JOHANN

PETER

See also:

• LANGE, ANNE FRANCOISE ELIZABETH (1772—1816)
• LANGE, ERNST PHILIPP KARL (1813—1899)
• LANGE, FRIEDRICH ALBERT (1828—1875)
• JOHANN PETER LANGE (1802-1884)

LANGE (1802-1884)  , German Protestant theologian, was of peasant origin and was born at Sonneborn near Elberfeld on the loth of April 1802 . He studied theology at Bonn (from 1822) under K . I . Nitzsch and G . C . F . Lucke, held several pastorates, and eventually (1854) settled at Bonn as professor of theology in succession to Isaac A . Dorner, becoming also in 186o counsellor to the consistory . He died on the 9th of July 1884 . Lange has been called the poetical theologian par excellence: " It has been said of him that his thoughts succeed each other in such rapid and agitated waves that all calm reflection and all rational distinction become, in a manner, drowned " (F . Lichtenberger) . As a dogmatic writer he belonged to the school of Schleiermacher .

His Christliche Dognzatik (3 vols., 1849–1852, new edition, 187o) " contains many fruitful and suggestive thoughts, which, however, are hidden under such a

mass of bold figures and strange fancies, and suffer so much from want of clearness of presentation, that they did not produce any lasting effect " (Otto Pileiderer) . His other works include Das Leben Jesu (3 vols., 1844–1847) Das apostolische Zeitalter (2 vols., 1853-1854), Grundriss der theologischen Fnsyklopadie (1877), Grundriss der christlichen Ethik (1878), and Grundriss der Bibelkunde (1881) . In 1857 he undertook with other scholars a Theologisch-homiletisches Bibelwerk, to which he contributed commentaries on the first four hooks of the Pentateuch, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Revelation . The Bibelwerk has been translated, enlarged and revised under the general editorship of Dr Philip Schaff .