Jerusalem, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm

Jerusalem, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm, a German theologian — one of the best apologetic and practical theologians of the last century, was born at Osnabruck Nov. 22, 1709, and was educated at the Universities of Leipzig and Wittenberg; at the latter he took his master's degree. Disinclined to enter the ministry, for which he had prepared himself, and too young to enter the ranks of academical instructors, he went to the Low Countries, and studied at Leyden, where he enjoyed the counsels of such men as Albert Schultens, Peter Burman, etc. He sought and secured the friendship of the leading minds of the different Christian denominations of Holland, and learned to appreciate men out of the pale of his own band. After his return to his native place, still only twenty-four years old, he received the most flattering offers, one of which was a position at the newly created University of Göttingen, which he inclined to accept. Fearing that he might not be thoroughly prepared, he again set out on a journey, this time to spend a year of further preparatory study in England, more especially at London. He there became acquainted with the master theologians of that age and country. Thomas Sherlock, Daniel Waterland, Samuel Clarke freely admitted the young scholar to their studies, and so interested became he in English theology that he remained there three years and declined to go to Göttingen. In 1740 he returned to Germany, and was appointed tutor and preacher of prince Charles William Ferdinand of Brunswick. In 1743 he was appointed provost of the monasteries of St. Crucis and AEgidi; in 1749 he was made abbot of Marienthal, and in 1752 abbot of the convent of Riddagshausen, a theological training school of the Brunswick ministry, with which he remained associated for two scores of years, and in which he labored earnestly to promote especially the religious spirit of the young preachers. Indeed, so well were his labors performed, that a late biographer of Jerusalem is found to say that in no small measure the religious spirit of Brunswick of our day is due to the work which he performed at this institution. In 1771 he became vice-president of the consistory of Wolfenbuttel. In the latter part of his life he was severely afflicted by the suicide of his son (1775), who had gone to Wetzlar to practice law. Jerusalem died Sept. 2, 1789. His most important work, Betrachtunqen u. d. fornehmsten Warheiten der Religion, written for the instruction of the hereditary prince of Brunswick (Braunsch. 1768-79, 1785, 1795, 2 vols.), has been translated into most European languages. Of his other works, we notice two collections of sermon (Braunsch. 1745-53, 1788-89); for a full list, see Doring's D. deutschen Kanzelredner d. 18 u. 19 Jahrhunderts; Jerusalems Selbstbiographie (Braun. 1791). — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.; Jocher, Gelehrt. Lex. (Adelung's Addendda), s.v.; Dorner, Geschichte der Protest. Theolog. bk. 2, divis. 3, § 1 Tholuck. Gesch. des Rationalismus, pt. 1; Hurst's Hagenbach, Ch. Hist. 18th and 19th Cent. (see Index); Zeitschr. hist. Theol. 1869, p. 530 sq. (J.H.W.)