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Chapter 2 - Transitions

The Conservative Enlightenment of Johann Lorenz von Mosheim and Johann Georg Walch

from Part I - Recasting German Protestantism, 1750–1790

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2024

Michael Printy
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
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Summary

This chapter examines two so-called transitional theologians who straddled the worlds of orthodox belief and learning and forward-looking scholarship and literary engagement. Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1693–1755) and Johann Georg Walch (1693–1775) pointed the way to a new view of the Reformation, even if the results of their interventions went much farther then they intended. Mosheim’s History of Michael Servetus sought a type of transhistorical reconciliation between the eponymous Spanish heretic and John Calvin, who had him burned at the stake in Geneva. Mosheim tried to acknowledge the occasional brutality of Reformation-era Protestants while contextualizing the historical attitudes of an earlier era. Walch’s twenty-four-volume Luther edition was notable not only for rendering Luther’s language into a readable vernacular, but also for a long historical essay on Luther’s “accomplishments.” Walch sought to both acknowledge the genuine contributions of the first Reformer while also stripping away some of the mythical status that had accrued to Luther through generations of pious veneration.

Type
Chapter
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Enlightenment's Reformation
Religion and Philosophy in Germany, 1750–1830
, pp. 58 - 90
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Transitions
  • Michael Printy, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: Enlightenment's Reformation
  • Online publication: 21 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009494038.004
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  • Transitions
  • Michael Printy, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: Enlightenment's Reformation
  • Online publication: 21 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009494038.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Transitions
  • Michael Printy, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: Enlightenment's Reformation
  • Online publication: 21 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009494038.004
Available formats
×