Muller, Julius

Muller, Julius a Protestant theologian of Germany, and brother of Karl Ottfried (q.v.), was born at Brieg, in Silesia, April 10, 1801. He studied jurisprudence at Breslau and Gottingen, according to the wish of his father, and at both universities Muller's dissertations gained prizes, so that in 1871 the faculty at Gottingen made him doctor of laws. But the ideal of a higher life was presenting itself to his mind, and he betook himself to the study of theology at Gottingen. He soon felt that the then Gottingen theology could not satisfy him, and so returned to Breslau, in 1822, to continue his theological studies. While Tholuck was on a visit to Breslau, Miller, at the suggestion of a friend, visited him. He afterwards carried on a correspondence with Tholuck, whose personality, rather than theology, influenced him. In the spring of 1823, Miller, by the urgent advice of Tholuck, went to Berlin, where Strauss, Neander, and Tholuck, but not Schliermacher, met the demands of his heart and mind. In 1825 he was called to the pastorate of Schonbrunn and Rosen, near Strehlen. Here he wrote his Zur Beurtheilung

der Schrift die katholische Kirche Schlesiens (Breslau, 1827). A second edition was soon called for. Soon after, he came into conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities, by refusing to introduce the new liturgy, and in May 1830, announced this as his final decision to the "consistorium." His official relations to the Church were thus endangered; but he was happily delivered from the inconvenience of a removal from his pastorate by a call, in 1831, to Gottingen, as university-preacher, with the promise of a professorship as soon as he should publish a learned book. In 1832 he commenced his academical career by publishing Lutheri de Praedestinatione et Libero Arbitrio Doctrina. He soon was made professor. In 1834 an urgent call as professor of systematic theology to Marburg could not be refused, and when Muller preached his last sermon in Gottingen (March 1885), Lucke, in behalf of the university, presented him with the degree of doctor of divinity. The contributions which Miller made to the Studien und Kritiken after 1833 prepared the way for the work which has immortalized his name, Die christliche Lehre von der Siinde (Engl. transl. The Christian Doctrine of Sin, Edinburgh, 1877, 2 volumes), of which several editions have been published. In 1839 Muller accepted a call to Halle, where, with Tholuck, he became the chief centre of attraction to the students. In 1850 he founded, in connection with Neander and Nitzsch, the Deutsche Zeitschrift fur christl. Wissenschaft und christliches Leben, to which he contributed many valuable articles, which, for the most part, have appeared in his Dogmatische Abhandlungen (Bremen, 1870). In the summer of 1878 he resigned his professorship, and died September 27 of the same year. A provision of his will stipulated that all his manuscripts should be destroyed. His works, besides those already mentioned, are De Miraculorum Jesu Christi Natura et Necessitate (Marburg, 1839): — Lutheri et Calvini Sententiae de Sacra Coena Inter se Comparatae (Halle, 1853): — Die evangelische Union, ihr Wesen und gottliches Recht (Berlin, 1854), besides several volumes of sermons. See Schulze. Dr. Julius Miiller (Bremen, 1879); Zum Geddchtniss an Dr. Julius Miller (ibid. 1878); Kahler, Dr. Julius Miiller, der hallesche Dogmatiker (Halle, 1878); Plitt-Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.; Schwarz, Zur Geschichte der neuesten Theologie (3d ed.), page 363 sq.; Lichtenberger, Encyclop. des Sciences Religieuses, s.v.; Zuchold, Bibl. Theol. 2:917. (B.P.)