Claus Harms
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Claus Harms (May 25, 1778 - February 1, 1855), was a German clergyman and theologian.
He was born at Fahrstedt in Schleswig-Holstein, and in his youth worked in his father's mill. At the University of Kiel he repudiated the prevailing rationalism and under the influence of Schleiermacher became a fervent Evangelical preacher, first at Lunden (1806), and then at Kiel (1816).
His trenchant style made him very popular, and he did great service for his cause especially in 1817, when, on the 300th anniversary of the Reformation, he published side by side with Luther's theses, ninety-five of his own, attacking reason as "the pope of our time" who "dismisses Christ from the altar and throws God's word from the pulpit."
As a musician, he sought to restore Lutheran hymns back to their original state. To this end, he researched the original texts from people such as Luther, Gerhardt, and others, hoping to find the original texts for the hymns his people were singing. In this he was mostly successful - the textual reforms he made still remain in hymnals today. He was unsuccessful, though, in restoring the tunes to their original states. The Renaissance-style tunes employed by the early Reformers had largely been smoothed out, such that the lively syncopations common to music of that era had been replaced by simple, plodding meters. His attempts met with early resistance, and he abandoned the project.
Besides volumes of sermons he published a good book on Pastoraltheologie (1830). He resigned his pastorate on account of blindness in 1849, and died on the 1st of February 1855. See Autobiography (2nd ed., Kiel, 1852); Michael Baumgarten, Ein Denkmal fur C. Harms (Brunswick, 1855).
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
