In theology, as in ecclesiastical polity, Hofmann was a Lutheran of an extreme type, although the strongly marked individuality of some of his opinions laid him open to repeated accusations of heterodoxy.
It is difficult to believe that this doctrine was ever put forward sincerely; in the most of those who professed it, it was certainly no more than a veil by which they sought to cover their heterodoxy and evade its consequences.
As a result of his favourable review of Bunsen's "Biblical Researches" contributed to Essays and Reviews (1860) he was prosecuted for heterodoxy.
This work caused some commotion, as much by the novelty of its method as by the heterodoxy of its matter, and more by its omissions than by its positive teaching, though everywhere the author seeks to put theological doctrines in a decidedly modern form.
Renan, however, says that he merely tried to justify Averroism against the charge of heterodoxy.