Godshalk, Abraham (1791-1838)
Abraham Godshalk (born 29 December 1791, died 19 August 1838) was a Mennonite author and minister in the Doylestown Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church) of the Franconia Mennonite Conference. His wife was Sarah Shrauger, whom he married 17 October 1815. The union was blessed with seven children. Godshalk wrote of himself: "I am a farmer, who was at a pretty early day [about 32] called to be a preacher of the Gospel, and who has not even had the advantage of a good common education." He was ordained as a preacher in the Doylestown congregation in 1824. Shortly before his death at the age of 46, Godshalk wrote a book entitled Eine Beschreibung der Neuen Creatur (Doylestown, 1838). He then translated it into English, making "such amendments and additions as to me seemed good." Godshalk wrote in opposition to the perfectionism in certain revivalistic preaching in his day: "Many preach up a kind of regeneration in our day that is not well founded in Scripture; namely, that the change is at once so perfect, that no growth is necessary, or that the regenerated man is at once free from sin" (p. iii). It is believed that the group Godshalk had in mind was the Evangelical Association. Godshalk's treatise takes up the following points on regeneration: its necessity, the means, its nature, and the subject who has been regenerated—what kind of person he is. In his German booklet he spelled his name Gottshall. This was the spelling he used in 1837 when he published a 16-page booklet entitled Wahre Gerechtigkeit (Doylestown).
| Author(s) | John C Wenger |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1956 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Wenger, John C. "Godshalk, Abraham (1791-1838)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Godshalk,_Abraham_(1791-1838)&oldid=81235.
APA style
Wenger, John C. (1956). Godshalk, Abraham (1791-1838). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Godshalk,_Abraham_(1791-1838)&oldid=81235.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 534-535. All rights reserved.
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