| Julius Wegscheider | |
| Birth Name: | Julius August Ludwig Wegscheider |
| Birth Date: | 27 September 1771 |
| Birth Place: | Küblingen, Kingdom of Prussia, Holy Roman Empire |
| Death Place: | Halle, Kingdom of Prussia, Holy Roman Empire |
| Nationality: | German |
| Alma Mater: | University of Helmstedt |
| Language: | German |
Julius August Ludwig Wegscheider (27 September 177127 January 1849), was a German Protestant theologian.
Wegscheider was born at Küblingen (now a part of Schöppenstedt, Lower Saxony). He studied theology at the University of Helmstedt, where he was a pupil of Heinrich Philipp Konrad Henke. From 1795 to 1805, he worked as a tutor to the family of a wealthy Hamburg merchant. In 1805 he presented a dissertation titled Graecorum mysteriis religioni non obtrudendis at the University of Göttingen. He then served as a professor of theology at the University of Rinteln (1806–1810), and at the University of Halle from 1810 onwards.[1]
Wegscheider was a leading figure of dogmatic theological rationalism - for instance, he considered supernatural revelation to be an impossibility.[2] Because of his rationalist teachings, he, along with his colleague Wilhelm Gesenius, were attacked by followers of Supernaturalism, creating a situation that led to a government investigation (1830).[3] Ultimately, he retained his office at Halle, but lost his former influence.[4]