Johannes Wolleb

Johannes Wolleb (Wollebius) (1589–1629) was a Swiss Protestant theologian. He was a student of Amandus Polanus, and followed in the tradition of a Reformed scholasticism, a formal statement of the views arising from the Protestant Reformation.^[1]

He was the successor of Johann Jakob Grynaeus at Basel Cathedral. The Compendium Theologiae Christianae of 1626 is his major work; it is shorter than the Syntagma Theologiae Christianae (1609) of Polanus, and served as an abridgement and development. It was translated into English by Alexander Ross, as Abridgement of Christian Divinitie (1650).^[2]

Wolleb influenced the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms.^[3] His Compendium, with William Ames's Medulla, and Francis Turretin's writings, were used as textbooks into the 18th century and beyond.^[4] In the late 17th century, Wolleb's system began to displace Ames's in favour at Harvard University.^[5] Students at Yale University in the early 18th century used to study the Abridgement every Friday afternoon;^[6] the books by Wolleb and Ames were written into the university Regulations (1745).^[7]

Notes

Further reading

• Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Historical Theology: An Introduction (2000), pp. 324–8.

External links

• Matthias Freudenberg (1998). "Johannes Wolleb". In Bautz, Traugott. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German) 14. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 47–50. ISBN 3-88309-073-5. 
• Works by Johannes Wolleb at Post-Reformation Digital Library
• Wolleb, John (1660) [1626]. Christianæ theologiæ compendivm [The Abridgment of Christian Divinitie] (in Latin). Translated by Alexander Ross. London: T. Mabb for Joseph Nevill.