Isaak August Dorner was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Lutheran church leader.

Life

He was born at Neuhausen ob Eck

Neuhausen ob Eck

Neuhausen ob Eck is a town in the district of Tuttlingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....

 in Württemberg

Württemberg

Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

, where his father was pastor. He was educated at Maulbronn and the University of Tübingen. After assisting his father for two years, he travelled in England and the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 to complete his studies and acquaint himself with different types of Protestantism

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

. He returned to Tübingen in 1834, and in 1837 was made professor extraordinarius of theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

, As a student at the university, one of his teachers had been Christian Friedrich Schmid

Christian Friedrich Schmid

Christian Friedrich Schmid was a German Lutheran theologian born in the village of Bickelsberg , Württemberg....

, author of the well-known Biblische Theologie des Neuen Testamentes and one of the most vigorous opponents of FC Baur

Ferdinand Christian Baur

Ferdinand Christian Baur was a German theologian and leader of the Tübingen school of theology...

. At Schmid’s suggestion, and with his encouragement, Dorner set to work on a history of the development of the doctrine

Development of doctrine

Development of doctrine is a term used by John Henry Newman and other theologians influenced by him to describe the way Catholic teaching has become more detailed and explicit over the centuries, while later statements of doctrine remain consistent with earlier statements.-Newman's book:The term...

 of the person of Christ, Entwicklungsgeschichte der Lehre von der Person Christi. He published the first part of it in 1835, the year in which David Strauss

David Strauss

David Friedrich Strauss was a German theologian and writer. He scandalized Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus," whose divine nature he denied...

, his colleague, published his Life of Jesus; completed it in 1839, and afterwards considerably enlarged it for a second edition (1845–1856). It was an indirect reply to Strauss, which showed, "profound learning, objectivity of judgment, and fine appreciation of the moving ideas of history" (Otto Pfleiderer

Otto Pfleiderer

Otto Pfleiderer was a German Protestant theologian.-Biography:He was born at Stetten in Württemberg. From 1857 to 1861 he studied at the University of Tübingen under FC Baur, and afterwards in England and Scotland...

).

The author at once became highly regarded as a theologian and historian, and in 1839 was invited to Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

 as professor ordinarius. It was there that he produced Das Princip unserer Kirche nach dem innern Verhältniss seiner zwei Seiten betrachtet (1841). In 1843 he moved as professor of theology to Königsberg

University of Königsberg

The University of Königsberg was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as second Protestant academy by Duke Albert of Prussia, and was commonly known as the Albertina....

. From there he was called to Bonn

University of Bonn

The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

 in 1847, and to Göttingen in 1853. Finally in 1862 he settled as a professor at Berlin, where he was a member of the supreme consistorial council. A few years later (1867) he published his valuable Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie (English translation, History of Protestant Theology, 2 volumes; 1871), in which he "developed and elaborated," as Pfleiderer says, "his own convictions by his diligent and loving study of the history of the Church’s thought and belief."

The theological positions to which he ultimately attained are best seen in his Christliche Glaubenslehre, published shortly before his death (1879–1881). It is "a work extremely rich in thought and matter. It takes the reader through a mass of historical material by the examination and discussion of ancient and modern teachers, and so leads up to the author's own view, which is mostly one intermediate between the opposite extremes, and appears as a more or less successful synthesis of antagonistic theses" (Pfleiderer). The companion work, System der christlichen Sittenlehre, was published by his son August Dorner

August Dorner

----August Dorner was a German theologian.He was the son of Isaak August Dorner. After studying at Berlin and acting as Repetent at Göttingen , he became professor of theology and co-director of the theological seminary at Wittenberg. Amongst his works is Augustinus, sein theologisches System und...

 in 1886. He also contributed articles to Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopädie, and was the founder and for many years one of the editors of the Jahrbücher fur deutsche Theologie.

He died at Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

 on 8 July 1884. One of the most noteworthy of the "mediating" theologians, he has been ranked with Friedrich Schleiermacher, August Neander

August Neander

Johann August Wilhelm Neander , was a German theologian and church historian.-Biography:Neander was born at Göttingen as David Mendel. His father, Emmanuel Mendel, is said to have been a Jewish pedlar, but August adopted the name of Neander on his baptism as a Protestant Christian...

, Karl Nitzsch

Karl Immanuel Nitzsch

Karl Immanuel Nitzsch , was a German Lutheran church leader.He was born at the small Saxon town of Borna near Leipzig. His father, Karl Ludwig Nitzsch, at that time pastor and superintendent in Borna, later became professor at Wittenberg and director of the seminary for preachers...

, Julius Müller

Julius Müller

Julius Müller , was a German Protestant theologian.-Biography:He was born at Brieg, and studied at Breslau, Göttingen and Berlin, first law, which he later abandoned for theology. From 1825 to 1831, he was in charge of several small parishes...

 and Richard Rothe

Richard Rothe

Richard Rothe was a German Lutheran theologian.-Biography:Richard Rothe was born at Posen, then part of Prussia....

.

His son August Dorner also became a prominent theologian.