Simon Oomius on the Elderly

This contribution connects the issue of spiritual leadership with the religious ideas and ecclesiastical and social environment of a seventeenth-century Dutch preacher, dr. Simon Oomius (1630–1706). Oomius represents the movement known as the Further Reformation ( Nadere Reformatie ), or Reformed Pietism. The focus is on his perception of old age. Through a close reading of his treatise Cierlyke Kroon , this article highlights a specimen of pastoral leadership associated with the seventeenth-century Dutch Reformed theologia ascetica . Seven qualities for his spiritual leadership can be traced: Oomius’s own old age, his spirituality, academic education, use of examples, hermeneutic competence, ability to empathise, and spiritual training

Church History · Pedagogy · Pietism · Political science · Sociology · Spirituality · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies · Social Psychology