1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Baumgarten-Crusius, Ludwig Friedrich Otto

BAUMGARTEN-CRUSIUS, LUDWIG FRIEDRICH OTTO (1788–1842), German Protestant divine, was born at Merseburg. In 1805 he entered the university of Leipzig and studied theology and philology. After acting as Privatdocent at Leipzig, he was, in 1812, appointed professor extraordinarius of theology at Jena, where he remained to the end of his life, rising gradually to the head of the theological faculty. He died on the 31st of May 1842. With the exception of Church history, he lectured on all branches of so-called theoretical theology, especially on New Testament exegesis, biblical theology, dogmatic ethics, and the history of dogma, and his comprehensive knowledge, accurate scholarship and wide sympathies gave peculiar value to his lectures and treatises, especially those on the development of church doctrine. His published works are many, the most important being:—Lehrbuch der christtichen Sittenlehre (1826); Grundzüge der biblischen Theologie (1828); Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte (1832); Compendium der Dogmengeschichte (1840). The last, perhaps his best work, was left unfinished, but was completed from his notes in 1846 by Karl Hase.