Rothe, Johann Andreas

Author

b Lissa, Silesia 1688, d Thommendorf, nr Bunzlau 1758. Univ of Leipzig (Theology); licensed as a Lutheran preacher in Görlitz. His first work after graduation was as a private tutor at Leube, but on hearing him preach in 1722, Count Zinzendorf (qv) invited him to be a pastor at Berthelsdorf, alongside the Herrnhut community. But some 15 years later the two men split after a difference; Rothe moved to Hermsdorf near Görlitz, and in 1739 he became pastor at Thommendorf. Most of the 40 or so hymns which he wrote were included in the hymnals edited by Zinzendorf; John Wesley’s translation has brought one of them into wide use in English collections. Mearns (in Julian) describes him as ‘a man of considerable gifts and of unbending integrity, a good theologian, and an earnest, fearless and impressive preacher’, whose hymns are marked by ‘the glow…and depth of Christian experience’. No.781.