HAGENBACH, KARL RUDOLF German church historian, was born on March 4, 18o1 at Basel, where his father was a practising physician, and died there on June 7, 1874. In 1824 he became professor extraordinarius at Basel, and in 1829 professor ordinaries of theology. He supported "mediation theology" (V ermittelungstheologie) , based upon the fundamental conceptions of Herder and Schleiermacher. Hagenbach was much less revolutionary than were many others of his school. He sought to maintain the old confessional documents, and to make the objective prevail over the purely subjective manner of viewing theological questions.
His works include Encyclopddie u. Methodologie der theol. Wissen schaften (1833) ; Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte (184o-41, 5th ed., 1867 ; English trans., 185o) ; Vorlesungen caber die Kirchengeschichte von der dltesten Zeit bis zum rgten Jahrhundert (7 vols., 1868-72) . See E. Stahelin, Karl Rudolf Hagenbach (1875).