Самуэль Веренфельс: Швейцарский теолог и архитектор эпохи барокко

Swiss theologian

the Swiss Baroque architect

Samuel Werenfels (; 1 March 1657 – 1 June 1740) was a Swiss theologian. He was a major figure in the move towards a "reasonable orthodoxy" in Swiss Reformed theology.

Adriaan Heereboord had argued in Cartesian style, against scholasticism for limitations to be put on disputation, which should be bounded by good faith in the participants. Werenfels went further, regarding "logomachy" as a malaise of the Republic of Letters. The "triumvirate" position on ecumenism was based on the use of fundamental articles through the forum of the Republic of Letters. The underlying causes of logomachy were taken by Werenfels to be prejudice and other failings of the disputants, and ambiguity in language. Werenfels argued that controversies that divide Christians are often verbal disputes, arising from moral deficiencies, especially from pride. He proposed to do away with them by making a universal lexicon of all terms and concepts. His conception of his duties as a theological professor was shown in his address, De scopo doctoris in academia sacras litteras docentis. He believed that it was more important to care for the piety of candidates for the ministry, than for their scholarship. It was his belief that a professor of practical theology is as necessary as a professor of practical medicine.

His Dissertationum theologicarum sylloge appeared first Basel, 1709; a further collection of his works is Opuscula theologica, philologica, et philosophica (Basel, 1718, new ed., 3 vols., 1782). As a preacher he has been described as "estranged from false pathos, elegant, intelligible, and edifying". These sermons were published as Sermons sur des verités importantes de la religion auxquels on ajoute des Considerations sur la reünion des protestans (1715). They were translated into German, and into Dutch by Marten Schagen. Schagen also translated the De recto theologi zelo into Dutch. The De logomachiis eruditorum was translated into English as Discourse of Logomachys, or Controversys about Words (1711). Thomas Herne under a pseudonym translated Latin and French works as Three Discourses (1718), at the time of the Bangorian Controversy. William Duncombe translated An Oration on the Usefulness of Dramatic Interludes in the Education of Youth (1744).