KEIM, Theodor (1825-1878), a prominent German theologian of the “mediation” school, was born December 17, 1825, at Stuttgart, where he attended the gymnasium, proceeding in 1843 to Tübingen, at which university he continued to study until 1848, F. C. Baur being the teacher who exercised the greatest influence over his thinking. For some time he held a private tutorial appointment, and in 1850 he attended classes at Bonn, returning in 1851 to his alma mater as “repetent.” In 1857 he became diaconus at Esslingen, and two years afterwards rose to the rank of archdeacon. From 1860 to 1873 he held the office of professor ordinarius of theology in Zürich, and from 1873 until shortly before his death in November 1878 he occupied a similar post at Giessen....
He wrote Reformationsgeschichte der Reichsstadt Elm, 1851; Schwäbische Reformationsgeschichte bis zum Reichstage von Augsburg, 1855; Reformationsblätter der Reichsstadt Esslingen, 1860; Ambrosius Blarer, der Schwäbische Reformator, 1860; Der Uebertritt Konstantin’s d. Gr. zum Christenthum, 1862; two volumes of sermons entitled Freundesworte zur Gemeinde, 1861-62; and Celsus’ wahres Wort, 1873. But the works to which he owes the considerable celebrity he possesses among Protestant theologians even outside of Germany are those in which he has investigated, with much patience of independent research and acuteness of discernment as well as with unusual power of noble appreciation, the narrative of the life of Christ contained in the gospels. Die menschliche Entwickelung Jesu Christi (1861), Die geschichtliche Würde Jesu (1864), and Der geschichtliche Christus were followed by what without exaggeration may be called the truly great work, Geschichte Jesu von Nazara (3 vols., 1867-72; English translation, 1873-77), of which the Geschichte Jesu, nach den Ergebnissen heutiger Wissenschaft, fur weitere Kreise übersichtlich erzählt, 1873, is a popular abridgment.
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