GOLDHAGEN, HERMANN. – Jesuit, philologist, and exegete, born in Mainz on 14 April 1718, died in Munich on 28 April 1794. He first taught classical literature at Mannheim and Mainz (1746–56), then exegesis (1756–64), subsequently devoting himself to the publication of apologetic and scriptural works refuting the errors propagated by the theists and the Enlightenment thinkers. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus, he was court councillor in Mainz and then in Munich.
Leaving aside numerous school textbooks, written in elegant Latin, the following should be mentioned: Hodegus Biblicus, sive nova methodus S. Bibliam intra annum, cum fructu legendi, horae quadrante quot diebus impenso (Mainz 1763); Introductio in S. Scripturam (3 vols., ibid. 1765–68); Vindiciae harmonico-criticae in S. Scripturam (2 vols., ibid. 1774–75). In ascetical theology he composed: Amseisung zu der hochsichtigen Andacht zum beiliegten Herzen J. C. (St. Gallen 1767); Grundlehren des Christenthums (Mainz 1771). He also published the bimonthly periodical Religions-Journal (1776–94), a collection of passages by various writers in defence of Christianity, with commentaries; from 1797 to 1804 it was continued by others under the title Journal der Religion, Wahrheit u. Literatur.