Alexander Volck Explained

Alexander Volck was the city scribe for the Wetteravian town of Büdingen in Hesse, Germany during the mid 18th century. He was, for a time, a member of the Moravian Church, but eventually left the church and became one of its most vociferous critics;^{[1] [2]} authoring The Revealed Secret of the Malice of the Herrnhuter Sect, seven volumes printed between 1748–1751, which attacked Nicolaus Zinzendorf and the Moravian Church.^[3]

His work elicited responses from members of the Moravian Church^{[4] [5]} and influenced other anti-Moravian authors.^[6] The Revealed Secret was circulated among Lutheran pastors working against the Moravians in Pennsylvania,^[7] Volck's work also spread rumors the Moravian Church was allowing women to perform in rituals reserved for ordained men,^[8] among others.^[9]

Works authored

• Das entdeckte Geheimnis der Bosheit der Herrnhutischen Secte, 7 volumes, (Frankfurt and Leipzig: Heinrich Ludwig Brönner, 1748-1751).
• Unumstößliche Vertheidigung der Glaubwürdigkeit des entdeckten Geheimniß der Boßheit der Herrnhutischen Secte (1750).

External links

• Das entdeckte Geheimnis der Bosheit der Herrnhutischen Secte on Google Books

Notes and References

1. Miller. Derrick R.. Alexander Volck's Anti-Moravian Polemics as Enlightenment Anxieties. Journal of Moravian History. November 2014. 14. 2. 103–118. 10.5325/jmorahist.14.2.0103 . 170172064 .
2. Book: Peucker. Paul. A Time of Sifting: Mystical Marriage and the Crisis of Moravian Piety in the Eighteenth Century. 2015. Penn State University Press. 9780271066431.
3. Dietrich Meyer, ed., Bibliographisches Handbuch zur Zinzendorf-Forschung (Düsseldorf: privately printed, 1987).
4. Johann Petsch, Unparteyische Untersuchung der Glaubwürdigkeit der unter dem Titul des entdeckten Geheimnisses der Bosheit der Herrnhutischen Secte heraus gekommenen Entrevuen (1750)
5. David Kranz, Kurze, zuverläßige Nachricht von der, unter dem Namen der Böhmisch-Mährischen Brüder bekanten, Kirche Unitas Fratrum (1757). Alternate Title: Das Zeremonienbüchlein. Reprinted with a scholarly introduction by Rudolf Dellsperger (Herrnhut: Herrnhuter Verlag, 2014).
6. Heinrich Joachim Bothe, Zuverläßige Beschreibung des nunmehro ganze entdeckten Herrenhutischen Ehe-Geheimnisses (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1751).
7. Book: Fogleman. Aaron Spencer. Jesus Is Female: Moravians and Radical Religion in Early America. 2014. Penn State University Press. 9780812291681. 2nd.
8. Book: Prior Smaby. Beverly. Strom. Jonathan. Lehmann. Hartmut. Van Horn Melton. James. Pietism in Germany and North America 1680-1820. 2009. Ashgate Publishing. 978-0754664017. 154. Restricting Women's Leadership in Moravian Bethlehem.
9. Peucker. Paul. The Songs of the Sifting. Understanding the Role of Bridal Mysticism in Moravian Piety during the late 1740s. Journal of Moravian History. 2007. 3. 3 . 58, 60. 10.2307/41179833 . 41179833. 248823578 .