STAUDENMAIER, Franz Anton. - Theologian, born 1 September 1800 at Dordorf (Württemberg), died 19 January 1856 at Freiburg im Breisgau.
Having obtained his doctorate in theology at Tübingen with the thesis *Geschichte der Bischofswahlen* (Tübingen 1830), after his ordination and a year of pastoral ministry he became professor of apologetics and dogmatics at the University of Giessen (1830), Kuhn (v.) he founded the *Jahrbücher für Theologie und christliche Philosophie* (1834–38), in which he published various articles. He taught the same subjects at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau (1837), where with colleagues he founded the *Zeitschrift für Theologie* (1829–48); in 1843 he was appointed canon of the Freiburg cathedral and carried out intense scholarly and religious activity.
After an incomplete essay on Eriugena Johannes Scotus (Frankfurt 1834), he published a series of theological monographs in which his speculative acumen is evident, at first too personal but later increasingly aligned with the documents of Revelation and the magisterium of the Church: *Encyclopédie der theologischen Wissenschaften als System der gesammten Theologie* (Mainz 1834; 2nd ed. 1840, in 2 vols., of which only the 1st appeared); *Geist des Christenthums* (ibid. 1850), inspired by Chateaubriand’s *Génie du christianisme*; *Geist der göttlichen Offenbarung, oder Wissenschaft der Geschichtsprincipien des Christenthums* (Giessen 1837); *Die Philosophie des Christenthums oder Metaphysik der heiligen Schrift als Lehre von den göttlichen Ideen und ihrer Entwicklung in der Natur, im Geiste und in der Geschichte* (ibid. 1838, remaining at the 1st part, of four announced), dedicated to Günther (v.); *Die christliche Dogmatik* (I–II, Freiburg 1844; III, ibid. 1848; IV, ibid. 1852, incomplete): a work rich in personal insights, centered on the idea of the *regnum Dei*, conceived as a dogmatics in a predominantly ecclesiological sense. He also wrote important works to refute Kant and Hegel (especially their concept of the philosophy of history), whose influence he had felt in his youth.