He was born at Kübelingen, Braunschweig. He studied theology at Helmstädt, was tutor in a Hamburg family from 1795 to 1805, Repetent at the University of Göttingen, professor of theology at Rinteln in Hesse (1806-1815), and at the University of Halle from 1815.
In 1830, along with his colleague Wilhelm Gesenius, he was threatened with deposition for teaching rationalism, and though he retained his office he lost his influence, which passed to Friedrich Tholuck and Julius Müller.
His chief works were Über die von der neuesten Philosophie geforderte Trennung der Moral von der Religion (1804); Einleitung in das Evangelium Johannis (1806); and Institutiones theologicae dogmaticae (1815), to which W Steiger's Kritik des Rationalismus in Wegscheiders Dogmatik (1830) was a reply.
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.