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HANS ERICH BÖDEKER
on.”! This involved more than the mere transfer of contemporary philosophical
concerns to theology and the Church or the expression of general eighteenth¬
century transfer. After all, there was a tradition within Protestant theology
which regarded religious individualism as legitimized both by the New Testa¬
ment notion of faith and the idea of freedom put forward by the Reformation.
The emphasis which Protestant Enlightened theology placed on the right to
freedom of religious individual belief brought it into conflict with old Protes¬
tant orthodoxy, which was attempting to prevent the imminent disintegration
of a unified religious culture. Furthermore, Pietism, in standing up for freedom
of conviction, a relaxation of the obligation to confess to a religious creed, and
the ending of religious polemics, had prepared the ground for theological En¬
lightenment, even if, for reasons of dogma, it was often critical of it.”
The theologian Johann Joachim Spalding (1714-1804) turned the devel¬
opment of natural theology into a dependent science of men based on the
philosophy of religion. At the same time, building upon the premises of contem¬
porary philosophy, he advocated religious subjectivity. Thus he retrospectively
wrote in his autobiography: “I learned to come to terms with myself more and
more, and conscience became increasingly important to me.””?
Above all, however, it was Johann Salomo Semler (1725-1791), the leading
representative of historical-critical Enlightenment theology in Germany,** who
reflected upon and developed new approaches to religious individualism in the
theological discourse. Semler deserves the credit for having applied the crucial
distinction between religion and theology to the modernization of theology.*°
21 Cf. SPARN, “Verniinftiges Christentum” (note 3).
22 Cf. especially BRECHT, Martin (ed.), Pietismus im 18. Jahrhundert. Geschichte des Pietismus, Vol.
2, Göttingern, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995. See also WALLMANN, Johannes, Der Pietismus,
2nd ed., Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005, as well as useful suveys SCHMIDT, Martin,
Pietismus, Stuttgart, Kohlhammer, 1972, and SCHARFE, Martin, Die Religion des Volkes. Kleine
Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte des Pietismus, Gütersloh, Mohn, 1980.
SPALDING, Johann Joachim, Lebensbeschreibung von ihm selbst aufgesetzt und herausgegeben mit
einem Zusatz von dessen Sohn Karl Ludewig Spalding, Halle, Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses,
1804, 15.; for Spalding see now BEUTEL, Albrecht, Johann Joachim Spalding. Meistertheologe im
Zeitalter der Aufklärung, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2014.
> Cf. HornIg, Gottfried, Die Anfänge der historisch - kritischen Theologie. Johann Salomo Semlers
Schriftverständnis und seine Stellung zu Luther. Forschungen zur Systematischen Theologie und
Religionsphilosophie, Vol. 8, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1961, and SCHRÖTER, Mari¬
anne, Aufklärung durch Historisierung. Johann Salomo Semlers Hermeneutik des Christentums,
Berlin/Boston, De Gruyter, 2012.
°5 Cf. Hess, Hans-Eberhard, Theologie und Religion bei Johann Salomo Semler. Ein Beitrag zur The¬
ologiegeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts, PhD thesis, Free University of Berlin, 1974, and AHLERs,
Botho, Die Unterscheidung von Theologie und Religion. Ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte der Prak¬
tischen Theologie im 18. Jahrhundert, Gütersloh, Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1980, 101ff.
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