Less, Gottfried

Less, Gottfried a noted German theologian of the Pietistic school, was born in 1736 at Conitz, in West Prussia. He was a pupil of Baumgarten, professor of theology at Gottingen. He studied at the universities of Halle and Jena, and in 1762 became court preacher at Hanover. He was rather a practical than scholastic theologian, and was inclined both to Mysticism and Pietism. Less was author of a work on the authenticity, uncorrupted preservation, and credibility of the New Testament, which has been translated from German into English, and highly commended by Michaelis and Marsh. It is not so prolix as Lardner. The German title is Beweis der Wahrheit der christlichen Religion (1768). He also wrote Ueber die Religion (1786): — Versuch einer praktischen Dogmatik (1779): — Christliche Moral (1777).