John Christopher Kunze

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John Christopher Kunze (1744 – 1807) was a German-born Lutheran pietist theologian.

In 1758, when his parents died, he began studying at the orphanage in Halle, Germany and then attended the University of Leipzig where he studied history, philosophy and theology. He worked as a teacher and an orphanage inspector before becoming ordained as a Lutheran minister.

In 1770 Rev. Kunze emigrated to Colonial America to serve as second pastor at St. Michael's and Zion Lutheran churches in Philadelphia. In 1771 he married Rev. Henry Muhlenberg's daughter Henrietta, and in 1773 he founded Philadelphia's Lutheran Theological Seminary. In 1779 he succeeded Muhlenberg as pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, becoming the senior Lutheran minister in Philadelphia and an ex officio member of the board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1780 he stepped down from the Board to become Professor of German and Hebrew. While teaching, he and fellow German Lutheran pastor, Justus Henry Christian Helmuth, tried unsuccessfully to establish a German College within the University.

In 1784 he was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society, accepted a position at Trinity and Christ Church in New York City, and also became Professor of Oriental languages at Columbia College. Kunze was fluent in five languages and also studied medicine, astronomy and numismatics, published the first English-Lutheran hymnbook, translated Martin Luther's catechism into English.

In 1785 he served as an official translator for the United States Congress, and in 1806 he published a new method for calculating eclipses.