Background
Arnold was born at Annaberg, in Saxony (Germany), where his father was schoolmaster.
historian theologian university professor writer
Arnold was born at Annaberg, in Saxony (Germany), where his father was schoolmaster.
In 1682 he went to the Gymnasium at Gera, and three years later to the University of Wittenberg. His first work, Die Erste Liebe zu Christo, appeared in 1696. lieutenant went through five editions before 1728, and gained the author a high reputation.
In the year after its publication he was invited to Gießen as professor of church history.
The next year he began to publish his largest work, his Unparteyische Kirchenund Ketzer-historie (“Impartial History of the Church and of Heresy,” Frankfurt, 1699–1700), two hefty volumes in which some thought he showed more sympathy towards heresy than towards any established Church, or especially the clergy (cf Otto Pfleiderer, Development of Theology, p 277). This book is described by Tolstoy (The Kingdom of God Is Within You, chap, iii) as “remarkable, although little known.”
In this major revision of church history, Arnold directed his sharpest criticism against those who wrote deeply biased apologetic “orthodox” histories instead of trying to understand where substantial religious differences actually came from.
He thought that the worst calamity in Church history was its establishment as the accepted and orthodox faith by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. He was a thoroughly learned and prominent Pietist Lutheran, with a wide range of influence, and at least in his early career a radical Pietist, vehemently opposed to the unbending ecclesiastical structures of his time.
He disliked academic politics and academic life so much that he resigned in 1698, and returned to Wittenberg. In his view, “heresy making” was usually the defensive reaction of those in authority, rather than a true indictment of unconventional thinkers.