Karl August Gottlieb Keil

Karl August Gottlieb Keil

Karl August Gottlieb Keil, (born April 23, 1754 in Großenhain , † April 22, 1818 in Leipzig ) was a German Protestant theologian.

Life

The son of an excise inspector lost both parents when he was four years old. He then grew up with relatives who took care of him. At the age of ten he came to Leipzig, where he later also attended the Nikolaischule . He then moved to the University of Leipzig in 1773 , where he first completed his basic studies at the philosophical faculty and completed them in 1778 when he obtained the academic degree of a master's degree . After working as a private tutor in Leipzig for three years, he acquired a teaching license for universities as a Magister Legens in 1781 and held philosophical and exegetical lectures as a private lecturer.

In 1785, with his baccalaureate in theology , Keil gained access to the theological faculty of the Leipzig University, where he held lectures on theological ethics . In the same year he was given an extraordinary professorship in philosophy at the Leipzig University; 1787 the extraordinary professorship in theology. With this he became an early preacher at the Paulinerkirche . After Franz Volkmar Reinhard, professor of theology from Wittenberg, moved to Dresden as senior court preacher, he was the first candidate for his position at the University of Wittenberg .

However, since his teacher Samuel Friedrich Nathanael More had died, he withdrew from the application and in 1793 became consistorial assessor, holder of the fourth full professorship in theology in Leipzig. In 1799 he rose to the third professorship, obtained the second professorship in 1805 and in 1815 became the first professor of the theological faculty. During his academic time he also took on organizational tasks at the Leipzig University and was elected rector of the institution several times .

As a theological representative of rationalism , he continued the work of his predecessor More and, in doing so, took a path into systematic theology. His main work was the textbook of hermeneutics of the New Testament according to the principles of grammatical-historical interpretation, in which he precisely interpreted the New Testament science. In his entire creative period, however, he did not produce anything lastingly important or groundbreaking.

literature

• Gotthard Lechler:  Keil, Karl August Gottlieb . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, p. 532 f.
• Eckhard Plümacher :  KEIL, Carl August Gottlieb. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 3, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-035-2 , Sp. 1290-1293.
• Woldemar Schmidt: Real Encyclopedia for Protestant Theology and Church , 3rd Edition, Vol. 10, pp. 196–197

Web links

• Overview of Karl August Gottlieb Keil's courses at the University of Leipzig (winter semester 1814 to summer semester 1818)