Gottlieb Nathanael Bonwetsch
GOTTLIEB NATHANAEL BONWETSCH, Th.D., GOTTINGEN, GERMANY Professor of church history in the University of Gottingen since 1891; born at Norka, Russia, Feb. 7, 1848; edu- cated at the universities of Dorpat, Gottingen and Bonn; privat-docent and docent at Dorpat, 1878; associate professor of church history, 1882; full professor at Dorpat, 1883-1891 ; author of Die Schriften Tertullians untersucht; Die Geschichte des Montanismus; Unser Reformator Martin Luther; Kyrill and Methodius, die Lehrer der Slaven; Methodius von Olympus; Studien zu den Kommentaren Hippolytus zum Buche Daniel und Hohenliede; Hippolytus Werke; Die Apokalypse Abrahams, Das Testament der vierzig Mdrtyrer; co-editor of Thomasius's Dogmengeschichte der alien Kirche; Studien zur Geschichte der Theologie und Kirche; and thirteenth and fourteenth editions of J. H. Kurtz's Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, etc.
To "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself," would indeed be a splendid standard for Christianity if I had in me the fountain of such love. But such love is found only in the love of God as revealed to us through Jesus Christ. Therefore the only foundation of the Church today must be, as it was in the days of the apostles, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Heb. 13: 8). Through him alone, in spite of the perversity of my will and the gravity of death, I am comforted in God. This absolute significance of Christ not identical with any particular formula would seem to contradict scientific relativism, but it is the mission of religion to save us from relativity, and just because of this our natures cannot do without religion. No progress in science can ever make religion superfluous. A satisfying religion is personal communion with God, and this we can have only, as we can have it truly, through Jesus Christ.
Source: The Church, The People, and the Age (1914), edited by Robert Scott and George William Gilmore
Note: Gottlieb Nathanael Bonwetsch was the son of Christoph Heinrich Bonwetsch, pastor of the Norka parish from 1845 to 1876.
Photo Source: The Church, The People, and the Age (1914), edited by Robert Scott and George William Gilmore
The Rev. Gottlieb Nathanael Bonwetsch was born 5 February 1848 in Norka, the son of Pastor Christoph Heinrich Bonwetsch who was serving in Norka at the time, and Beate Christiana Friederich. He died in Göttingen (Germany) on 18 July 1925. He married in the colony of Grimm to Lydia Deggeller on 15 December 1883. She was born in Karras in the province of Stavropol on 5 March 1861 and died in Göttingen on 4 January 1939. She is the daughter of Pastor Bernhard Deggeller and Elisabeth Lang. From 1859 to 1865, he attended highschool and college in Reval (now Tallinin, Estonia). He was a theology student at the seminary in Dorpat from 1866 to 1870. He was ordained in Moscow on 7 February 1871. From 1871 to 1874 he served as the assistant to the dean of the Bergseite colonies. He received further theological education in Göttingen in 1874-1875. He served then from 1875 to 1877 as the assistant pastor to his father in Norka. He returned to Germany again, this time to Bonn, for further education in 1877-1878. On 8 April 1878, he became a professor of church history at the seminary in Dorpat, Estonia. He earned a doctorate in theology on 2 November 1881 and tenured professor on 3 October 1883. He served on the Göttingen City Council from 1891 to 1921, retaining an emeritus professorship in church history.
Source: The Center for Volga German Studies at Concordia University
The son of Rev. Gottlieb Nathanael Bonwetsch, Dr. Gerhard Bonwetsch, is the author of Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien an der Wolga (The History of the German Colonies on the Volga) published in Stuttgart in 1919. The book was dedicated to his father on his 70th birthday. Dr. Gerhard Bonwetsch states that his father's birthdate is 17 February 1848 in Norka on the Bergseite of the Volga.