the period he was always protagonist, and his advice was sought on all public and domestic questions touching on religion or morals. During his lifetime he received repeated calls to almost every university in Germany (e.g.Giessen,Altdorf,Helmstedt,Jena,Wittenberg), as well as toUppsala inSweden. He died inJena.[1]
His writings are numerous, alike inexegetical,polemical,dogmatic and practical theology. To the first category belong theCommentarius in harmoniam historiae evangelicae de passione Christi (1617), theComment, super priorem D. Petri epistolam (1641), and also his commentaries onGenesis (1637) and onDeuteronomy (1658). Of a controversial character are theConfessio Catholica (1633–1637), an extensive work which seeks to prove theevangelical and catholic character of the doctrine of theAugsburg Confession from the writings of approved Roman Catholic authors; and theLoci communes theologici (1610–1622), his principal contribution, in which Lutheranism is expounded "nervose, solide et copiose," in fact with a fulness of learning, a force oflogic and a minuteness of detail that had never before been approached.[1]
TheMeditationes sacrae (1606), a work expressly devoted to the uses of Christian edification, has been frequently reprinted inLatin and has been translated into most of the European languages, includingGreek.[1]
A full listing of printings of Gerhard's works from 1601 to 2002 is in Johann Anselm Steiger, ed.,Bibliographia Gerhardina 1601–2002: Verzeichnis der Druckschriften Johann Gerhards (1582–1637) sowie ihrer Neuausgaben, Übersetzungen und Bearbeitungen (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: frommann-holzboog, 2003).ISBN3-7728-1930-3
Theological Commonplaces: Exegesis, or A More Copious Explanation of Certain Articles of the Christian Religion (1625): On the Nature of Theology and on Scripture, rev. ed., translated by Richard J. Dinda, edited with annotations by Benjamin T. G. Mayes (St. Louis:Concordia Publishing House, 2009).ISBN978-0-7586-1512-1
Theological Commonplaces: Exegesis, or A More Copious Explanation of Certain Articles of the Christian Religion (1625): On the Nature of God and On the Most Holy Mystery of the Trinity, translated by Richard J. Dinda, edited with annotations by Benjamin T. G. Mayes (St. Louis:Concordia Publishing House, 2007).ISBN978-0-7586-0989-2
Theological Commonplaces: Exegesis, or A More Copious Explanation of Certain Articles of the Christian Religion (1625): On the Person and Office of Christ, translated by Richard J. Dinda, edited with annotations by Benjamin T. G. Mayes (St. Louis:Concordia Publishing House, 2009).ISBN978-0-7586-1010-2
An Explanation of the History of the Suffering and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ, translated by Elmer M. Hohle (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 1999).
Glenn K. Fluegge,Johann Gerhard (1582–1637) and the Conceptualization of Theologia at the Threshold of the "Age of Orthodoxy": The Making of the Theologian (Goettingen 2018,ISBN978-3-8469-0300-1)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gerhard, Johann".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This work in turn cites:
