Baumgarten, Siegmund Jakob

BAUMGARTEN, SIEGMUND JAKOB: German theologian; b. at Wollmirstädt (8 m. n. of Magdeburg), Saxony, Mar. 14, 1706; d. at Halle July 4, 1757. He studied at the Halle Orphan Asylum, of which his father had been first inspector, and at the University of Halle. He became inspector of the Halle Latin School in 1726, assistant preacher to the younger G. A. Franks in 1728, associate on the theological faculty in 1730, and ordinary professor in 1743. He was a good teacher and his lectures were usually attended by from 300 to 400 hearers. His learning was vast and he was an industrious writer, publishing voluminous works on exegesis, hermeneutics, morals, dogmatics, and history, such as Auszug der Kirchengeschichte (4 vols., Halle, 1743–62); Evangelische Glaubenslehre (3 vols., 1759–60); Geschichte der Religionsparteien (1760); Nachricht von merkwürdigen Büchern (12 vols., 1752–57); and the first sixteen volumes in the Allgemeine Welthistorie (1744 sqq.). By adopting the formal scheme of the philosophy of Wolff and applying it to the theological ideas in which he was educated, Baumgarten came to form a transition from the Pietism of Spener and Francke to the modern rationalism. His enthusiastic disciple, J. S. Semler, who was called from Altdorf to Halle on his recommendation, edited many of his works and wrote his biography (Halle, 1758).

(F. Bosse.)