-
oa ‘Dien verschrikkelijken watersnood’
1717 Honderd jaar Kerstvloed 1817
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: DNK : Documentatieblad voor de Nederlandse kerkgeschiedenis na 1800, Volume 44, Issue 95, Dec 2021, p. 103 - 131
-
- 01 Dec 2021
- Previous Article
- Table of Contents
- Next Article
Abstract
That horrendous Christmas flood: 1717 Hundred years Christmas flood 1817
Christmas night 1717 a heavy storm pounded on the coast of the Northern Netherlands and East Frisia. The consequences were disastrous. Thousands of residents drowned and extensive damage was done. Reverend Jacobus Isebrandus Harkenroht, who had personally experienced the storm surge, gave a sermon for his East Frisian municipality of Larrelt on Sunday after the flood. He told his congregation that disaster came from God, who punished land and people for their sins. Passionately, he called on his listeners and later his readers to repent. One hundred years later, his confrere Gerrit Johan Friedrich Cramer von Baumgarten commemorated the disaster. He also told his congregation of Middelbert in Groningen that they should see God's hand in the flood. The aim of this pedagogical correction was to show the way to perfection with respect for the laws of nature. Harkenroht’s immanent God had become transcendent.