The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Rothe, Richard

ROTHE, Richard, a German theologian, born in Posen, Jan. 28, 1799, died in Heidelberg, Aug. 20, 1867. He studied theology in Heidelberg, Berlin, and Wittenberg, was chaplain of the Prussian embassy in Rome for five years, became a professor in the Wittenberg theological seminary and its director, conducted a theological seminary at Heidelberg for twelve years, and was a professor of theology in Bonn and Heidelberg. His religious views are tinged with the philosophy of Schleiermacher and Hegel. He published Die Anfänge der christlichen Kirche und ihre Verfassung (1837); Zur Dogmatik (1863); and Theologische Ethik (3 vols., 1845-'8). A revised edition of the Ethik by Holtzman (5 vols., 1867-'71) contains the author's posthumous notes. His university lectures on dogmatics (Dogmatik, 1870), a collection of essays (Stille Stunden, 1872), and his lectures on church history, edited by Weingarten (1875), have appeared since his death. The best account of his life is Nippold's Richard Rothe, ein christliches Leben auf Grund der Briefe Rothe's (Wittenberg, 1873).