Johann Peter Lange

Johann Peter Lange Poems

Johann Peter Lange Biography

Johann Peter Lange (April 10, 1802, Sonnborn (now a part of Elberfeld) - July 9, 1884, age 82), was a German Protestant theologian of peasant origin and was born at Sonneborn near Elberfeld. He studied theology at Bonn (from 1822) under K. I. Nitzsch and G. C. F. Lücke, held several pastorates, and eventually (1854) settled at Bonn as professor of theology in succession to Isaac August Dorner, becoming also in 1860 counsellor to the consistory. Lange has been called the poetical theologian par excellence: "It has been said of him that his thoughts succeed each other in such rapid and agitated waves that all calm reflection and all rational distinction become, in a manner, drowned" (F. Lichtenberger). As a dogmatic writer he belonged to the school of Schleiermacher. His Christliche Dogmatics (5 vols, 1849–1852, new edition, 1870) "contains many fruitful and suggestive thoughts, which, however, are hidden under such a mass of bold figures and strange fancies and suffer so much from want of clearness of presentation, that they did not produce any lasting effect" (Otto Pfleiderer). His other works include Das Leben Jesu (3 vols, 1844–1847), Das apostolische Zeitalter (2 vols, 1853–1854), Grundriss der theologischen Encyklopädie (1877), Grundriss der christlichen Ethik (1878), and Grundriss der Bibelkunde (1881). In 1857 he undertook with other scholars a Theologisch-homiletisches Bibelwerk, to which he contributed commentaries on the first four books of the Pentateuch, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Revelation. The Bibelwerk has been translated, enlarged and revised under the general editorship of Philip Schaff.)

The Best Poem Of Johann Peter Lange

The Lord Of Life Is Risen

The Lord of life is risen;
Sing, Easter heralds, sing!
He bursts His rocky prison;
Wide let the triumph ring!
In death no longer lying,
He rose, the Prince, today;
Life of the dead and dying,
He triumphed o’er decay.

The Lord of life is risen,
And love no longer grieves;
In ruin lies death’s prison,
Sing, heralds, Jesus lives!
We hear the blessèd greeting;
Salvation’s work is done!
We worship Thee, repeating,
“Life for the dead is won!”

Around Thy tomb, O Jesus,
How sweet the Easter breath;
Hear we not in the breezes,
“Where is thy sting, O death?”
Dark hell flies in commotion,
The heavens their anthems sing;
While far o’er earth and ocean
Glad hallelujahs ring!

O publish this salvation,
Ye heralds, through the earth,
To every buried nation
Proclaim the day of birth!
Till, rising from their slumbers,
In long and ancient night
The countless heathen numbers
Shall hail the Easter light.

Hail, hail, our Jesus risen!
Sing, ransomed brethren, sing!
Through death’s dark, gloomy prison
Let Easter chorals ring!
Haste, haste, ye captive legions,
Accept your glad reprieve;
Come forth from sin’s dark regions;
In Jesus’ kingdom live!

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