Julius Wegscheider

Julius August Ludwig Wegscheider (27 September 1771Template:Snd27 January 1849), was a German Protestant theologian.

LifeEdit

Wegscheider was born at Küblingen (now a part of Schöppenstedt, Lower Saxony). He studied theology at the University of Helmstedt, where he was a pupil of Heinrich Philipp Konrad Henke. From 1795 to 1805, he worked as a tutor to the family of a wealthy Hamburg merchant. In 1805 he presented a dissertation titled Graecorum mysteriis religioni non obtrudendis at the University of Göttingen. He then served as a professor of theology at the University of Rinteln (1806–1810), and at the University of Halle from 1810 onwards.<ref>Biography at Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie.</ref>

Wegscheider was a leading figure of dogmatic theological rationalism—for instance, he considered supernatural revelation to be an impossibility.<ref>Christian Cyclopedia J. A. L. Wegscheider (biographical information).</ref> Because of his rationalist teachings, he, along with his colleague Wilhelm Gesenius, were attacked by followers of Supernaturalism, creating a situation that led to a government investigation (1830).<ref>Encyclopædia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences ..., Volume 13 by Edward Wigglesworth and Thomas Gamaliel Bradford.</ref> Ultimately, he retained his office at Halle, but lost his former influence.<ref name="EB1911">Template:Cite EB1911</ref>

Über die von der neuesten Philosophie geforderte Trennung der Moral von der Religion, 1804Template:SndOn the latest philosophy requiring separation of morality from religion.
Versuch einer vollständigen Einleitung in das Evangelium Johannis, 1806Template:SndAttempt of a complete introduction to the Gospel of John.
Institutiones theologicae dogmaticae, 1815; to which Wilhelm Steiger's Kritik des Rationalismus in Wegscheiders Dogmatik (1830) was a reply.<ref name="EB1911"/>

"Leben und Werk des Hallenser Theologen Julius Wegscheider (1771–1849) : mit unveröffentlichten Briefen an Eduard Reuss"; by Jean Marcel Vincent, Waltrop : Spenner, 1997. Series: Wissen und Kritik, Bd. 13.<ref>WorldCat.org Leben und Werk des Hallenser Theologen Julius Wegscheider</ref>