Christian Wilhelm Franz Walch


Christian Wilhelm Franz Walch was a protestant German theologian and professor of theology from Göttingen. He authored numerous books.

Life

Walch was born on 25 December 1726 in Meiningen. His father Johann Georg Walch was theologian, with theological position of moderate Lutheran orthodoxy. His older brother was Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch. In 1763 he married Eleonore Friderike Crome. Walch died on 10 March 1784 in Göttingen.
He studied theology, philosophy and oriental languages at the University of Jena. In 1745 he received MA degree of Philosophy. Here in the same year he became doctor of Theology and three years later Professor of Theology. He was interested in dogmatic theology, morality, exegesis, church history, history Christian of literature, and the canon law. He travelled with his brother to Netherlands, France, Italy, and Switzerland, making the acquaintance of the learned men of each country.
In 1750 he started work at the University of Jena as professor of Philosophy. In 1754 he started work at the University of Göttingen. The history of theology was the field of his special interest.
In 1760 he was promoted in the university administration to the Curator Aerariorum piorum, in 1765 and in 1784 he manager of the "Repetentenkollegs". On the end of 1766 he became the first professor of the theological faculty and in the Society of the sciences, philological-historical class, in Göttingen. In 1780 he was a manager of the society of the sciences in Göttingen.
His main work was Entwurf einer vollständigen Historie der Ketzereien, in which he described the history of the church from the apostolic age until the Reformation. In this work he defined a heresy on the one hand as a branch of Christianity and on the other as one in fundamental error. He claimed for the heretics a place in the church. This monumental work is still reprinted until the present day. One of the last edition of this work was published in 2002 by Adamant Media Corporation.

Works