Gerhard Tersteegen was born in Moers, Germany in 1697. Not possessing the means to afford the tuition, Tersteegen was forced to enter commerce and practiced as a successful merchant until a formative meeting with a pietistic revivalist, Wilhelm Hoffman, decisively changed the spiritual trajectory of his life. Thereafter Tersteegen preferred the solitary life studying at home in cloister-like asceticism, and reading theological books. In 1728 he became an itinerant preacher in the Protestant Erweckungsbewegung (“Spiritual Awakening Movement”) in the Niederrhein region, and hosted home worship and prayer meetings. He soon became acknowledged as an authoritative lay theologian, pastor, and mystic of the Protestant pietism movement, and was especially revered for his saintly person. Beginning in 1729, he edited his famous work, Geistliches Blumengärtlein inniger Seelen (“Spiritual Flower Garden for Ardent Souls”), a collection of hymns, spiritual lyrics, and epigrams. Gerhard Tersteegen died at Mülheim, in Westphalia, Germany, in 1769.

He life is the subject of The Quiet Way: A Christian Path to Inner Peace .

Peter C. Erb is a professor in the Religion & Culture department at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. He received his B.A. from Wilfrid Laurier, his M.S.L. from the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto University, and his Ph.D. from Toronto University. Dr. Erb contributed the foreword to The Quiet Way: Selections From The Letters of Gerhard Tersteegen .