Graul, Karl, Dd

Graul, Karl, D.D., a German theologian, was born February 6, 1814, at Worlitz, near Dessau. After studying theology at Leipzic, he was for a time tutor in an English family residing in Italy. On his return he was appointed teacher in a school at Dessau, and in 1844, director of the missionary society of Dresden. During his management, which lasted for 18 years, this society had an almost tenfold increase of its annual revenue, and from being a society merely of the little kingdom of Saxony, became a general Lutheran missionary society of Continental Europe. In order to give to the pupils of the missionary seminary an opportunity to attend the lectures of a university, Graul caused, in 1848, its transfer from Dresden to Leipzic. He concentrated all the efforts of the Church upon the missionary work among the Tamuls in South India, and from 1849 to 1853 made himself a journey through Palestine and Egypt to India, to examine the condition and the prospects of the mission. While in India he devoted a special attention to the study of the language and literature of the Tamuls, as the result of which he published the Bibliotheca Tamulica (Leipz. 1854-56, 3 volumes). He also published an account of his journey in 5 volumes. (Reise nach Ostindien, Leipz. 1854-56). In the question of caste, Graul was opposed to the practice of all the English and American missionary societies, and in favor of tolerating the differences of caste among the Christian converts. He published, in defense of his views, in 1852, a pamphlet in the English language at Madras, and in 1861 another in the German language at Leipzic (Die Stellung der evdngel.-luther. Mission in Leipzig zur ostind. Kastenfrage, 1861). He resigned his place as director of the missionary seminary at Leipzic, and in 1862 went to Erlangen with a view of connecting himself with the university, but a serious sickness prevented him from carrying out this design. He died November 10, 1864. Of the numerous works of Graul, that which had the greatest circulation was a small treatise on the differences of doctrine between the Christian denominations (Die Unterscheidungslehren der verschiedenen kirchl. Bekenntnisse, Lpz. 1845; revised by Harnack, 1867), in which he shows an extreme unfairness in his remarks on Pietists and Methodists. The most noteworthy among his other works is one on Irenaeus (Die christl. Kirche an der Schwelle des iren. Zeital-ers, Lpz. 1860). — Herzog, Real- Encyklop. 19:578.