PLANCK, GOTTLIEB JAKOB. - Lutheran theologian, b. 15 Nov. 1751 at Nürtingen in Württemberg, d. at Göttingen on 31 Aug. 1833.
He was an eminent figure both in his territorial church (where he served for more than twenty years as general superintendent) and in theology, succeeding C. W. F. Walch in the chair of ecclesiastical history and symbolic theology. His orientation, which may be described as a “rational supernaturalism,” represents the transition from rigid Lutheranism to an Enlightenment position. He formulated his system in substantial works on the history of theology and the Church and in comparative expositions of the dogmatic methods of the Christian churches (“symbolics”), which were also appreciated by Catholics of the period, for example by J. A. Moehler.
His principal work is the Geschichte der Entstehung, der Veränderungen und der Bildung unseres protest. Lehrbegriffs (6 vols., Leipzig 1781–1800).