Johann Heinrich Kurtz (December 13, 1809 – April 26, 1890) was a German

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

theologian. Kurtz was born in

Monschau Monschau (; french: Montjoie, ; wa, Mondjoye) is a small resort town in the Eifel region of western Germany, located in the Aachen district of North Rhine-Westphalia. Geography The town is located in the hills of the North Eifel, within the ...

near

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

and educated at Halle and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. Abandoning the idea of a commercial career, he gave himself to the study of theology and became religious instructor at the

gymnasium of Mitau Jelgava Gymnasium or Academia Petrina is the oldest higher educational establishment in Latvia. Based on an idea by , it was established in Mitau, capital of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, by Duke Peter von Biron in 1775. The duke wanted t ...

in 1835, and ordinary professor of theology (

church history __NOTOC__ Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual ...

, 1850;

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (logic), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern usage, ...

, 1859) at

Dorpat Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern Europe, Northern Europe, European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres ...

. He resigned his chair in 1870 and went to live at

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

. Kurtz was a prolific writer, and many of his books, especially the ''Lehrbuch der heiligen Geschichte'' (1843), became very popular. In the field of biblical criticism he wrote a ''Geschichte des Alten Bundes'' (1848–1855), ''Zur Theologie der Psalmen'' (1865) and ''Erklärung des Briefs an die Hebräer'' (1869). His chief work was done in church history, among his productions being ''Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte für Studierende'' (1849), ''Abriss der Kirchengeschichte'' (1852) and ''Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte'' (1853–1856). Several of his books have been translated into English. Kurtz was an advocate of

gap creationism Gap creationism (also known as ruin-restoration creationism, restoration creationism, or "the Gap Theory") is a form of old Earth creationism that posits that the six-''yom'' creation period, as described in the Book of Genesis, involved six lit ...

.McIver, Thomas Allen. (1989)
''Creationism: Intellectual Origins, Cultural Context, and Theoretical Diversity''
University of California, Los Angeles.

List of works

The Bible and astronomy
(Internet Archive)
Manual of sacred history
(Google Books)
Text-book of church history
(Internet Archive)
History of the Old Covenant, Volume 2
(Google Books)
History of the Christian church to the Reformation
(Internet Archive)
Church History, Vol 2
(Google Books)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kurtz, Johann Heinrich 1809 births 1890 deaths Christian creationists People from Monschau German Lutheran theologians People from the Rhine Province University of Bonn alumni Academic staff of the University of Tartu 19th-century German Protestant theologians 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German writers German male non-fiction writers 19th-century Lutherans