MENKEN, GOTTFRIED: German Reformed pastor; b. at Bremen May 29, 1768; d. there June 1, 1831. In the house of his parents he imbibed a Biblical piety which was, however, free from all narrowness though consciously opposed to rationalism. While still in the gymnasium he preached, and when he entered the University of Jena in 1788 his theological convictions had already assumed definite form. The rationalism of the university induced him to devote himself wholly to the Bible, to which the mysticism of his earlier days gave way. In 1790 he went to the University of Duisburg where he found a more sympathetic atmosphere in the circle of F. A. Hasenkamp and others whose study of the Bible was governed by the spirit of Bengel and Collenbusch. In 1791 he passed his theological examination, but stayed two years longer at Duisburg. He was assistant preacher in Uedem near Cleve (1793-94), for the German Reformed congregation in Frankfort-on-the-Main (1794-96), pastor of the Reformed congregation in Wetzlar (1796-1802), second preacher of St. Paul in Bremen (1802-11), and first preacher of St. Martin (1811-25).
The theology of Menken was not original with him; but the vigor of his expressions gave him a
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His chief works are: Christliche Homilien (Frankfort, 1797); Neue Sammlung christlicher Homilien (1801); Christliche Homilien über Stellen an die Geschichte des Propheten Elias (1804); Versuch einer Anleitung zum eignen Unterricht in die Warhheiten der heiligen. Schrift (an exposition of his system; 1805); Betrachtungen über das Evangelium Matthäi (only one volume published; 1809); Das Glaubensbekenntnis der christlichen Kirche (1816); Erklärung des elften Kapitels des Briefes an die Hebräer (1821); Predigten (1825); Blicke in das Leben des Apostel Paulus und der ersten Christengemeinen (1828); and Homilien über das neunte und zehnte Kapitel des Briefes an die Hebräer (1831). His works have been collected in seven volumes (Bremen, 1858-65; new edition, 8 vols. 1894-95).
Bibliography: C. H. Gildemeisten, Leben und Wirken des . . . Gottfried Menken, 2 vols., Bremen, 1861. E. C. Achelis published a selection of Menken's Homilien, to which he prefixed an introduction dealing with the life, Gotha, 1888. Consult also A. Ritschl, Geschichte des Pietismus, i. 566 sqq., Bonn, 1880.
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