Bouw: past geocentrists- any Lutherans? (Knak) Copernicanism Part 13c-2

      This continues from Part 13c-1, a series on Copernicanism and Geocentricity (see Intro & Contents in Part 1) in response to a letter from a young person ("Josh") who asked if I believed Geocentricity ... and did not ridicule me in his question.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

      From Bouw's coverage of Dr. Carl Schöpffer, I move on to one who should be familiar to the reader from past blog posts:

Pastor Gustav Knak (1806-1878)
      Bouw's source of information on Knak comes from

Space and the Universe
Fritz Braun / J.H. Tonn

• J.H. Tonn († 2008) who in 1972 published a book of his translation from the German into English of a book by

• Fritz Braun, a German scientist who first in 1949 wrote a book against Copernicanism and proposed a possible scientific theory in its place – see John Byl's explanation of Braun's theory here.  The only library in America holding a copy of this book is... Univ. of Wisconsin (always vigilant against "pseudo-science").  But I was able to purchase a used copy and may publish portions of it later.  Braun included a 10-page chapter on Pastor Knak at the end of his book (see this later blog post).  He received his information on Knak from a book by

• Dr. Hermann Theodor Wangemann,  who wrote the biography of
• Pastor Gustav Knak

Bouw's report captures the essence of Pastor Knak's experience after he made his famous confession:

"Not twenty-four hours had passed since Knak’s statement ["I only believe the world view of Holy Scripture"], when his name, like a fire, went through all public papers. This simple confession by a simple pastor of his belief in the Biblical worldview was the nonplus ultra [‘not further beyond’] of provocation, insanity, and pastoral pride, considered as the highest danger for the education of the people. Knak was called a reverse or backward Luther, a drummer who alarmed the whole scientific world.  ... Berlin itself was a city of highest intelligence, but now other highly educated cities around the world gave it the mocking nickname Knakopolis. Instead of “Oh nonsense,” literary sections of newspapers substituted “Oh, Knak!” For months Knak became the butt of comic satire. ...  Public mockery followed Knak everywhere. ..."

Bouw continues on with more sordid details of what Pastor Knak suffered.  One senses that Dr. Bouw knows first hand the "ridicule of Knak" (my term). — I decided to obtain a copy of Wangemann's biography of Knak (German text) and will devote a full blog post to it later because... also Franz Pieper loved it.

      In the next Part 13c-3, I review Dr. Bouw's report of Pastor F.E. Pasche... of the old (German) Missouri Synod.