Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack

Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack (1738–1817) was a Prussian theologian, court preacher, and Church governor.

Life Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack was born in Magdeburg in the Prussian Duchy of Magdeburg on 4 September 1738, the eldest son of August Friedrich Wilhelm Sack by his second wife. His mother was descended of a French refugee family, which explains a fondness which Sack had for the French language and literature.

Though leaning somewhat towards rationalism, he yet firmly opposed the inroads which Kant's and Fichte's speculations made upon evangelical doctrine. He was one of the chief movers towards the union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches of Prussia, which was effected after his death.

For some years he stood in the closest relations to the young Schleiermacher, and rejoiced in a belief in the promise of good which the latter would bring to the Church. When this young divine first issued his celebrated Reden (1799), Sack openly expressed his paternal grief at what seemed to him a leaning towards pantheism in this work. In later editions many of the criticised passages were modified.

Works Sack was not productive; he was chiefly a practical worker. His published works consist of translations from English (Blair's Sermons) and Latin (Cicero's De Amicitia and De Senectute), two collections of Sermons, an Autobiography, and some minor Essays.