ed by his theology professor, Johann Konrad Dannhauer
(1603–1666), who, among other things, deepened Spener’s
lifelong interest in the teachings of Martin Luther. Upon
completion of his studies, Spener spent some years in travel.
That he did so largely in Reformed territories seems to say
something about his appreciation of the piety found in vari-
ous Reformed circles. During his itinerary he visited Basel,
where he studied Hebrew under Johann Buxtorf (1599–
1664). At Geneva the fiery French representative of Re-
formed Pietism, Jean de Labadie (1610–1674), impressed
Spener so much that in 1667 he published a translation of
one of Labadie’s edificatory tracts. During an extended visit
to Tübingen he set in motion various impulses toward the
development of Swabian Pietism. Upon his return to Stras-
bourg (1663) he worked for his doctoral degree, taught and
preached, and married Susanne Ehrhardt. They had eleven
children.
Spener was called to a succession of pastorates, begin-
ning with his appointment in 1666 to the position of senior
pastor at Frankfurt am Main, where his emphasis on the cat-
echization of children and on confirmation began to evoke
critical reactions. So did his introduction of private meetings
among the laity for the purpose of promoting a life of person-
al piety. Here, too, began his correspondence with highly
placed people, which gradually helped to make him the most
influential pastor in Germany during his time. Then, weary
of the controversies that his activities and writings had pro-
voked, Spener accepted a call to Dresden, in Saxony, where
in 1686 he became chaplain of Elector Johann Georg III.
However, the elector’s lack of sympathy for Spener’s con-
cerns prompted him to move to Berlin in 1691. As rector
of the Church of Saint Nicholas, as a member of the Luther-
an consistory, and as inspector of churches he was now at the
zenith of his effectiveness. Enjoying the confidence of the
ruling house of Prussia and of a large segment of the German
nobility, he was instrumental in opening up many pastorates
throughout Germany to the appointment of pastors with Pi-
etist leanings. Spener died on February 5, 1705, having ex-
pressed the wish that he be buried in a white coffin, a symbol
of his hope that the church on earth might expect better
times.
A prolific writer, Spener published many hundreds of
letters; sermons; edificatory and catechetical tracts; works on
genealogy, history, and heraldry; and writings of a polemical
nature. The most famous of his literary productions was his
Pia desideria, which appeared as a preface to Arndt’s Postil
in 1675 and later was published separately at various times.
In it he proposed his program for the moral and spiritual re-
form of individuals, church, and society, which he followed
throughout his life.
The major emphases of Spener’s works are typical of Pi-
etism, namely, natural humanity’s lost estate, the necessity
of its religious renewal, the possibility of its conscious experi-
ence of God’s regenerating and sustaining presence, the de-
sirability of continued spiritual nourishment through wor-
ship and appropriate literature, the holy life expressed in love
for God and humans, the need for religious fellowship of
like-minded people, and the hope of being able to reform the
church for the purpose of reshaping a sinful world. Spener
was opposed chiefly because of his often expressed vision of
a better future for the church, which implied that the church
was in need of renewal; for his insistence on religious instruc-
tion and on a way of life calculated to be a protest against
the moral laxity of the day, which in the eyes of his oppo-
nents marked him as a zealot; and for instituting private
meetings (collegia pietatis), which were seen as having the po-
tential to fragment the church.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Toward the end of his life Spener published some of his writings
in his Theologische Bedencken, 4 vols. in 2 (Halle, 1700–
1702), to which Karl Hildebrand von Canstein posthumous-
ly added Letzte theologische Bedencken, 3 vols. (Halle, 1711).
Since then many of Spener’s works have been published sin-
gly, and a long series of unsuccessful attempts have been
made to bring out a complete edition of his writings. Toward
the end of the nineteenth century Paul Grünberg, the noted
Spener scholar, edited a modernized version of Spener’s
Hauptschriften (Gotha, 1889). The Historical Commission
for the Study of Pietism (Kommission zur Erforschung des
Pietismus) has begun publication of a multivolume edition
of Philipp Jakob Spener Schriften, edited by Erich Beyreuther
(Hildesheim, 1979–). Spener’s best-known work, his Pia de-
sideria, has been translated into very readable English and
supplied with an introduction by Theodore G. Tappert
(Philadelphia, 1964).
The classic biography of Spener is still Paul Grünberg’s Philipp
Jakob Spener, 3 vols. (Göttingen, 1893–1906); volume 3
contains an exhaustive bibliography. The major contempo-
rary work on Spener is Johannes Wallmann’s Philipp Jakob
Spener und die Anfänge des Pietismus (Tübingen, 1970). Mar-
tin Kruse’s Speners Kritik am landesherrlichen Kirchenregiment
und ihre Vorgeschichte (Witten, 1971), and Jan Olaf Rütt-
gardt’s Heiliges Leben in der Welt: Grundzüge christlicher Sit-
tlichkeit nach Philipp Jakob Spener (Bielefeld, 1978), are im-
portant studies of Spener’s attitude toward the church
government of his day and of his ethics, respectively.
F. ERNEST STOEFFLER (1987)SPINOZA, BARUCH (1632–1677; known as Bento
in Portuguese, Benedictus in Latin) was a Jewish rational nat-
uralist of Marrano descent and the author of a rigorously mo-
nistic interpretation of reality expressed through an inter-
locking chain of propositions demonstrated in the
geometrical manner. Spinoza’s relentless drive for the naked
truth was of singular intensity, and his scientific assessment
of traditional Jewish thought thoroughly uncompromising.
His aim was to contemplate things as they really are rather
than as we would like them to be. Anthropocentrism is pe-
remptorily and unceremoniously banished from his philo-
sophical purview. Despite Spinoza’s unadorned style, consid-
erable controversy still envelops the interpretation of the very
foundations of his thought.8680 SPINOZA, BARUCH