The Hidden Origins of the German Enlightenment

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Martin Mulsow (University of Erfurt) H. C. Erik Midelfort (University of Virginia)

The Hidden Origins of the German Enlightenment

Martin Mulsow (University of Erfurt), H. C. Erik Midelfort (University of Virginia)

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English

Cambridge University Press
03 April 2025

History; Regional & national history; European history; Religion & beliefs; Religion: general

Series: Ideas in Context

The early German Enlightenment is seen as a reform movement that broke free from traditional ties without falling into anti-Christian and extremist positions, on the basis of secular natural law, an anti-metaphysical epistemology, and new social ethics. But how did the works which were radical and critical of religion during this period come about? And how do they relate to the dominant 'moderate' Enlightenment?

Martin Mulsow offers fresh and surprising answers to these questions by reconstructing the emergence and dissemination of some of the radical writings created between 1680 and 1720. The Hidden Origins of the German Enlightenment explores the little-known freethinkers, persecuted authors, and secretly circulating manuscripts of the era, applying an interdisciplinary perspective to the German Enlightenment. By engaging with these cross-regional, clandestine texts, a dense and highly original picture emerges of the German early Enlightenment, with its strong links with the experience of the rest of Europe.

By: Martin Mulsow (University of Erfurt)
Translated by: H. C. Erik Midelfort (University of Virginia)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Weight: 593g
ISBN: 9781009241113
ISBN 10: 1009241117
Series: Ideas in Context
Pages: 411
Publication Date: 03 April 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction; 1. The mortal soul: biblicism, materialism and the new science; 2. Nature and idolatry. The ambivalence of the natural from Henry Stubbe to Christian Gabriel Fischer; 3. The doctrine of the temperaments: medicine and the problem of atheism; 4. Natural law, religion and moral scepticism; 5. From Becmann to Stosch: the Socinian contexts of the concordia rationis et fidei [the harmony of reason and faith] (1692); 6. The founders of religion as human beings: Moses and Jesus between inflation and deflation; Conclusion.

Martin Mulsow is Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Erfurt, where he is currently Director of the Gotha Research Center. An internationally renowned intellectual historian, he has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. He is the author of more than ten monographs, winner of numerous awards and member of several academies. His recent publications include Enlightenment Underground: Radical Germany 1680–1720 (2015) and Knowledge Lost: A New View of Early Modern Intellectual History (2022). H. C. Erik Midelfort, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, has translated several works by noted German historians, including Bernd Moeller, Peter Blickle, and Wolfgang Behringer. Most recently he translated Martin Mulsow's book, Knowledge Lost (Princeton University Press, 2022).