The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Hahn, August

HAHN, August, a German theologian, born near Eisleben, March 27, 1792, died in Breslau, May 13, 1863. He was educated at Eisleben, Leipsic, and Wittenberg, in 1819 was appointed extraordinary professor of theology at Königsberg, and gained distinction by his writings on Bardesanes, Marcion, and Ephraem. In 1827 he was called to the ordinary professorship of theology at Leipsic, and published De Rationalismi, qui dicitur, Vera Indole, et qua cum Naturalismo contineatur Ratione. He regarded a supranatural revelation as the necessary foundation of religion. In his treatise entitled Offene Erklärung an die evangelische Kirche zunächst in Sachsen und Preussen (1827) he maintained that the rationalists ought in conscience voluntarily to leave the evangelical church. In 1833 he was called as consistorial counsellor and ordinary professor to Breslau, and in 1844 he was made general superintendent for Silesia. He also published Lehrbuch des christlichen Glaubens (1828; 2d ed., 1858), and an edition of the Hebrew Bible (1831).