1598

Johannes Müller

Sluiten
First name
Johannes
Last name
Müller
Date of Birth
1598
Date of Death
1672
Born in
Breslau
Died in
Hamburg

Johannes Müller studied philosophy and theology in Breslau, Wittenberg and Leipzig. He was professor of moral philosophy (1622) at Wittenberg University, and pastor (1627) of the St. Peter and Paul church in Hamburg.

In February 1972, Johann Müller completes the foreword ‘to the Christian reader’ to Atheismus devictus (Atheism Conquered), a thoroughly composed theological analysis of the roots of atheism and the increasing flow of pernicious books from the United Provinces flooding the German-speaking countries which would have begun in the early 1660s. Müller mentions the ‘Theological-Political Treatise’ which, according to him, seduces both academically trained people and ‘peasants in small villages’. However, since he makes no specific reference to it in the main work of his book it is in fact quite doubtful if he had indeed read Spinoza book or had any detailed knowledge about the contents of the work. In the introduction to the bulky (674 pages with addenda) Atheismus devictus, he only quotes the full title of the book and upholds that it was not printed in Hamburg, but in the United Provinces:

It is not printed in Hamburg. They do not allow those disturbing books to be printed here, but in Holland [they do]. Maresius calls this author in his ‘Vindiciae dissertationis’ a blasphemous, apostate Jew and a formal atheist. A godly, prominent man has judged about this book that both the work and the author should be thrown into the fire.

J. Müller, Atheismus devictus, 1672.