MICHAEL

See also:

• BAUMGARTEN, ALEXANDER GOTTLIEB (1714-1762)
• MICHAEL BAUMGARTEN (1812-1889)

BAUMGARTEN (1812-1889)  , German Protestant theologian, was born at Haseldorf in Schleswig-Holstein on the 25th of March 1812 . He studied at Kiel University (1832), and became professor ordinarius of theology at Rostock (1850) . A liberal scholar, he became widely known in 1854 through a work, Die Nachtgesichte Sacharjas . Eine Prophetenstimme aus der Gegenwart, in which, starting from texts in the Old Testament and assuming the tone of a prophet, he discussed topics of every kind . At a pastoral conference in 1856 he boldly defended evangelical freedom as regards the legal sanctity of Sunday . This, with other attempts to liberalize religion, brought him into conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities of Mecklenburg, and in 1858 he was deprived of his professorship . He then travelled throughout Germany, demanding justice, telling the story of his life (Christliche Selbstgesprache, 1861), and lecturing on the Iife of Jesus (Die Geschichte Jesu . Fur das Verstandniss der Gegenwart, 1859) . In 1865 he helped to found the Deutsche Proteslantenverein, but withdrew from it in 1877 . On several occasions (1874, 1877 and 1878) he sat in the Reichstag as a member of the progressive party . He died on the 21st of July 1889 . Other works: Apostelgeschichte oder Entwicklungsgang der Kirche von Jerusalem bis Rom (2 vols .

2nd ed., 1859), and Doktor

Martin Luther, ein Volksbuch (1883) . H . H . Studt published his autobiography in 1891 (2 Vols.); see also C . Schwartz, Neueste Theologie (1869); Lichtenberger, Hist . Germ . Theol., 1889; Calwer-Zeller, Kirchen-Lexikon . BAUMGARTEN-CRUSIUS, LUDWIG FRIEDRICH OTTO (1788-1842), German Protestant divine, was born at Merseburg . In 1805 he entered the university of Leipzig and studied theology and philology . After acting as Privatdocent at Leipzig, he was, in 1812, appointed professor extraordinarius of theology at Jena, where he remained. to the end of his life, rising gradually to the head of the theological faculty . He died on the 31st of May 1842 . With the exception of Church history, he lectured on all branches of so-called theoretical theology, especially on New Testament exegesis, biblical theology, dogmatic ethics, and the history of dogma, and his comprehensive knowledge, accurate scholarship and wide sympathies gave peculiar value to his lectures and treatises, especially those on the development of church doctrine .

His published works are many, the most important being:—Lehrbuch der christlichen !Sittenlehre (1826); Grundzuge der biblischen Theologie (1828); Lehr

buck der Dogmengeschichte (1832); Compendium der Dogmengeschichte (1840) . The last, perhaps his best work, was left unfinished, but was completed from his notes in 1846 by Karl Hase .