Nikolaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, Essay Example

When German monk and former Catholic priest Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the front door of the All Saint’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, the resulting furor made Luther an enemy of the Catholic Church which eventually resulted in being ex-communicated. Some two hundred years later, after the Protestant Reformation had somewhat diminished, Lutheran minister P.J. Spener “hoped to revive the church by promoting the practice of piety” which stressed prayer and Bible reading over church dogma. Spener’s efforts paid off quickly by “reinvigorating Protestants throughout Europe, including underground Protestants in Moravia and Bohemia.”

As might be suspected, the Roman Catholic Church began a campaign to crack down on the so-called Moravian dissidents. Many quickly decided to relocate to other areas in Germany that welcomed Protestants, such as Saxony where the dissidents “settled on the lands belonging to a rich young ruler, Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf,”  a highly religious social reformer of the German Pietist movement who “as the leader of the Moravian church sought to create an ecumenical Protestant movement” in his native Saxony and throughout his beloved Germany.

Born in Dresden, Germany, in 1700, Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf showed a great interest in religion at an early age, due in part to being raised by his paternal grandmother. As fate would have it, Zinzendorf was the godson of P.J. Spener who introduced young Nikolaus to the principles of the Pietist tradition. However, as Count von Zinzendorf, Nikolaus was expected to enter a career in government and since he obeyed his godfather without fail, at the age of twenty-one, Nikolaus became the judicial counselor for the German king at Dresden.  But Nikolaus’ religious devotion soon took precedent over his government position upon purchasing the vast estate of his paternal grandmother with the aim being to “form a Christian community for oppressed religious minorities.” Shortly after, Christian David, a Moravian dissident, introduced himself to Nikolaus and moved into the community. He was quickly followed by ten more Moravian Protestants who named the count’s community Herrnhut or “the Lord’s watch.”

By 1726, Zinzendorf’s religious community had expanded to more than three hundred members which he referred to as a “little church within a church.” When some members began to complain about the community’s diversity, Zinzendorf packed up his growing family and moved into the community as its pastor in-residence. He then decided to minister to the locals as a sort of counselor for those in need of spiritual guidance and advise; he also became the lord and master of the community by creating a “Brotherly Agreement of manorial rules” for all living inside of the “little church.”

In 1737, the hand of fate reached into the life of Nikolaus von Zinzendorf when he accidentally discovered a copy of the constitution of the Unitas Fratrum or the “Unity of the Brethren,” a 15th century document that detailed the history of the Hussite movement in Bohemia and Moravia. Nikolaus then realized that this document which described a “fully-established church antedating Lutheranism itself” was very similar to his own “Brotherly Agreement.” Nikolaus became so inspired by this discovery that he went back to the community and told all of the members who then vowed to restore the old ways of the Lutheran church. Thus, Herrnhut became known as the “Unity of the Brethren congregation” which later on evolved into the Moravian Church.

Interestingly, at this time in the mid 1700’s, the ideals of the Enlightenment had spread all across Europe and even to the American colonies where men like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson set about to create what would become the United States of America. But for Zinzendorf, the ideals of the Enlightenment stood in direct opposition to his belief that Christianity “should be a religion of the heart which went against the grain of the growing acceptance of Enlightenment beliefs.”

Due to being a count, Zinzendorf was invited to the coronation of Denmark’s new king where Nikolaus’ life was again altered by fate. Here at this coronation, “God opened a door that would change hearts and nations around the world”  by allowing a converted West Indies slave named Anthony Ulrich to meet Nikolaus and plead for missionaries from his community to visit the West Indies in order to preach the Gospel to the slaves.

When Nikolaus returned to the community and related what had happened in Denmark, two members quickly volunteered to go to the West Indies, thus “becoming the first Moravian missionaries and the first Protestant missionaries of the modern era” to visit the Caribbean.

As a result of this, Moravian missionaries linked to Zinzendorf visited hundreds of countries, and by the time Zinzendorf died in 1760, ” the Moravians had sent out at least 226 missionaries.” Thus, because of his insistence that religion must come from the heart, Zinzendorf is remembered today as the “only genuine Christocentric of the modern age” while his most important contribution to missiology lies in his “awakening within Protestantism of an awareness of cross-cultural mission as a fundamental task of the church.”

Bibliography

Anderson, Gerald H. “Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig von, 1700-1760.” Boston University School of Theology. Last modified 2014. Accessed February 27, 2014. http://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/w-x-y-z/zinzendorf- nikolaus-ludwig-von-1700-1760.

Lindt, Gillian. “Nikolaus Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Last modified 2014. Accessed February 27, 2014. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/657444/Nikolaus-Ludwig-count-von-Zinzendorf.

“Nikolaus von Zinzendorf.” ChristianHistory.net. Last modified 2008. Accessed February 27, 2014.  http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/denominational founders/zinzendorf.html.

“The Moravians and Count Zinzendorf.” Last modified 2014. Accessed February 27, 2014. http://www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/books/history/hand-of-God/moravian.htm.