Jan Völkel

Johannes Völkel (Latin: Volkelius; Grimma, c. 1565 – Raków, 1616) was a German Socinian writer.

Völkel was probably born around 1565-1570, and probably converted during his studies at the University of Wittenberg, just as Valentin Schmalz had been converted while at the University of Strassburg, in any case he had joined the Polish Brethren by 1585.

Völkel taught at the Racovian Academy and is often credited with a hand in the Racovian Catechism of 1605 along with Hieronim Moskorzowski, Piotr Stoiński the younger (Polish-born son of Pierre Statorius Sr.), and Valentin Schmalz. Certainly he had a hand in the German translation of 1608. Völkel was one of several Socinians who corresponded with Grotius.

Völkel's major work was the legacy of the thought of Fausto Sozzini and the first generation of the Racovian academy in De vera religione, "Of True Religion". This was edited posthumously by Jan Crell:

De vera religione was the first major systematic presentation of Socinian teaching published at the Racovian Academy, and widely exported around Europe, and earned many responses; among them the Prodromus of the Calvinist encyclopedist Johann Heinrich Alsted (1641), and Samuel Desmarets's negatively annotated anti-edition "The Socinian Hydra expunged!" (1651):

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