Julius Müller (10 April 1801 – 27 September 1878) was a German Protestant

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 ...

Biography

He was born at Brieg (now

Brzeg Brzeg (; Latin: ''Alta Ripa'', German: ''Brieg'', Silesian German: ''Brigg'', , ) is a town in southwestern Poland with 34,778 inhabitants (December 2021) and the capital of Brzeg County. It is situated in Silesia in the Opole Voivodeship on t ...

, Poland) and studied at Breslau,

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

– first law, which he later abandoned for theology. From 1825 to 1831, he was in charge of several small parishes. In 1831, he was second university preacher at

Göttingen University Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The o ...

, and lectured on practical theology and pedagogics. In 1834, he became professor extraordinarius of theology there. From 1835 to 1839 he was professor in

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 approxima ...

. In 1839 he became professor ordinarius of theology at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university in ...

, where he remained for the rest of his life. He died at Halle. A disciple of Neander and friend of

Richard Rothe Richard Rothe (28 January 1799 – 20 August 1867) was a German Lutheran theologian. Biography Richard Rothe was born at Posen, then part of Prussia. He studied theology in the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin (1817–20) under Karl Daub, ...

, Müller bitterly opposed the philosophy of

G. W. F. Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

and the criticism of

F. C. Baur Ferdinand Christian Baur (21 June 1792 – 2 December 1860) was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology (named for the University of Tübingen where Baur studied and taught). Following Hegel ...

. His book, ''Über den Gegensatz des Protestantismus und das Catholicismus'' (''On the opposition of Protestantism and Catholicism'', 1833), called forth a reply from Baur, and he was one of those who attacked

David Strauss David Friedrich Strauss (german: link=no, Strauß ; 27 January 1808 – 8 February 1874) was a German liberal Protestant theologian and writer, who influenced Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus", whose divine nature he ...

's ''Life of Jesus''. In 1846, he had been deputed to attend the General Evangelical Synod at Berlin. Here he supported the Consensus-Union and afterwards defended himself in the pamphlets ''Die erste Generalsynode der evangelische Landeskirche Preussens'' (1847) and ''Die evangelische Union, ihr Wesen und göttliches Recht'' (1854). In 1848 he helped to found the ''Deutsch-evangelische Kirchentag'', and two years later founded and edited (1850–1861), with

August Neander Johann August Wilhelm Neander (17 January 178914 July 1850) was a German theologian and church historian. Biography Neander was born at Göttingen as David Mendel. His father, Emmanuel Mendel, is said to have been a Jewish peddler, but August ...

and Karl Nitzsch, the ''Deutsche Zeitschrift für christliche Wissenschaft und christliches Leben''. His chief work, however, was ''Die christliche Lehre der Sünde'' (''The Christian teaching of sin'', 2 vols., 1839; 5th ed., 1867; Eng. trans. from 5th ed.), in which he went so far as “to revive the ancient

Gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...

theory of the fall of man before all time, a theory which found no favour amongst his theological friends” (

Otto Pfleiderer Otto Pfleiderer (1 September 1839 – 18 July 1908) was a German Protestant theologian. Through his writings and his lectures, he became known as one of the most influential representatives of liberal theology. Biography Pfleiderer was born at S ...

). Müller's other works include ''Dogmatische Abhandlungen'' (1870), and ''Das christliche Leben'' (3rd ed., 1847).

Family

His brothers were Karl Otfried Müller (1797–1840), an archeologist and philologist, and Eduard Müller (1804–1875), a philologist.

References

* * * ;Attribution * This work in turn cites M. Kähler, ''Julius Müller'' (1878); L. Schultze, ''Julius Müller'' (1879) and ''Julius Müller als Ethiker'' (1895).

External links

* * Julius Muller'
"Die Lehre vom Evangelischen Cultus," ca. 1842
is in the Harvard Divinity School Library at

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Julius 1801 births 1878 deaths People from Brzeg 19th-century German Protestant theologians People from the Province of Silesia University of Breslau alumni University of Göttingen alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg faculty University of Göttingen faculty University of Marburg faculty 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers