Christoph Friedrich von Ammon (January 16, 1766 – May 21, 1850) was a German theological writer and preacher. He was born at Bayreuth, Bavaria and died at Dresden.
Life
editEarly life
He was one of five children[1]born to Philipp Michael Paul von Ammon and Eleonore Maria Eusebia Griesshammer.[2] His father was a privy councillor attached to the Prussian court while his mother came from a family of clergymen.[3][4] Ammons paternal grandfather Johann Christoph Ammon was also a clergyman and theological writer who had successfully debated with Lorenz Christoph Mizler on whether there existed music in heaven.[5]
Through a daughter of his younger brother Friedrich Daniel Jonathan he was the grand-uncle of the author August Engelhardt.[6]
Education
editAmmon was educated by private teachers. He was also taught by his relatives; like his maternal grandfather Christoph Heinrich Griesshammer whom he often visited and his father's brother Georg Conrad Lorenz Ammon who lived in Ansbach.
Ammon also received guidance from the Lutheran theologian Friedrich Immanuel Schwarz.[7]His teachers encouraged him and instilled a love for languages and sciences. Additionally he read Homer, studied the Hebrew language, learned to act out the prose and metrical writings of the Old Testament and was therefore immediately placed in the top class of the Gymnasium in Bayreuth on January 19, 1783.[2]
Career
editAfter completing his studies at Erlangen, he held various professorships in the philosophical and theological faculties of Erlangen and Göttingen, succeeded Franz Volkmar Reinhard (1753–1812) in 1813 as court preacher and member of the Upper Consistory of the Church of Saxony at Dresden .[8][9]
Seeking to establish for himself a middle position between rationalism and supernaturalism, he declared for a "rational supernaturalism," and contended that there must be a gradual development of Christian doctrine corresponding to the advance of knowledge and science. But at the same time he sought, like other representatives of this school of thought, such as Karl Bretschneider and Julius Wegscheider, to keep in close touch with the historical theology of the Protestant churches.[9] The term Offenbarungsrationalismus ("epiphanic rationalism") has been used to express Ammon's intermediate views.[8]
He was a man of great versatility and extensive learning, a philologist and philosopher as well as a theologian,[8] and a very voluminous author. His principal theological work was the "Fortbildung des Christenthums zur Weltreligion", in 4 volumes (Leipzig, 1833–1840); "Entwurf einer reinen biblischen Theologie" appeared in 1792 (2nd edition, 1801), "Summa Theologiae Christianas" in 1803 (other editions, 1808, 1816, 1830); "Das Geschichte des Lebens Jesu" in 1842, and "Die wahre und falsche Orthodoxie" in 1849.[9]
Von Ammon's style in preaching was terse and lively, and some of his discourses are regarded as models of pulpit treatment of political questions.[8][9]
Marriage
editIn 1790 the 31 July at Erlangen he married Elisabetha Breyer, daughter of clergyman and philosopher Johann Friedrich Breyer. One year after his marriage he became a brother-in-law of Wilhelm Friedrich Hufnagel who was a supporter of theistic rationalism and had previously been Ammons teacher. Hufnagel was married to Elisabethas younger sister Karoline.[10]
This was not only the important family connection gained through the marriage; Ammons father-in-law was also the cousin of the father of Hegel and had served as the godfather at his baptism. Therefore though the relation was somewhat distant Hegel corresponded with[11][12] and is also known to have visited von Ammon in Dresden.[13]
They had two sons and three daughters;
- Wilhelm Friedrich Philipp (b. 1792- d.1856) Married Mathilde Wilhelmine Klingspohr and had issue.
- Wilhelmine Friederike Luise (b. 1793- d.1873) Married to August Ludwig Gottlob Krehl and mother to Ludolf Krehl
- Dorothea Sabine
- Leonore Friederike Karoline
- Friedrich August Married Natalie Redlich and had issue.
- Wilhelm Karl Tobias
After her death von Ammon married Marianne Becker on 9 June 1823. She was the daughter the court councillor and former inspector of the Cabinet of Antiquities Dr. Becker. This marriage was without issue.
Later life
editIn 1846 his grand-daughter Anna (the daughter of his son Friedrich August) gave birth to her second son. The then aged eighty-year-old von Ammon baptized the child[14] who was named Max Lothar von Hausen.
In 1849 he retired from his position as court preacher.
Death
editHe died at Dresden.
References
edit
- ^ Ammon, Christoph Friedrich von (1825). Genealogische Nachweisung des Familienadels der von Ammon im Königreiche Baiern und Sachsen (in German). Wagner.
- ^ a b Fikenscher, Geo Wolfg Aug (1806). Vollständige akademische Gelehrten Geschichte der Königlich preussischen Friedrich-Alexanders Universität zu Erlangen von ihre Stiftung bis auf gegenwärtigen Zeit (in German).
- ^ Fikenscher, Geo Wolfg Aug (1806). Vollständige akademische Gelehrten Geschichte der Königlich preussischen Friedrich-Alexanders Universität zu Erlangen von ihre Stiftung bis auf gegenwärtigen Zeit (in German).
- ^ Fränkisches Archiv ¬Des ¬Fränkischen ¬Archivs ... ¬Band (in German). Mizler. 1791.
- ^ Foretastes of Heaven in Lutheran Church Music Tradition: Johann Mattheson and Christoph Raupach on Music in Time and Eternity. Rowman & Littlefield. 2015-01-16. ISBN 978-1-4422-3264-8.
- ^ "VERENA Friederika Karolina Engelhardt". geni_family_tree. 2022-04-27. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
- ^ Fikenscher, Geo Wolfg Aug (1806). Vollständige akademische Gelehrten Geschichte der Königlich preussischen Friedrich-Alexanders Universität zu Erlangen von ihre Stiftung bis auf gegenwärtigen Zeit (in German).
- ^ a b c d Ammon, Christoph Friedrich In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6, S. 253 f. (in German)
- ^ a b c d One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ammon, Christoph Friedrich von". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 861.
- ^ STRICKER, Wilhelm F. C. (1851). Erinnerungsblätter an W. F. Hufnagel, gesammelt und herausgegeben von seinem Enkel ... W. Stricker (in German).
- ^ Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1887). Briefe von und an Hegel (in German). Duncker & Humblot.
- ^ Reichlin-Meldegg, Karl Alexander freiherr von (1853). Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus und seine zeit. nach dessen literarischem nachlasse (in German). Verlags-magazin.
- ^ Nicolin, Friedhelm; Pöggeler, Otto (1984-01-01). Hegel-Studien Band 19 (in German). Felix Meiner Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7873-2944-1.
- ^ Brabant, Artur (1926). Generaloberst Max Freiherr von Hausen: ein deutscher Soldat : mit 2 skizzen Hausens, 12 Abbildungen und einer Handschriftprobe : nach seinen Tagebüchern, Aufzeichnungen und Briefen (in German). W. und B. von Baensch.
