Johann Christian Adami – Dictionary of Hymnology

Johann Christian Adami was a German Lutheran pastor and author who served in the Brandenburg region during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Born on January 13, 1662, at Luckau in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, he entered the University of Wittenberg and graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1681.

He returned to his home region to enter the ministry, becoming the diaconus at Luckau in 1684 and advancing to pastor of the same parish in 1691. In 1711, Adami accepted a call to Lübben to serve as pastor primarius, the principal minister of the city. He remained in this office until his death on May 12, 1715.

Hymnological Work and Publication History

Adami wrote 25 hymns during his pastoral career. These pieces were collected posthumously by his son and published in the Evangelisches Zion, oder vollständiges Gesang-Buch, issued jointly at Leipzig and Lübben in 1720. This compilation was specifically designated for ecclesiastical use in the churches of Niederlausitz (Lower Lusatia). Early historical documentation of Adami's career and bibliography can be found in Christian Ernst Weyse's hymnological indexes, Wetzel’s Analecta Hymnica, and Christian Gottlieb Jöcher’s Gelehrten-Lexicon (1750).

The Translated Hymn

Out of Adami's 25 published texts, only a single hymn has been translated into the English language:

"Was klagst du mein Gemüthe" is a devotional piece classified under the traditional thematic rubric of Cross and Consolation. The German text is structured in 7 stanzas of 8 lines and was originally printed on page 685 of the 1720 Evangelisches Zion. It retained a place in nineteenth-century German hymnals, appearing as entry Number 1811 in the Berlin Geistlicher Lieder-Schatz (1832) and as entry Number 2396 in Albert Knapp’s Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz (1837).

The text was translated into English by a Miss Burlingham under the first line "My soul, why this complaining." Her translation was first printed in the British Herald in 1866 (page 200). It subsequently gained broader liturgical circulation when it was included as entry Number 337 in William Reid’s Praise Book in 1872.