Vertheidigter Glaube der Christen

The renowned Berlin court and cathedral preacher and senior consistorial councillor August Friedrich Wilhelm Sack (1703-1786) was, alongside Spalding, the decisive founding father of Neology. His work "Defended Faith of the Christians," published in eight instalments, provided the epoch's key theological portal work. In this theology of religion apology, Sack advocated enduringly for freedom of religious thought and conscience, as well as for an assurance of Christian faith achievable through independent reflection. In the concept of revelation, Sack did not see a contradiction but a complement to natural reason - illumined by God itself; as the "telescope of reason," revelation makes the natural religious truths clearly recognizable in the first place. Sack left the material body of doctrine, including the traditional doctrines of atonement and the Trinity, largely untouched; only regarding the doctrine of original sin did he deny the existence of a sufficient biblical foundation. Sack maintained friendly relations with Gleim, Klopstock, and Wieland, and conducted intensive Enlightenment-theoretical correspondence, for example with the historian Johannes Müller, the Zurich scholars Breitinger, Bodmer, and Zimmermann, as well as with the Englishman Kennicot. Even Pope Clement XIV expressed his regret that, due to his ignorance of the German language, he was unable to read Sack's writings. Owing to its initial and decades-long enduring significance, Sack's "Defended Faith of the Christians," which was also translated into Dutch and French, deserves a permanent place in the "Library of Neology." The changes in the second edition, critically indicated in this edition based on the first edition chosen as the reference text, are of particular interest because they can impressively and concretely show how the author's theological self-revision - guided by the progress of neological theoretical work - unfolded over a span of 20 years.