Between Sardis and Philadelphia: The Life and World of Pietist Court Preacher Conrad Broeske

This study examines the life and world of Conrad Broeske (1660-1713), Court Preacher in Offenbach/Mayn. His claim to fame lies in a ten year period between 1694 and 1704 in which this Marburg-trained pastor became a prolific author, polemicist and promoter of chiliastic writings, thanks to a meeting with Thomas Beverley in 1693 and the baptism of a Muslim convert in 1694. Broeske lived a complex existence between Sardis and Philadelphia, as a Reformed court preacher and Philadelphian chiliast. His two-sided experience was actually the norm among the Pietists, including so-called radicals. Life between paradigms was the German way of being radical in early modern times due to a lack of religious toleration compared to England and the Netherlands. Broeske’s story belongs to the rise of Early Evangelicalism that W.R. Ward has recently discussed.