OLSHAUSEN, HERMANN. - Protestant exegete of a positive theological orientation, opponent of rationalism, idealism, and Romanticism, b. at Oldeshoe (Holstein) on 21 Aug. 1796, d. at Erlangen on 4 Sept. 1839.
A disciple of Schleiermacher and Neander in Berlin, in 1817 he won a prize for his work composed on the third centenary of the “Reformation”: Melanchthons Charakter aus seinen Briefen dargestellt. In 1818 he was a theology tutor in Berlin, in 1820 a privatdozent, in 1821 extraordinary professor at Königsberg, and in 1827 full professor. In this city he was at first influenced by the pastor Ebel, who sought to Christianize the dualistic gnosis of J. H. Schönherr; but from 1826 onward he completely broke away from him, in order firmly to maintain the line of a “biblical Christianity.” In 1834 he accepted the full professorship at Erlangen, where, always in poor health, he lived for another five years.
Works of greater importance: Hist. Eccl. veteris monumenta (1820-22); Die Echtheit der vier kanon. Evangelien aus der Gesch. der zwei ersten Jahrh. erwiesen (1823); Ueber tieferen Schriftsinn (1824); Christus der einzige Meister (1826); Kommentar über sämtliche Schriften des Neuen Test. zunächst für Prediger und Studierende (4 vols., 1830 ff.); Ueber die frühesten Verhältnisse der röm. Gemeinde, in Theol. Studien und Kritik, 11 (1938), pp. 916-62 (against Chr. F. Baur, he maintains that the tradition that the apostle Pietro was in Rome cannot be regarded as legend).