Philipp Spener

Philipp Jakob Spener (23 January 1635 – 5 February 1705) was a German Lutheran theologian who essentially founded what would come to be known as Pietism. He was later dubbed the "Father of Pietism". A prolific writer, his two main works, Pia desideria (1675) and Allgemeine Gottesgelehrtheit (1680), were published while he was the chief pastor in the Lutheran Church at Frankfurt. In 1691, he was invited to Berlin by the court of Brandenburg. Even in Berlin, Spener was at odds with the predominant Lutheran orthodoxy, as he had been all his life. Spener influenced the foundation of the University of Halle, but the theological faculty of another university, that of Wittenberg, formally accused him of 264 errors.