Christoph Wittich or Christophorus Wittichius (1625, in Brieg – 1687, in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

theologian. He is known for attempting to reconcile Descartes' philosophy with the

Scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual pract ...

Life

He studied theology in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie H ...

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

and

, and taught theology, mathematics, and Hebrew at Herborn (1651–53),

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

(1653–55),

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

(1655–1671) and Leiden (1671–1687). Starting from his 1653 publication ''Dissertationes Duæ'' he defended a non-literal interpretation of the Bible texts that were quoted by

Voetius Gisbertus Voetius ( Latinized version of the Dutch name Gijsbert Voet ; 3 March 1589 – 1 November 1676) was a Dutch Calvinist theologian. Life He was born at Heusden, in the Dutch Republic, studied at Leiden, and in 1611 became Protestant past ...

to prove the unscriptural nature of Descartes' Copernican beliefs, and tried to reconcile philosophy and theology.

Works

*''Dissertationes Duæ'', Amsterdam, 1653. *''De Stylo Scripturae'', Amsterdam (?), 1656 *''Consensus veritatis in Scriptura divina et infallibili revelatae cum veritate philosophica a Renato detecta'', Nijmegen, 1660 *''Theologia pacifica'', Leiden, 1671. *''Anti-spinoza'', Amsterdam, 1690 (posthumous).

Ernst Bizer, D. ref. Orthodoxie u. d. Cartesianismus, in: ZThK 55, 1958, 306-372 Roberto Bordoli s.v., The Dict. of Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Dutch Philosophers, II, 2003, 1083–1086. Cellamare, Davide, "A theologian teaching Descartes at the Academy of Nijmegen (1655–1679): class notes on Christoph Wittich’s course on the Meditations on First Philosophy", ''Intellectual History Review'', 30:4, 585-613 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17496977.2019.1698874 Cuno, "Wittich, Christoph" in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 43 (1898), S. 631-635 nline-Version URL
https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd119252805.html#adbcontent
Kai-Ole Eberhardt, Art. Wittich, Christoph. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon Band XXXVII (2016) 1493–150
Online-Artikel
Kai-Ole Eberhardt, Christoph Wittich (1625–1687). Reformierte Theologie unter dem Einfluss von René Descartes, Göttingen 2018 (Reformed Historical Theology 47).() Kai-Ole Eberhardt, Vernunft und Offenbarung in der Theologie Christoph Wittichs (1625–1687). Prolegomena und Hermeneutik der reformierten Orthodoxie unter dem Einfluss des Cartesianismus, Göttingen 2019 (FSÖTh 164) Jacob Gronovius, Laudatio Funebris recitata post obitum ..Christophori Wittichii .. Leiden 1687. Georg Pape, Christoph Wittichs Anti-Spinoza. Diss. Rostock 1910. Jan Rohls, Descartes u. d. ref. Theol., in: Sonderforschungsbereich 573 „Pluralisierung u. Autorität i. d. Frühen Neuzeit“ an d. LMU München, Mitteilungen 2/2006, München 2006, 24-34 Theo Verbeek, Descartes and the Dutch. Early Reactions to Cartesian Philosophy, 1637–1650. Published for the Journal of the History of Philosophy, Carbondale 1992 Rienk H.Vermij, The Calvinist Copernicans. The reception of the new astronomy in the Dutch Republic, 1575–1750, Amsterdam 2002

External links

Willem Frijhoff Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, G ...

Marijke Spies Marijke, sometimes written as Mareike () is a Dutch feminine given name. It is originally a diminutive of Mary. Phonetically, the name is said ''muh-rye´-kah/keh'', preferably with a rolling “r”.Workingwritersandbloggers.comInterview Marijke ...

Dutch Culture in a European Perspective 1: 1650: Hard-Won Unity
Uitgeverij Van Gorcum 2004, pp 310–11. 1625 births 1687 deaths 17th-century Dutch people Dutch Calvinist and Reformed theologians 17th-century German Protestant theologians Academic staff of Leiden University Leiden University alumni University of Groningen alumni People from Austrian Silesia Dutch people of German descent People from Brzeg German male non-fiction writers 17th-century German writers 17th-century German male writers {{Germany-academic-bio-stub

Life

Works

Further reading

External links