Gerhardt provided no instruction on how to organize his hymns thematically. Crüger categorized the texts into various sections of his hymnals. Ebeling groups them very generally in his 1666/67 edition of Gerhardt’s works, and by liturgical year in the 1670 Stettin edition. Feustking provided divisions by liturgical year and themes for the 120 hymns known at the time. In 1949 and his later editions, Eberhard von Cranach-Sichart organized all of the known hymns into slightly different categories than Feustking.

With Gerhardt’s diverse range of themes—even within a single hymn—it can be difficult to tie a hymn to a specific category. For example, a hymn like “Die Zeit ist nunmehr nah” (120) while placed in the Death and Eternal Life section, could also be used in Advent or for All Saints’ Day. This thematic diversity makes it easy for one to cover all sections of a hymnal using only his hymns. This website follows Cranach-Sichart‘s categorization. For deeper thematic connections to the Church Year, indexes are offered for most modern lectionaries.