A Polemical Treatise against the Wendish Theological College in Leipzig and the Pastoral Care of Sorbian Clergy in Upper Lusatia of 1768 (Edition)

Abstract

A Polemical Treatise against the Wendish Theological College in Leipzig and the Pastoral Care of Sorbian Clergy in Upper Lusatia of 1768 (Edition)

This article deals with an unpublished treatise of 1768 by the Sorbian deacon, Matthäus Schultze / Matej Šołta, which was discovered in the papers left by the pastor and historian, Christian Knauthe, after his death. In this treatise Schultze heavily criticizes the Wendish Theological College in Leipzig and cites a number of shortcomings in the Sorbian Lutheran Church. Schulze’s polemical attack provides insights into different aspects of Sorbian intellectual and cultural history in areas of tension in Pietism, the Enlightenment and the development of a national consciousness. It makes it possible, above all, to come to a precise and subtle understanding of the different factions and controversies in the Sorbian, Lutheran clergy in the 18th Century. Schultze’s observations on the problem of pastors without mother-tongue language skills and on the situation regarding the transla­tion of religious texts in the early modern period are particularly revealing. This unique source is made completely accessible to research for the first time in this edition.