Leben heiliger seelen

Leben heiliger seelen - Gerhard Tersteegen

Gerhard Tersteegen (November 25, 1697 – April 3, 1769), was a German Reformed religious writer.

He was born at Moers, at that time the capital of a countship belonging to the house of Orange-Nassau (it fell to Prussia in 1702), which formed a Protestant enclave in the midst of a Roman Catholic country.[1]

After being educated at the gymnasium of his native town, Tersteegen was for some years apprenticed to a merchant. He soon came under the influence of Wilhelm Hoffman, a pietistic revivalist, and devoted himself to writing and public speaking, withdrawing in 1728 from all secular pursuits and giving himself entirely to religious work.

He also had a great influence on radical Pietism.

His writings include a collection of hymns (Das geistliche Blumengartlein [The spiritual flower-garden], 1729; new edition, Stuttgart, 1868), a volume of Gebete (prayers), and another of Briefe (letters), besides translations of the writings of the French mystics and of Julian of Norwich. He died in Mülheim, North Rhine-Westphalia.