Christian August Crusius (10 January 1715 – 18 October 1775) was a German

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

Biography

Crusius was born in

Leuna Leuna () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, eastern Germany, south of Merseburg and Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle, on the river Saale. The town is known for the ''Leuna works, Leunawerke'', at 13 km2 one of the biggest chemical industrial complexes i ...

in the

Electorate of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony ( or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356 to 1806 initially centred on Wittenberg that came to include areas around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. It was a ...

. He was educated at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), 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 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

, and became professor of theology there in 1750, and principal in 1773. Crusius first came to notice as an opponent of the philosophy of

Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Isaac Newton, Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in ad ...

and Christian Wolff from the standpoint of religious orthodoxy. He attacked it mainly on the grounds of the

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. ...

evils that must flow from any system of

determinism Determinism is the Metaphysics, metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes ov ...

, and attempted to vindicate the freedom of the will. The most important works of this period of his life are ''Anweisung, vernünftig zu leben'' uide to Rational Living(1744), ''Entwurf der nothwendigen Vernunftwahrheiten wiefern sie den zufälligen entgegengesetzt werden'' Necessary Truths of Reason, in so far as they are Opposed to Contingent Truths">Principle of sufficient reason">Necessary Truths of Reason, in so far as they are Opposed to Contingent Truths(1745), ''Weg zur Gewissheit und Zuverlässigkeit der menschlichen Erkenntniss'' ath to Certainty and Reliability in Human Knowledge(1747), and ''Anleitung, über natürliche Begebenheiten ordentlich und vorsichtig nachzudenken'' nstruction on How to Reflect Correctly and Cautiously on Natural Events(1749). Crusius' philosophical books had a great but short-lived popularity. His criticism of Wolff influenced

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...

at the time when his system was forming; and his ethical, as well as epistemological, doctrines are cited in his habilitation thesis and the '' Critique of Practical Reason''. Kant was both "deeply influenced by Crusius" and also explicitly refuted Crusius' characterization of Spirit in a footnote of his Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics: "Crusius alone thought of a compromise: that a Spirit, who can neither err nor deceive, implanted these laws in us originally. But since false principles often intrude themselves, as indeed the very system of this man shows in not a few examples, we are involved in difficulties as to the use of such a principle in the absence of sure criteria to distinguish the genuine origin from the spurious, as we never can know certainly what the Spirit of truth or the father of lies may have instilled into us." Kant also owned ''Anweisung'', ''Entwurf'', and ''Anleitung.'' Crusius's later life was devoted to theology. He led the party in the university which became known as the "Crusianer" as opposed to the "Ernestianer," the followers of Johann August Ernesti. The two professors adopted opposite methods of exegesis. Ernesti wished to subject the Scripture in the same way as other ancient books; Crusius held firmly to orthodox ecclesiastical tradition. He died in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

Philosophical work

Crusius's chief theological works are ''Hypomnemata ad theologiam propheticam'' (1764–78), and ''Kurzer Entwurf den Moraltheologie'' (''Short Outline of Moral Theology''; 1772–73); his most important philosophical work is ''Entwurf der notwendingen Venunftwahrheiten'' reprinted Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1963. He opposed innovation in such matters as the accepted authorship of canonical writings, verbal inspiration, and the treatment of persons and events in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

as types of the New. His views have influenced later evangelical students of the

, such as Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg and

Franz Delitzsch Franz Delitzsch (23 February 1813, in Leipzig – 4 March 1890, in Leipzig) was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Delitzsch wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, as well as a history of J ...

. There is a full notice of Crusius in Ersch and Gruber's ''Allgemeine Encyclopädie''. See also Johann Eduard Erdmann's ''History of Philosophy''; Anton Marquardt, ''Kant und Crusius''; and article in Herzog-Hauck, ''Realencyklopädie'' (1898).

Notes

References

* Crusius, Christian August.''Die philosophische Hauptwerke'', edited by Giorgio Tonelli, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1964 (four volumes). * Tonelli, Giorgio. "Crusius, Christian August" in Paul Edwards, ''The Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', New York: Macmillan, 1967, vol. 2, pp. 268–271.

External links

The Birth of Ontology. A selection of Ontologists from 1560 to 1770

''Entwurf der nothwendigen Vernunftwahrheiten'' 3rd edition (1766)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crusius, Christian August 1715 births 1775 deaths People from Leuna People from the Electorate of Saxony 18th-century German Protestant theologians 18th-century German philosophers Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of Leipzig University German male non-fiction writers 18th-century German male writers