Gottfried Christian Friedrich Lücke (24 August 1791 – 4 February 1855) 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 ...

. Luecke was born at

Egeln Egeln () is a small town in the Salzlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Egelner Mulde. Geography Egeln is situated on the river Bode (river), Bode, ...

near

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

, where his father was a merchant. He studied theology at Halle and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

. In 1814 he received the degree of doctor in philosophy from Halle; in 1816 he moved to the Friedrich Wilhelm University,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, where he became licentiate in theology, and qualified as ''

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

''.Lücke, Friedrich
In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, , S. 447. He soon became friendly with

Friedrich Schleiermacher Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (; 21 November 1768 – 12 February 1834) was a German Reformed theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional P ...

and de Wette, and was associated with them in 1819 in the redaction of the ''Theologische Zeitschrift''. Meanwhile, his lectures and publications (among the latter a ''Grundriss der Neutestamentlichen Hermeneutik'', 1817) had brought him into considerable repute, and he was appointed professor extraordinarius at the new

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

in the spring of 1818; in the following autumn he became professor ordinarius. From Bonn, where he had JCW Augusti (1772–1841), JKL Gieseler, and

Karl Immanuel Nitzsch Karl Immanuel Nitzsch (21 September 1787, Borna – 21 August 1868, Berlin) was a German Lutheran church leader. He was the father of theologian Friedrich August Nitzsch. Biography He was born in the small Saxon town of Borna near Leipzig. Hi ...

for colleagues, he was called in 1827 to Göttingen to succeed KF Staudlin (1761-1826). In that year he helped to found the ''Theologische Studien und Kritiken'', the chief organ of the "mediation" theology (''Vermittelungstheologie''). At Göttingen he remained, declining all further calls elsewhere, as to Erlangen, Kiel, Halle, Tübingen, Jena and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, until his death. Lücke, who was one of the most learned, multilateral and influential of the so-called "mediation" school of evangelical theologians (''Vermittelungstheologie''), is now chiefly known by his ''Commentar über die Schriften des Evangelisten Johannes'' (4 vols., 1820–1832). He is an intelligent maintainer of the Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel; in connection with this thesis he was one of the first to argue for the early date and non-apostolic authorship of the

Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...

. His ''Einleitung in die Offenbarung Johannes'' was published in 1832. He also published a ''Synopsis evangeliorum Matthaei, Marci et Lucae cum parallelis Joannis pericopis'', jointly with W. M. L. de Wette (1818).Synopsis evangeliorum
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References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucke, Gottfried Friedrich Christian 1791 births 1855 deaths 19th-century German Protestant theologians University of Bonn faculty University of Göttingen faculty People from Salzlandkreis 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers