J. H. Kurtz

J. H. Kurtz (1809–1890) was a German Lutheran theologian and church historian, born Johann Heinrich Kurtz at Montjoie in the Rhineland. After teaching religion at the gymnasium in Mitau he became professor of church history and then of Old Testament at the University of Dorpat in Russian Livonia in 1850, retiring to Marburg in 1870. His Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, first published in 1849 and revised through many editions, became the standard textbook of church history in the German universities and, in English translation, in Britain and America. He also wrote a history of the Old Covenant and a widely used manual of sacred history for schools.