August Gottlieb Spangenberg

August Gottlieb Spangenberg , 1704-92, a bishop of the Moravian Church and a founder of that church in America, b. Prussia. While at the Univ. of Jena, he met Graf von Zinzendorf , and in 1730 he paid a visit to the Moravian colony, Herrnhut. In 1732, Spangenberg joined the theological faculty of the Univ. of Halle, but disagreement with the views of his superiors led to his dismissal. He became assistant to Zinzendorf and was sent by him on a mission to America in 1735. There, for a large portion of his life, Spangenberg was active in establishing settlements, churches, and schools in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. In 1744 he was made bishop. Zinzendorf died in 1760; two years later Spangenberg returned to Herrnhut, where he held a place of leadership among the Brethren. His Idea Fidei Fratrum (1779, tr. 1784) was adopted as the declaration of faith of the Moravian Church. Among his other writings is a biography of Zinzendorf.

Moravian Church, evangelical Protestant communion that emphasizes Christian unity and personal service, retains a historical episcopacy, and accepts the Scriptures as the sole moral guide. It originated (1457) in Moravia and Bohemia, among the followers of the martyred John Huss, but met severe persecution. The renewed church dates from 1722, when Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf (1700–1760) established a refuge in Saxony. The missionary movement began shortly afterward, and Zinzendorf came to America (1741–43), founded a colony at Bethlehem, Pa., and from this and other centers unsuccessfully tried to organize all German sects into the Church of God in Spirit. His biographer, Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg (1704–92), was also a leader in America after 1735.