JOHANN WILHELM BAIER. - Professor of theology at the Lutheran faculties of Jena and Halle, B. was born in 1647 and died in 1695. He stands astride that age of transition between Lutheran theological traditionalism and the warmer pietistic innovation inaugurated by Spencer.
Culturally well-equipped and almost encyclopedic in scope, B. between 1673 and 1694 produced a comprehensive work summarizing every aspect of theology: *Compendium theologiae positivae, homileticae, historicae, moralis et exegeticae*. In his conclusions he was not free from personalistic sophistries and subtleties, for example considering ritual exorcism in Baptism as “indifferent,” or distinguishing in the New Testament canon between books of “first and second rank.” More sympathetic, therefore, is his irenic and ecumenical stance, both in relations among Protestants and between Protestants and Catholics. In this vein B. composed two reconciling works: *Collatio doctrinae Quakerorum et Protestantium* (1694), *Collatio doctrinae pontificiorum et Protestantium* (1692).