30 March 1799-1877 A.D. Rev. Dr. Friedrich August Gottreu Tholuck—Lutheran Professor of Dogmatics & Exegesis
30 March 1799-1877 A.D. Rev. Dr. Friedrich August Gottreu Tholuck—Lutheran
Professor of Dogmatics & Exegesis
Editors. “FRIEDRICH AUGUST GOTTREAU THOLUCK
(1799-1877). Theodora.com. N.d. http://www.theodora.com/encyclopedia/t/friedrich_august_gottreu_tholuck.html. Accessed
27 Mar 2015.
FRIEDRICH AUGUST GOTTREU THOLUCK (1799-1877), German Protestant divine, was born at
Breslau, on the 30th of March 1799. He received his education at the gymnasium
and university of his native town, and early distinguished himself by great
versatility of mind and power of acquiring languages. A love of Oriental
languages and literature led him to exchange the university of Breslau for that
of Berlin, that he might study to greater advantage, and there he was received
into the house of the Orientalist Heinrich Friedrich von Diez (1750-1817). He
was introduced to pietistic circles in Berlin, and came specially under the
influence of Baron Hans Ernst von Kottwitz (1757-1843), who became his
"spiritual father," and of the historian Neander. Before deciding on
the career of theological professor, he had in view that of a missionary in the
East. Meanwhile he was feeling the influence to a certain degree of the
romantic school, and of Schleiermacher and Hegel too, though he never sounded
the depths of their systems. At length, in his twenty-first year, he finally
decided to adopt the academical calling. In 1821 he was Privatdozent and
in 1823 became professor extraordinarius of theology in Berlin, though he was
at the same time active in the work of home and foreign missions. He lectured
on the Old and New Testaments, theology, apologetics and the history of the
church in the 18th century. In 1821 appeared his first work, Sufismus, sive
theosophia Persarum pantheistica; following the same line of study he
published Bliitensammlung aus der morgenlandischen Mystik (1825) and Speculative
Trinitiitslehre des speiteren Orients (1826). His well-known essay on the
nature and moral influence of heathenism (1822) was published by Neander, with
high commendation, in his Denkwiirdigkeiten; and his Commentary on the
Epistle to the Romans (1824) secured him a foremost place amongst the most
suggestive, if not the most accurate, Biblical interpreters of that time.
Another work, which was soon translated into all the principal European
languages, Die wahre Weihe des Zweiflers (1823; 9th ed., with the title Die
Lehre von der Siinde and dem Versohner, 1870), the outcome of his own
religious history, procured for him the position which he ever after held of
the modern Pietistic apologist of Evangelical Christianity. In 1825, with the
aid of the Prussian government, he visited the libraries of England and
Holland, and on his return was appointed (in 1826) professor ordinarius of
theology at Halle, the centre of German rationalism, where he afterwards became
preacher and member of the supreme consistorial council. Here he made it his
aim to combine in a higher unity the learning and to some extent the
rationalism of J. S. Semler with the devout and active pietism of A. H.
Francke; and, in spite of the opposition of the theological faculty of the
university, he succeeded in changing the character of its theology. This he
effected partly by his lectures, particularly his exegetical courses, but,
above all, by his personal influence upon the students, and, after 1833, by his
preaching. His theological position was that of a mild and large-hearted
orthodoxy, which laid more stress upon Christian experience than upon rigid
dogmatic belief. On the two great questions of miracles and inspiration he made
great concessions to modern criticism and philosophy. The battle of his life
was on behalf of personal religious experience, in opposition to the
externality of rationalism, orthodoxy or sacramentarianism. Karl Schwarz
happily remarks that, as the English apologists of the 18th century were
themselves infected with the poison of the deists whom they endeavoured to
refute, so Tholuck absorbed some of the heresies of the rationalists whom he
tried to overthrow. He was also one of the prominent members of the Evangelical
Alliance, and few men were more widely known or more beloved throughout the
Protestant churches of Europe and America than he. He died at Halle on the 10th
of June 1877. As a preacher, Tholuck ranked among the foremost of his time. As
a teacher, he showed remarkable sympathy and won great success. As a thinker he
can hardly be said to have been endowed with great creative power.
After his commentaries (on Romans, the Gospel of
John, the Sermon on the Mount and the Epistle to the Hebrews) and several
volumes of sermons, his best-known books are Stunden christlicher Andacht
(1839; 8th ed., 1870), intended to take the place of J. H. D. Zschokke's
standard rationalistic work with the same title, and his reply to David
Stxauss's Life of Jesus (Glaubwiirdigkeit der evangelischen Geschichte,
1837). He published at various times valuable contributions towards a history
of rationalism - Vorgeschichte des Rationalismus (1853-1862), Geschichte
des Rationalismus (1865), i. and a number of essays connected with the
history of theology and especially of apologetics. His views on inspiration
were indicated in his work Die Propheten and ihre Weissagungen (1860),
in his essay on the "Alte Inspirationslehre," in Deutsche Zeitschrift
fiir christliche Wissenschaft (1850), and in his Gesprdche fiber die
vornehmsten Glaubensfragen der Zeit (1846; 2nd ed., 1867).
He also contributed many articles to Herzog's Realencyklopadie,
and for several years edited a journal (1830-1849), Literarischer Anzeiger. See
Das Leben Tholucks, by L. Witte (2 vols., 1884-1886); A. Tholuck, ein
Lebensabriss, by M. Kehler (1877), and the same author's art.
"Tholuck," in Herzog's Realencyklopadie; " Zur Erinnerung
an Tholuck," by C. Siegfried, Protestantische Kirchzeitung (1885),
No. 45, and 1886, No. 47; Karl Schwarz, Zur Geschichte der neuesten
Theologie (4th ed., 1869); F. W. F. Nippold's Handbuch der neuesten
Kirchengeschichte; cf. Philip Schaff, Germany; its Universities,
Theology and Religion (1857), and the article in the Allgemeine deutsche
Biographie.
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