Johann Franz Buddeus

Johann Franz Buddeus or Budde (sometimes Johannes Franciscus Buddeus) (25 June, 1667 – 19 November, 1729) German Lutheran theologian and philosopher; born at Anklam, Swedish Pomerania, where his father was pastor, died at Gotha.

Johann Franz Buddeus was a descendant of the French scholar Guillaume Budé (also known by the Latinized name Budaeus); the Huguenot family fled France after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, and those who emigrated to Pomerania Germanized their name as Budde, the Latin equivalent of which was Buddeus. Johann Franz early received a thorough education in classical and Oriental languages, and had read the Bible through in the original before he went to the University of Wittenberg in 1685. He was appointed adjunct professor of philosophy there soon after taking his master's degree in 1687, and in 1689 exchanged this for a similar position at Jena, where he also paid much attention to the study of history. In 1692 he went to Coburg as professor of Greek and Latin in a Gymnasium, and the next year to the new University of Halle as professor of moral philosophy. Here he remained until 1705, when he went to Jena as second professor of theology. His lectures embraced all branches of this science, and frequently touched on philosophy, history, and politics. Respected by all as a man and a Christian, he remained at Jena for the rest of his life, several times acting as rector of the university temporarily and being head of his department and an ecclesiastical councilor from 1715.

He was considered the most universally accomplished German theologian of his time. In philosophy he professed an eclecticism which rested on a broad historical foundation; but he recognized in Descartes the originator of a new period, and in attacking the "atheist" Spinoza followed especially the upholders of the law of nature, such as Hugo Grotius, Puffendorf, and Thomasius. His theological position was determined by the tradition of Johannes Musäus at Jena, partly through his close relations with Baier; but on another side he was inclined toward Pietism. His association with Spangenberg, Spener, and Zinzendorf brought him under suspicion and actually gave rise to a formal investigation of his doctrine. In certain ways, too, he was influenced by federalist theology, but without allowing it to lead him beyond the bounds of Lutheran orthodoxy. In all departments he showed himself a man of sound learning and scholarly instincts. His work was epoch-making in church history, especially that dealing with the Old Testament and the apostolic age. Taken as a whole, the life of Buddeus belongs to the transition period which follows that of simple orthodoxy; the influence of a new age and new leading interests appears in him, and at times he seems to be conscious of the change. Yet in his Biblical criticism he did not get so far as to make the slightest concession; not a verse of a canonical book can be touched without injuring the perfection of the whole. As an academic teacher he attained great success, and he had the gift of a striking and pregnant style, especially in Latin.

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