ARNDT, JOHANN. - German Lutheran theologian and mystic, b. at Edderitz (Anhalt) on 27 Dec. 1555, d. at Celle (Hanover) on 11 May 1621. He is known as one of the most profound connoisseurs of Catholic mysticism among Protestants. Having set out for the medical profession, he abandoned it to devote himself ardently to theology, which he studied successively at Helmstedt (1576), Wittenberg (1577) and Basel (1579). In 1581 he became an elementary school teacher in his native town and, two years later, pastor at Paderborn.
His vast and multifaceted theological and ascetical culture, acquired for the most part by himself through the reading of the major medieval mystics, especially St. Bernard, St. Teresa, Tauler and à Kempis, inspired his thought with a markedly Catholic orientation, on account of which he had no little to suffer at the hands of his coreligionists. In 1590, having refused to adhere to the decree of the Duke of Anhalt, which prohibited the use of images in churches, he was deprived of his office and forced to leave the city of Paderborn. From this time dates his first work: Iconographia, in which he upholds the legitimacy of the veneration of images. Subsequently he became pastor at Quedlinburg and at Brunswick.
A. was an ardent champion of the internal kingdom of God and a precursor of the Pietist movement, begun by Spener (v.). Against the doctrine of justification by faith alone he upholds the necessity of moral renewal, affirming that perfection cannot be attained except by unfolding the highest spiritual powers in a life of purity. All his works were widely studied in Germany and abroad. Among the principal ones we shall note: Auslegung des Katechismus Lutheri; Auslegung des ganzen Psalters; Paradiesgärtlein aller christlichen Tugenden; Vom wahren Christentum. This last publication, in four volumes, was translated into many languages, almost rivaling that of the Imitation of Christ.
The complete edition of A.'s works, edited by J. J. Rambach, appeared in 3 volumes at Leipzig and Görlitz in the years 1734-36.