Johann Wilhelm Petersen

Who was Johann Wilhelm Petersen?

Johann Wilhelm Petersen was a German theologian, mystic, and Millennialist.

Johann Wilhelm Petersen grew up in Lübeck and studied theology at the Katharineum in Lübeck, as well as in Giessen, Rostock, Leipzig, Wittenberg and Jena. He studied with Philipp Jakob Spener in Frankfurt, and they became friends in 1675. Through his affiliation with Spener, Petersen became interested in Pietism.

As a student, Petersen wrote a 1668 wedding poem for Dieterich Buxtehude. This poem was later composed as a cantata.

By 1677, Petersen was pastor of the church at Hanover. He was the leader and superintendent of the diocese of Lübeck in Eutin until 1688, and from 1688 to 1692 he was the superintendent in Aue.

In 1680, he published Acquittal Catechism, and fell out of favor with religious leaders and lost his position in the church because of his Chiliastic teachings.

Together with his wife Johanna Eleonora, he developed an independent form of spirituality in affinity with forms of pietism and mysticism. He spent the rest of his life on his property at low-Dodeleben, from 1724 to Thymern and Zerbst.