BAIER, JOHANN WILHELM. - Professor of theology in the Lutheran faculties of Jena and Halle, B., b. in 1647, d. in 1695, stands astride that transitional age between Lutheran theological traditionalism and the more fervent Pietist innovation inaugurated by Spener.
Culturally well armed and almost encyclopedic, B., between 1673 and 1694, brought to light a work summarizing every aspect of theology: Compendium theologiae postitiae, homileticae, historicae, moralis et exegeticae. In his conclusions he was not free from personalistic sophistries and subtleties, for example in considering ritual exorcism in Baptism to be “indifferent,” or in distinguishing, within the New Testament canon, between books of “first and second rank.” He therefore appears more sympathetic in his irenic and ecumenical aspect, both in relations among Protestants and among Protestants and Catholics. In this direction B. composed two conciliatory works: Collatio doctrinae Quakerorum et Protestantium (1694), and Collatio doctrinae pontificiorum et Protestantium (1692).