Gustav Adolf Wislicenus (20 November 1803 in Battaune,

Prussian Saxony The Province of Saxony (german: link=no, Provinz Sachsen), also known as Prussian Saxony () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merge ...

– 14 October 1875 in

Fluntern Fluntern is a Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter in the district 7 (Zürich), district 7 in Zürich, Switzerland. It was formerly a municipality of its own, having been incorporated into Zürich in 1893. The quarter has a population of 7,325 di ...

, part of Zurich) was a German

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, one of the leaders of the

Free Congregations The Friends of the Light was an association of German rationalists. Origins It originated in the Province of Saxony, in 1841. The members were also called Protestant Friends. The immediate occasion was an attempt to discipline a Magdeburg preach ...

Biography

He studied theology at Halle, and as member of the

Burschenschaft A Burschenschaft (; sometimes abbreviated in the German ''Burschenschaft'' jargon; plural: ) is one of the traditional (student associations) of Germany, Austria, and Chile (the latter due to German cultural influence). Burschenschaften were fo ...

was sentenced in 1824 to twelve years' confinement in a fortress. He was pardoned in 1829 and continued his studies in Berlin. In 1841 he became pastor at Halle, and became associated with the Friends of Light, and in consequence of a lecture delivered at Köthen in 1844, was deprived of his pastorate in 1846. He then a became a preacher of the free congregation at Halle.Wislicenus, Gustav Adolf
McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia His pamphlet "''Die Bibel im Lichte der Bildung unserer Zeit''" caused him to be sentenced to two years' imprisonment in 1853, and he fled to America, lectured at first in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and in 1854 he established a school at

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

. Returning to Europe in 1856, he opened a school at Zurich, where he wrote his principal work, "''Die Bibel, für denkende Leser betrachtet''" (The Bible for thoughtful readers, 2d ed. 1866). He was the father of chemist

Johannes Wislicenus Johannes Wislicenus (24 June 1835 – 5 December 1902) was a German chemist, most famous for his work in early stereochemistry. Biography The son of the radical Protestant theologian Gustav Wislicenus, Johannes was born on 24 June 1835 in K ...

and supported natural scientists from the free religious movements who sought a middle ground between atheism and Christiam dogmatism. Andreas W. Daum, ''Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914''. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998, pp. 36, 196, 198, 200, 206, 209, 414, 517, including a short biography.

Additional works by Wislicenus

* ''Ob Schrift? Ob Geist?'' (Leipsig; 4th ed. 1845) – Published as a result of a denunciation by Ferdinand Guericke, a professor of theology at Halle. * ''Nachrichten uber die freie Gemeinde in Halle'' (Halle, 1847). * ''Beitrage zur Forderung der Religion der Menschlichkeit'' (ibid. 1850). * ''Aus Amerika'' (Leipsig, 1854). * ''Gegenwart und Zukunft der Religion'' (Leipsig, 1873).

Notes

References

* 1803 births 1875 deaths German Christian theologians 19th-century German theologians German activists German emigrants to the United States People convicted of blasphemy University of Halle alumni German male non-fiction writers 19th-century male writers {{germany-theologian-stub