Peter Boehler
| Peter Boehler | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Church | Moravian Church |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 31, 1712 Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | April 27, 1775 (aged 62) London, England |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Missionary and bishop |
Peter Boehler, born Petrus Böhler (December 31, 1712 – April 27, 1775), was a German-English Moravian bishop and missionary who was influential in the Moravian Church in the Americas and England during the eighteenth century.
Boehler was one of the many missionaries sent out to the Americas in the early 18th century by the leader of the Moravian Church, Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf. As a part of the first large scale Protestant missionary movement, Boehler spread the religion across Georgia and other American colonies. In 1740, he migrated with other Moravians to Pennsylvania, where they founded the towns of Nazareth and Bethlehem. Boehler was superintendent of the Moravian Church in England from 1747 to 1753 and was made a bishop of the church in 1748. Boehler came back to America and directed new Moravian settlements in the colonies from 1753 to 1764.
Boehler was born in Frankfurt am Main, then part of Holy Roman Empire, on December 31, 1712. Peter was the fourth child of brewers Johann Konrad Peter Böhler and his wife Antonetta Elisabetha. Boehler attended school in Frankfurt, and went to the University of Jena in 1731. His father wanted him to study medicine, but Boehler was drawn into studying theology by the university's well-known faculty members such as Johann Franz Buddeus, Johann Georg Walch and Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf. Walch and Zinzendorf greatly influenced Boehler, and showed him the ways of Pietism a movement within Lutheranism that was instrumental in the upbringing of the Methodist movement later started by John Wesley. The Pietist movement combined the Lutheran emphasis on biblical doctrine with the Reformed, but with a particular emphasis on a vigorous Christian life and behavior over intellectual doctrine. Zinzendorf used his influence on the Moravian Church to gather more supporters of the Pietist movement, including Boehler.
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