Lutheran theologian of the German idealist school, which held, in general, that reality is spiritual rather than material and is discerned by studying ideas rather than things.

Rothe was educated at the University of Heidelberg, where he studied under the leading German idealist philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. He was a professor there for most of his career after 1837. In that year he published his celebrated monograph on the origins of the church and its polity, Die Anfänge der christlichen Kirche und ihrer Verfassung (“The Beginnings of the Christian Church and Its Constitution”). In this work Rothe discussed the relationship between church and state, contending that the state needs the church to reach its goal of demonstrating moral conduct in everyday life. He believed that, eventually, the earthly communities of the state would arrive at such perfection that the church and state would become congruent and the church would wither away in favour of a Christian state, which would be both a religious and moral society. Rothe's idealism is evident especially in his assertion that the goal of all history is the elevation of humanity to a totally spiritual level that approaches the life of God himself.

Rothe is also remembered for Theologische Ethik, 3 vol. (1845–48; “Theological Ethics”), which reflects his ideas on the relationship between church and state, and Stille Stunden (1886; “Still Hours”), gathered from his devotional writings.