BAHRDT, KARL FRIEDRICH. - Protestant theologian, the "enfant terrible" of theological "Aufklärung," born on 20 Aug. 1741 at Bischofswerda, died at Halle on 23 Apr. 1792. Having grown up in vice, the young Bahrdt neglected his studies, yet he became a "magister" and preacher at Leipzig, where he gained a reputation for his eloquence, which contributed to his later successes. From 1766 to 1768 he was professor of ecclesiastical philology, but due to his immoral life, he had to leave this chair and subsequently taught secular sciences at Erfurt, Giessen, and Halle.
Wherever he went, he boldly professed deism, denying all revelation. In his work *System der moralischen Religion*, he presented Christ as a great "naturalist." Finally expelled from university teaching, he became an innkeeper at a vineyard near Halle, where he also founded a masonic society. In 1789 he was imprisoned and wrote immoral novels and his autobiography. He published many works from 1768 to 1791 on the Old and New Testaments, with historical-philological pretensions but devoid of scientific value.