Neander, Johann August Wilhelm

Neander, Johann August Wilhelm

(yō`hän ou`go͝ost vĭl`hĕlm nāän`dər), 1789–1850, German theologian and church historian. Of Jewish parentage, he became a Lutheran (1806), changing his name from David Mendel. In 1813 he became professor of church history at the Univ. of Berlin. A disciple of Friedrich SchleiermacherSchleiermacher, Friedrich Daniel Ernst
, 1768–1834, German Protestant theologian, b. Breslau. He broke away from the Moravian Church and studied at Halle. Ordained in 1794, he accepted a post as a Reformed preacher in Berlin.
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, he was one of the leaders in the attempt to mediate between the rationalists and the extreme orthodox Lutheran theologians. He wrote many books, of which the best known is Allgemeine Geschichte der christlichen Religion und Kirche (11 vol., 1825–52; tr. General History of the Christian Religion and Church, 9 vol., 1847–55).