This volume brings together 18 individual studies by scholars of different specialist disciplines (musicology, theology, German studies and historical science) on the four oratorios of Louis Spohr (1784-1859). All of Spohr''s contributions to different genres are examined in terms of their origins, textual basis and music. The studies on the composer''s works are complemented by contributions on further aspects of the theory, cultivation and publication of oratorios in the first half of the 19thcentury. Altogether the volume provides an in-depth insight into Spohrs oratorios and how the individual works related to contemporary trends in politics, theology and literature.