Johann Philipp Gabler (4 June 1753 – 17 February 1826) was a German
Protestant Christian theologian of the school of
Johann Jakob Griesbach and
Johann Gottfried Eichhorn.
Gabler was born at
Frankfurt-am-Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian dialects, Hessian: , "Franks, Frank ford (crossing), ford on the Main (river), Main"), is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as o ...
. In 1772 he entered the
University of Jena as a
theological student
A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution.
In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementar ...
. In 1776 he was on the point of abandoning theology when the arrival of Griesbach inspired within him a new enthusiasm for the subject. After having been successively ''Repetent'' in the
University of Göttingen and teacher in the
public schools
Public school may refer to:
*State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
*Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England and ...
of
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
(
Westphalia) and
Altdorf (
Bavaria), he was appointed second professor of theology at the
University of Altdorf in 1785, then promoted to a chair in Jena in 1804, where he succeeded Griesbach in 1812 and remained until his death.
At Altdorf, Gabler published (1791–93) a new edition, with
introduction and
notes, of Eichhorn's ''Urgeschichte''. This was followed, two years later, by a supplement entitled ''Neuer Versuch uber die mosaische Schopfungsgeschichte''. He also wrote many
essays characterized by
critical acumen, and which had considerable influence on the course of German thought in various issues within theology and
Biblical studies
Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 Fo ...
.
From 1798 to 1800 he was editor of the ''Neuestes theologisches Journal'', first jointly with H.K.A. Hänlein (1762–1829),
Christoph Friedrich von Ammon
Christoph Friedrich von Ammon (January 16, 1766 – May 21, 1850) was a German theological writer and preacher. He was born at Bayreuth, Bavaria and died at Dresden.
He studied at Erlangen, held various professorships in the philosophical and ...
and
Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus, and afterwards as sole editor; from 1801 to 1804 of the ''Journal für theologische Litteratur''; and from 1805 to 1811 of the ''Journal für auserlesene theologische Litteratur''. Some of his essays were published by his sons (2 vols., 1831); and a memoir appeared in 1827 by W. Schröter.
Gabler is widely considered to be the father of modern biblical theology because of his 1787 inaugural address at University of Altdorf: ''On the Correct Distinction Between Dogmatic and Biblical Theology and the Right Definition of Their Goals.''
Gabler sharply distinguished between biblical and dogmatic theology. For him, biblical theology was simply historical investigation into the beliefs of the biblical authors as they stand in the text. It is purely descriptive and uninfluenced by the viewpoints of modern thinkers. On the other hand, dogmatic theology is a systematized construction, built on the foundation of biblical theology and contextualized — applied to the context or era in which it is to be proclaimed.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabler, Johann Philipp
1753 births
1826 deaths
Writers from Frankfurt
18th-century German Protestant theologians
19th-century German Protestant theologians
19th-century German male writers
German male non-fiction writers
18th-century German male writers
18th-century biblical scholars
18th-century Christian biblical scholars