Valley Talk – The Wizard of the Wissahickon: The Life and Legacy of Johannes Kelpius with Timothy Grieve-Carlson, Ph.D.

In person at the Valley Green Inn or online on Zoom
If you’ve spent any time in Wissahickon Valley Park, you’ve probably walked past the Cave of Kelpius and taken a moment to read the paragraph written on the weird obelisk next to it. Maybe you’ve even googled the name “Kelpius” and learned that he was the leader of the first American “doomsday cult.” Unfortunately, most of that information is wrong.
This talk is going to present research from my new book, American Aurora: Environment and Apocalypse in the Life of Johannes Kelpius, where I dig into the history of Johannes Kelpius, a tremendously influential but comprehensively misunderstood radical Protestant theologian from Transylvania who settled in what is now Wissahickon Valley Park in 1694. Far from being the leader of a “doomsday cult,” Kelpius was a Christian hermit who remained socially engaged with his neighbors in Philadelphia and cultivated a unique religious interpretation of the Wissahickon Valley and the natural world.
Timothy Grieve-Carlson, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor and the Gibson Drinko Chair in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. He earned his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Rice University in Houston, Texas in 2022. Timothy was also a 2021-2022 Fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the relationship between environmental phenomena and religious practice. His book American Aurora: Environment and Apocalypse in the Life of Johannes Kelpius (Oxford University Press 2024) explores environmental knowledge and apocalyptic thought in the religion of the early modern mid-Atlantic world. His academic writing has appeared in journals like American Religion, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, Correspondences: A Journal of Esotericism, and Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft.
Register here to attend in-person at the Valley Green Inn.
Register here to attend online on Zoom.
Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Univest Financial