Christian August Crusius

1715-1775. German theologian. Born at Leuna and educated at Leipzig University where he became successively professor of philosophy (1744) and of theology (1750), he attacked in a series of important works the determinism of Leibnitz, the perfectionism of Wolff, and the biblical criticism of his colleague Ernesti as dangerously anti- Christian. Founding all spiritual knowledge on divine revelation which he tried to prove harmonizes completely with reason, Crusius constructed in his three-volume Hypomnemata ad theologiam propheticam (1764-78) a theological system heavily dependent on typology and special theories of prophetic interpretation. For a number of years the University of Leipzig was divided into Ernestians and Crusians. His “prophetic theology” was rediscovered and popularized in the nineteenth century by Hengstenberg* and Delitzsch.*