RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Kottwitz Krafft
with Schleiermacher and especially Neander. In 1833 he was called to the Johanneum at Hamburg as professor of Biblical philology and philosophy, and in 1840 he became professor of theology • at Rostock, where he remained until the end of his life. He lectured chiefly on systematic and practical theology. He was also elected preacher of the university and leader of the homiletical seminar, in 1844 a member of the theological board of examiners, and in 1851 a member of the consistory. He took a very active part in the affairs of the university, being elected six times its rector. His lifework tended throughout toward the practical side of religious and churchly life. He made it his chief task to combat rationalism in the theological faculty, and in the State Church of Mecklenburg; and he was especially in harmony with Kliefoth's efforts (see Kliefoth, Theodoe Friedrich Dethlof) for the reassertion of the Lutheran confession and the Lutheran church order. His most important dogmatic work is Die Lehre von der Silnde und vom Tode in ihrer Beziehung zu einander und zu der Auferstehung Christi (Hamburg, 1836). According to Krabbe, Schleiermacher with his doctrine of the activity of the redemption of Christ had firmly founded an essential basis of Christian conviction, but because he ignored the essence and importance of sin, he had not penetrated to an adequate understanding of atonement and redemption. Krabbe developed on the basis of the Old and New Testament the Biblical doctrines of the original condition, of the fall and its consequences, emphasizing the fact of the resurrection of Christ in its central importance. Other works are: Vorlesungen uber das Leben Jesu (1839); Die evangelische Landeskirche Preussens und ihre bffentlichen Rechtsverhdltnisse (Rostock, 1849); August Neander (Hamburg, 1852); Die Universitdt Rostock im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert (Rostock, 1854); Aus dem kirchlichen und ausserkirchlichen Leben Rostocks. Zur Geschichte Wallensteins und des dreissigjdhrigen Krieges (Berlin, 1863); Heinrich Mutter und seine Zeit (Rostock, 1866); David Chytraeus (1870); Wider die gegenwdrtige Richtung des Staatslebens im Verhdltnis zur Kirche (1873). (K. Schmidt.)
Bibliography: Allgemeine evangelisch-lutherische Kirchenzeitung, 1874, pp. 99 sqq.; Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 1874, pp. 209 sqq.
KRAFFT, ADAM: Early German Protestant; b. at Fulda 1493; d. at Marburg Sept 9, 1558. He studied at Erfurt (B.A., 1512; M.A., 1519), preached for a time at Fulda, and afterward went to Hersfeld. He then became court-preacher to Philip the Magnanimous, of Hesse, who made him superintendent at Marburg in 1526, and professor of theology in 1527. He took a prominent part in all important measures for establishing Protestantism in Hesse, and as the head of the Reformation in Hesse exerted a large influence on the history of the country. Carl Mirbt.
Bibliography: F. W. Strieder, Hessische Gelehrtengeschichte, u. 373-383, Cassel, 1782; F. W. Hassencamp, Hessische Rirchengeschichte, i. 76 sqq., Frankfort, 1864.
KRAFFT, JOHANN (CRATO VON CRAFFT- HEIM): German physician and advocate of Protestantism; b. at Breslau Nov. 22, 1519; d.
there Oct. 19, 1585. In 1534 he entered the University of Wittenberg, where he lived six years on terms of intimate friendship with Luther and Melanchthon. At the instance of the former he studied medicine at Leipsic and at Padua. After his return to Germany he was appointed physician in ordinary to his native town (1550), in 1560 to the Emperor Ferdinand I., and then successively to Maximilian II. and Rudolf II. He utilized the great confidence which he enjoyed under Emperor Maximilian for the advancement of Protestantism, continually frustrating the attempts of Bishop Hoseus and of the Jesuits to lure Maximilian to the side of the opponents of Protestantism. He was an advocate of the milder Melanchthonian tendency of German Protestantism, and opposed the stricter Lutherans under Flacius. After the overthrow of Melanchthonianism in 1574 his opponents succeeded in breaking his influence with the court. In 1581 he retired to his estate, Riickerts, near Reinerz, in the county of Glatz, but in 1583 he returned to Breslau, where he exercised a decisive influence upon the confessional change at the court of Liegnitz, Brieg, and Ohlau. (Paul Tschackert.)
Bibliography: His Consilia et epistoloe medicinales, ed. L. Scholz, appeared in 7 vols., Frankfort, 1671. His life was written by A. G. E. T. Henschel, Breslau, 1853. Consult further J. F A. Gillet, Crato von Crafftheim und seine Freunde, 2 vols.. Frankfort, 1860.
KRAFFT, JOHANN CHRISTIAN GOTTLOB LUDWIG: German Reformed minister; b. at Duisburg (15 m. n. of Dusseldorf) Dec. 12, 1784; d. at Erlangen May 15, 1845. He was educated at Duisburg, and then was for five years a private tutor in Frankfort. In 1808 he was appointed pastor of the Reformed congregation at Weeze, near Cleves, and in 1817 of that at Erlangen, where in the following year he became professor of theology in the university. For some years after his marriage (1811) his mind was filled with doubts regarding the great truths of the Gospel, but study opened his eyes, and at the time of his appointment to the pastorate at Erlangen he had become a firm Biblical supernaturalist. His conviction that Holy Scripture from beginning to end is the work of the Holy Spirit became thenceforth the basis of his theology. Exegesis and apologetics became his life-work, and his chief aim was to educate theologians thoroughly grounded in the Bible. During his professorship at Erlangen he lectured to large audiences on pastoral theology, dogmatics, New- Testament exegesis, and the history of missions, being the first German professor to discuss the lastnamed topic. Though he was not an exceptionally eloquent preacher, his energy and earnest faith did much to make Krafft an important factor in the revivification of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria at a period when the influence of ultra-rationalism had caused its decline. He published a treatise, De servo et libero arbitrio (Nuremberg, 1818), seven sermons on Isa. liii., and four on I Cor. i. 30. His Chronologie und Harmonie der vier Evangelien was published after his death by Dr. Burger (Erlangen, 1848). (K. GoEBELf.)
Bibliography: G. Thomasius, Das Wiedererwachen des
evangelischen Lebens in der lutherischen Kirche Bayerns,
pp. 171 sqq., Erlangen, 1867.
Krafft Krauth