ALTING, JOHAN HEINRICH. - Dutch Calvinist theologian, b. 17 February 1583 at Emden, where his father Menso (1541-1612) was a Protestant preacher, d. at Groningen on 25 August 1644. He studied first at Groningen, then, from 1602, at Herborn. In 1608 he was entrusted with the education of the future Elector Palatine, Frederick V, first at Sedan (1608-10), afterwards at Heidelberg, when the fourteen-year-old prince had already assumed the government, and in 1612 he accompanied him to England for his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of James I. Having returned to Heidelberg, he was appointed there (1613) professor of dogmatic theology at the university and director of the seminary in the "Collegium Sapientiae" (1616). When Tilly sacked Heidelberg in 1622, A. managed to take refuge in Holland, where Frederick V entrusted him with the direction of the studies of his firstborn son at Leiden (1623-27). There he also collaborated on the official Dutch version of the Bible (Staatenbijbel). In 1627 he obtained a chair of theology at Groningen and held it until his death. Opposed to scholastic subtleties and to the semi-Pelagianism of the Lutherans, he followed a biblical and practical approach, adhering rigorously to traditional Calvinist doctrine. At the Synod of Dordrecht (1618), in which he took part as representative of the Palatinate, he upheld the most uncompromising predestinarianism and combated the innovative ideas of the Remonstrants.
Among his works, for the most part published after his death by his son, we note: Notae in decadem problematum Jacobi Behm (Heidelberg 1618); Scripta theologica Heidelbergeniia, 3 vols.: I, Loci communes; II, Problemata theologica; III, Explicatio cathecheseos Palatinae (Amsterdam 1646); Exegesis Augustanae confessionis, with a Syllabus controversiarum quae Reformatis hodie intercedunt cum Lutheranis (Amsterdam 1652); Theologia historica sive systematis historici loca quattuor usque ad Costantinum Magnum (Amsterdam 1664), noteworthy as a precursor work of modern studies in the history of dogma; Historia Ecclesiae Palatinae a prima Reformatione usque ad Joannem Casimirum administratorem, that is, down to 1583, in Monumenta Pietatis (Frankfurt 1701), very important for local religious history. All of A.'s works are on the Index (decrees of 25 January 1684; 10 May 1757).