Christian Hermann Weisse (; ; Weiße in modern German; 10 August 1801 – 19 September 1866) was a German

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

religious philosopher Religious philosophy is philosophical thinking that is influenced and directed as a consequence to teachings from a particular religion. It can be done objectively, but may also be done as a persuasion tool by believers in that faith. Religious ...

and professor of philosophy at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

. He was the son of theologian (1766–1832).

Biography

Weisse was born in

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 ...

, and studied at the university there, at first adhering to the

Hegelian 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 ...

school of philosophy. In the course of time, his ideas changed, and became close to those of

Schelling Schelling is a surname. Notable persons with that name include: * Caroline Schelling (1763–1809), German intellectual * Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), German philosopher * Felix Emanuel Schelling (1858–1945), American educato ...

in his later years. He developed (along with I. H. Fichte with whom he regularly corresponded after 1829)Anatol Schneider, ''Personalität und Wirklichkeit: nachidealistische Schellingrezeption bei Immanuel Hermann Fichte und Christian Hermann Weisse'', Königshausen & Neumann, 2001, pp. 73–4. a new speculative

theism Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with '' deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred ...

, and became an opponent of Hegel's

idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected t ...

. In his addresses on the future of the Protestant Church (''Reden über die Zukunft der evangelischen Kirche'', 1849), he finds the essence of Christianity in Jesus' conceptions of the heavenly Father, the Son of Man and the kingdom of Heaven. In his work on philosophical

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Isla ...

tics (''Philosophische Dogmatik oder Philosophie des Christentums'', 3 vols., 1855–1862) he seeks, by idealizing all the Christian dogmas, to reduce them to natural postulates of reason or conscience. Weisse was the first theologian to propose the

two-source hypothesis The two-source hypothesis (or 2SH) is an explanation for the synoptic problem, the pattern of similarities and differences between the three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It posits that the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke were ba ...

(1838), which is still held by a majority of biblical scholars today. In the two-source hypothesis, the Gospel of Mark was the first gospel to be written and was one of two sources to the

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and form ...

and the

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...

, the other source being the

Q document The Q source (also called Q document(s), Q Gospel, or Q; from german: Quelle, meaning "source") is a hypothetical written collection of primarily Jesus' sayings (λόγια : ). Q is part of the common material found in the Gospels of Matthew ...

, a lost collection of Jesus's sayings. Weisse was a contributor to I. H. Fichte's

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and ...

'' Zeitschrift für Philosophie und spekulative Theologie''. He died in his native city of

, aged 65.

Works

* ''System der Ästhetik'' (2 vols., 1830) * ''Die Idee der Gottheit'' (1833) * ''Die philosophische Geheimlehre von der Unsterblichkeit des menschlichen Individuums'' (1834) * ''Büchlein von der Auferstehung'' (1836) * ''Die evangelische Geschichte, kritisch und philosophisch bearbeitet'' (2 vols., 1838) * ''Reden über die Zukunft der evangelischen Kirche'' (1849) * ''Philosophische Dogmatik oder Philosophie des Christentums'' (3 vols., 1855–1862) * ''Die Evangelienfrage in ihrem gegenwärtigen Stadium'' (1856) * ''Psychologie und Unsterblichkeitslehre'' (edited by R. Seydel, 1869)

Notes

References

* This work in turn cites: **

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 ...

, ''Development of Theology'' (1890) ** Rudolf Seydel, ''Christian Hermann Weisse'' (1866) ** Rudolf Seydel, ''Religion und Wissenschaft'' (1887)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weisse, Christian Hermann 1801 births 1866 deaths Writers from Leipzig German philosophers 19th-century German Protestant theologians 19th-century philosophers 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers