Johann Peter Laage, a German theologian, born at Sonnborn, near Elberfeld, April 10, 1802. Of humble origin, he seized occasional advantages for study, spent a year and a half at the gymnasium of Dusseldorf, and in 1822 entered the university of Bonn. He studied theology under Lucke and Nitzsch, and after preaching at Langenberg and Duisburg, became in 1841 professor of church history and dogmatics at Zurich. In the beginning of 1854 he was appointed professor of systematic theology at Bonn, and in 1860 counsellor of the consistory. He has published theological and exegetical works of great thoroughness and ability. The most celebrated are his Leben Jesu (3 vols., Heidelberg, 1844-'7; English translation, "The Life of the Lord Jesus Christ," by Sophia Taylor and J. E. Ryland, Philadelphia, 1872), which appeared during the Strauss controversy, and is in some respects one of the ablest works on the subject; Die christliche Dogmatik (3 vols., 1849-52); Die Geschichte der Kirche (part i., Das aposto-lische Zeitalter, 2 vols., Brunswick, 1853-'4); and his great Theologisch-homiletisclie Bibel-werk, forming the basis of what has been published in America as "Lange's Commentary," of which the plan and the treatment of the leading books of the Old and New Testaments are Lange's, and appeared in Germany from 1853 to 1864, while portions are by other scholars.

The American translation is edited by Prof. Philip Schaff (New York, 1865 et seq.).