Kunze, John Christopher, Dd

Kunze, John Christopher, D.D., one of the most learned men in the Lutheran Church of this country, was born in Saxony about the middle of the 18th century. He was educated in the Gymnasia of Rossleben and Merseburg and the University of Leipzic, and for several years was engaged in the work of teaching in his native land. When application from the corporation of St. Michael's and Zion's Church was made to the theological faculty at Halle for a minister, their attention was immediately turned to young Kunze. He reached the United States in 1770, and at once commenced his duties as associate pastor of the German churches in Philadelphia. This field of labor he occupied for fourteen years, universally beloved, and exercising a wide influence for good. For several years he was professor in the University of Pennsylvania, from which institution he received the doctorate in 1783. He accepted a call to the city of New York in 1784, where he labored for twenty-three years, till his death, July 24, 1807. He was devoted to his work, and indefatigable in his efforts to do good. For a long time he filled with signal ability the professorship of Oriental literature in Columbia College. So high a reputation did he enjoy as a Hebrew scholar that young men who were pursuing their studies with ministers of other denominations frequently resorted to him for instruction. The rabbins connected with the Jewish synagogues also consulted him in their interpretations of the Hebrew. " The various acquirements of this gentleman, and particularly his Oriental learning, long rendered him an ornament of the American republic of letters. He probably did more than any individual of his day to promote a taste for Hebrew literature among those intended for the clerical profession in the United States" (Dr. Miller's Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century). Dr. Kunze published a number of works: History of the Lutheran Church: — Something for the Understanding and the Heart (1781, 8vo): — New Method for Calculating the great Eclipse of June 16,1806: -Hymn-book for the Use of the Church (1795): — Catechism and Liturgy. See Hazelius, Hist, Am. Luth. Church, 1685-1842. (M. L. S.)