Troeltsch liest Semler (und Lessing). Exemplarische Beobachtungen zur problemgeschichtlichen Fundierung der europäischen Kultursynthese in den Rezensionen und Kritiken

Abstract

Abstract The study examines for the first time Ernst Troeltsch’s discussion of Johann Salomo Semler and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in the reviews and criticisms and thus makes a contribution to the historicization of his Enlightenment interpretation and his reflective historicism. The analyzed reviews show Troeltsch as an intimate connoisseur of the 18th century history of theology, who did not let his differentiated concept of modernity become one-sided in contemporary diagnostic interest, but developed it in a critical examination of cultural-historical Enlightenment research. The analysis shows in an exemplary way how Troeltsch critically and in his own language makes historical sources and literary studies his own, in order to locate himself in the analyzed cultural-historical overall picture with this appropriation. An in-depth section highlights the reflection of his review work in the different text versions of his Kant and Protestantism studies, including insightful handwritten notes.