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Sacred meditations

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Johann Gerhard wrote these Sacred Meditations when he was just 21 years of age. He had recovered from a serious illness wherein he had almost died. The near death experience confirmed his faith and strengthened his personal piety. These Meditations are the fruit of Gerhad's spirituality. The Meditations became an instant devotional classic and were read for several centuries in pious Lutheran homes from Germany to Iceland. The Meditations evince a deep love and faith in Christ which is practical and heartfelt. This is all the more interesting because Johann Gerhard is considered by many to be the most outstanding representative of systematized Lutheran theology known as Lutheran Orthodoxy. Lutheran Orthodoxy, in turn, has repeatedly been represented by its detractors as spiritually dead and thus the phrase "dead Orthodoxy" still persists to this day in Lutheran and Pietist circles. Gerhard, however, is a striking example of a man who is deeply pious and pastoral as well as being profoundly theological.

Johann Gerhard (1582-1637) is revered as the greatest theologian of the seventeenth century Lutheran Church. Gerhard is remembered both for his abilities as a parish pastor and as a professor of theology. He wrote dozens of volumes of theology ranging from devotional materials to his great dogmatics, "Loci Theologici." His "Sacred Meditations" (originally published in 1606) was quickly recognized as one of the finest devotional works ever written in Western Christendom. "Sacred Meditations" contains 51 different meditations on a wide variety of topics.