HOFMANN, Johann Christian Konrad von (1810- 1877), Lutheran theologian, was born December 21, 1810, at Nuremberg, whence, after passing through the usual gymnasium course, he in 1827 proceeded to the university of Erlangen as a student of theology and history. In 1829 he became the pupil of Schleiermacher, Hengstenberg, Neander, and Ranke, at Berlin; in 1832 he passed his examination as a candidate in theology at Erlangen; and in the following year he received an appointment to teach Hebrew and history in the gymnasium there. In 1835 and 1838 respectively he “habilitated” in the philosophical and in the theological faculty at Erlangen, where in 1841 he was appointed professor extraordinarius in theology. In 1842 he accepted a call to an ordinary theological chair at Rostock, but in 1845 he returned once more to Erlangen, where he had been nominated as successor of Harless. Apart from his professorial and literary activities, his life was a singularly uneventful one; he was, however, an enthusiastic adherent of the political party of progress, and as such sat as member for Erlangen and Fürth in the Bavarian second chamber from 1863 to 1868. His death occurred on December 20, 1877....
He wrote Die siebzig Jahre des Jeremias u. die siebzig Jahrwochen îles Daniel, 1836; Geschichte des Aufruhrs in den Cevennen, 1837; Lehrbuch der Weltgeschichte, 1839, which became a text-book in the Protestant gymnasia of Bavaria; Weissagung u. Erfüllung iuι alten u. neuen Testamente, 1841-44, 2cΓed., 1857-60; Der Schriftbeweis, 1852-56, 2d ed., 1857-60; Die Heilige Schrift Neuen Testaments zusammenhängend untersucht, 1862-75; and Theologische Ethik, 1878. He also edited, in conjunction with Holling and Thomasius, the Zeitschrift für Protestantismus u. Kirche from 1846 onwards. His most important works are the four last named. In Weissagung u. Erfüllung he not only carries out the idea, originated by Herder, that the entire Old Testament as an organic whole is one great connected prophecy, pointing towards Christ, but elaborates the thought that the New Testament also is organically prophetic of the last things. In the Schriftbeweis, on the fundamental axiom that the history of redemption as recorded in Scripture is the history of a development he at great length sets forth the methods according to which dogmatic theology must seek for and use the Scripture proofs on which it is or ought to be based. His work upon the New Testament discusses the credibility of the several books, and seeks to ascertain the place occupied by each in the organic whole. The Theologische Ethik unfolds the scheme of Christian duty as arising out of the new relations of the believer to God through Christ. In theology as in ecclesiastical polity Hoffmann was a Lutheran of a very extreme type, although the strongly marked individuality of some of his opinions laid him open to repeated accusations of heterodoxy.
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