CALOV, ABRAHAM

Lutheran dogmatic theologian and polemicist; b. Mohrungen, East Prussia, April 16, 1612; d. Wittenberg, Feb. 25, 1686. He studied at Königsberg (1626–32), received his doctorate at Rostock (1637), and became rector of the gymnasium at Danzig (1643) and pastor of Trinity church. From 1650 until his death, he lived in Wittenberg, holding various academic and ecclesiastic positions. While a delegate to the Thorn Conference (1645), he came in contact with Georg calixtus. From that time on, he devoted himself to polemical activity directed against what he termed the syncretism of Calixtus and his followers. In his Historia syncretistica (1682) he attempts, as the outstanding champion of the controversial Lutheran orthodoxy of the 17th century, to show the erroneous agreements between the doctrines of Calixtus and those of Roman Catholics, Calvinists, Arminians, and Socinians. His work in theology, Systema locorum theologicorum (12 v. 1655–77), is considered one of the most important productions of the period. Here, as in his Biblia illustrata (4 v. 1672–76), he defends Lutheran orthodoxy against the intellectual forces that were preparing the way for the Enlightenment.

Bibliography: e. l. t. henke, Georg Calixtus und seine Zeit, 2 v. (Halle 1853–56). f. a. g. tholuck, Der Geist der lutherischen Theologen Wittenbergs (Hamburg 1852). f. lau, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart 1:1587. r. bÄumer, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (Freiburg 1957–65) 2:886.

[c. j. berschneider]