Johann Christian Edelmann: Sämtliche Schriften / Band 8: Die Göttlichkeit der Vernunft

Edelmann (1698–1767) was a forerunner of the German Enlightenment. He stood up quite openly for the English deists and their religion of reason, which he associated with the idea of logos and the commandment of love. He was the first to invoke Spinoza and his radical criticism of the Bible. Edelmann was vigorously opposed to every kind of orthodoxy and ultimately denied the historical Christian faith. His polemic pamphlets are examples of classic polemics. In the course of the Edelmann'schen Streites (Edelmann dispute), his books were burned by the hangman. It was because of the Brethren church and his work on the Berleburg Bible translation that Edelmann became more open in relation to the scriptures and eventually had a purely human image of Christ. This edition of his works contains facsimile reprints of the original editions of all the writings Edelmann published himself as well as a reprint of his autobiography and previously unpublished works from his literary estate. Walter Grossmann has provided an introduction for each work.