1801 – 1866
Christian Hermann Weisse (1801–1866) was a German philosopher and theologian at the University of Leipzig who developed a post-Hegelian Speculative Theism, arguing for a personal, self-conscious God against Hegel's impersonal Absolute. He sought to reconcile speculative philosophy with Protestant Christianity, maintaining that God and the human soul are genuinely distinct, free, and personal spiritual beings. He is also notable in biblical scholarship for early advocacy of Markan priority in the Synoptic Gospels.
Developed Speculative Theism as a critique and revision of Hegelian pantheism toward a personal, free God
Argued for the rational coherence of believing both God and the self to be genuinely mental, personal substances
Early proponent of Markan priority and the Two-Source Hypothesis in Synoptic Gospel criticism (1838)
Authored Philosophische Dogmatik (1855–1862), a systematic speculative theology
Influenced later German personalist and theistic traditions as professor at Leipzig for over three decades