KRAFFT, JOHANN CHRISTIAN GOTTLOB LUDWIG: German Reformed minister; b. at Duisburg (15 m. n. of Düsseldorf) Dec. 12, 1784; d. at Erlangen May 15, 1845. He was educated at Duisburg, and then was for five years a private tutor in Frankfort. In 1808 he was appointed pastor of the Reformed congregation at Weeze, near Clèves, and in 1817 of that at Erlangen, where in the following year he became professor of theology in the university. For some years after his marriage (1811) his mind was filled with doubts regarding the great truths of the Gospel, but study opened his eyes, and at the time of his appointment to the pastorate at Erlangen he had become a firm Biblical supernaturalist. His conviction that Holy Scripture from beginning to end is the work of the Holy Spirit became thenceforth the basis of his theology. Exegesis and apologetics became his life-work, and his chief aim was to educate theologians thoroughly grounded in the Bible. During his professorship at Erlangen he lectured to large audiences on pastoral theology, dogmatics, New-Testament exegesis, and the history of missions, being the first German professor to discuss the last-named topic. Though he was not an exceptionally eloquent preacher, his energy and earnest faith did much to make Krafft an important factor in the revivification of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria at a period when the influence of ultra-rationalism had caused its decline. He published a treatise, De servo et libero arbitrio (Nuremberg, 1818), seven sermons on Isa. Iiii., and four on I Cor. i. 30. His Chronologie und Harmonie der vier Evangelien was published after his death by Dr. Burger (Erlangen, 1848).

(K. GOEBEL†.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Thomasius, Das Wiedererwachen des evangelischen Lebens in der lutherischen Kirche Bayerns, pp. 171 sqq., Erlangen, 1867.

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KRAFFT, KARL JOHANN FRIEDERICH WILHELM:Briefe und Dokumente aus der Zeit der Reformation (in collaboration with W. L. Krafft; Elberfeld, 1876); Rückblick auf die synodale Geschichte des bergischen Landes (1878); Geschichte der beiden Märtyrer der evangelischen Kirche, Clarenbach and Fliesteden (1886); and Lebensbild des Kaufmanns Daniel Hermann (1895).

(F. SIEFFERT.)