Christian Friedrich Schmid

Christian Friedrich Schmid (May 25, 1794 – March 28, 1852) was a German Lutheran theologian born in the village of Bickelsberg (now part of Rosenfeld), Württemberg.

He received his education at seminaries in Denkendorf, Maulbronn and Tübingen, later becoming an associate professor of practical theology at the University of Tübingen (1821). In 1826 he was appointed a full professor at Tübingen, a position he maintained for the rest of his career.

Schmid was an important representative of the school of Supranaturalism at Tübingen. He was an advocate of the positive foundations of Lutheranism, a theological trend which dated back to the time of Johann Albrecht Bengel (1657-1752). He was considered an excellent instructor, his lectures primarily dealing with practical, moral and exegetical theology. Among his better known students were Philip Schaff (1819-1893), Isaak August Dorner (1809-1884) and William Julius Mann (1819-1892).

He published relatively little during his lifetime, his best known work, Biblische Theologie des neuen Testaments (Biblical Theology of the New Testament), was published posthumously in 1853, and later translated into English in 1870. Another noted work, Christliche Sittenlehre (Christian Ethics 1861), was also published after his death.