KUGLER, FRANZ XAVER. - Jesuit, astronomer, and Assyriologist, b. Nov. 27, 1862, at Königsbach (Palatinate), d. Jan. 25, 1925, at Lucerne. Ordained priest in 1893, he was a pupil of the astronomers J. Epping and J. N. Strassmaier; from 1897 he taught mathematics at the College of Valkenburg. He refuted the assertions made by F. Delitzsch, H. A. Winckler, and A. Jeremias regarding the influence of Assyrian astronomical culture on Holy Scripture, pointing the way toward a balanced middle ground.
Works: Babylon und Christentum: die Angriffe Delitzsch auf das Alt. Test. (Freiburg in Br. 1903); Die Götter Babylon und das Neue Test. (ibid. 1905); Sternkunde u. Sterndienst in Babel (3 vols., Münster in V. 1907-24); Im Bannkreis Babels: Panbabilonistische Konstruktionen und religionsgeschichtliche Tatsachen (ibid. 1910); Von Moses bis Paulus: Forschungen zur Geschichte Israels (ibid. 1922). Not all approve his tendency to determine biblical facts precisely according to our chronology.