Friedrich Wilhelm Stosch

Friedrich Wilhelm Stosch (born December 25, 1648 in Kleve , † August 20, 1704 in Berlin , epitaph in the Parochialkirche (Berlin) ) was a German theologian and eclectic philosopher .

Life

As the son of the Kurbrandenburg Oberhof and cathedral preacher Bartholomäus Stosch (1604–1686) he studied law, theology and philosophy in Frankfurt (Oder) . Here he got to know Cartesianism and Socinianism . After graduating, he traveled through European countries (France, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany), where he was able to gain extensive knowledge.

In 1678 he was in the service of the Elector of Brandenburg as secret chamber secretary and councilor until 1688. He had to quit for health reasons. Now he could devote himself to his own studies, the study of truth and virtue , as he put it. As a result of his studies, he anonymously published the book Concordia Rationis et Fidei (The Agreement of Reason and Belief) in 1692 .

This book caused a great sensation in the circles of the evangelical clergy. In this book, Stosch referred to Spinoza's concept of substance , traced the origin of the soul back to a materialistic explanation and identified free will with determinism . For him the Christian religion was seen as a phenomenon of the laws of nature, which he can count on as part of the early German Enlightenment.

The book was placed on the prohibition index in 1693. On January 9, 1694, possession of the book was forbidden on all pulpits of the churches in Berlin under a penalty of 500 thalers or a corresponding corporal punishment. In early 1694 a commission was formed under the chairmanship of Ezechiel Spanheim , which also included Daniel Ernst Jablonski , Benjamin Ursinus , Samuel Pufendorf , Philipp Jakob Spener and Eusebius Brandt (1642–1706). This commission should investigate the allegation of atheism .

On March 17, 1694, he declared the revocation of his theses in the book. Subsequent statements, however, indicate that he had not given up his beliefs. His book was put on fire in public. In 1701 he was taken back to the electoral service and took part in the coronation in Königsberg (Prussia) as a councilor. He was also raised to the nobility on January 18, 1701, on the occasion of the coronation.

Works

• Concordia Rationis et Fidei sive Harmonia Philosophiae Moralis et Religionis Christianae (agreement of reason and faith or the harmony of moral philosophy and the Christian religion), Amsterdam 1692 (actually printed in Berlin or Guben). - New edition ed. by Winfried Schröder, Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart - Bad Cannstatt 1992. ISBN 3-7728-1415-8

literature

• Detlef Döring : Early enlightenment and official censorship in Brandenburg. Friedrich Wilhelm Stosch and the proceedings against his book “Concordia rationis et fidei” . Berlin 1995 (= sources and research on Brandenburg and Prussian history, 7) ISBN 3-428-08268-0 .
• Bruno Jahn: Biographical Encyclopedia of German Language Philosophers , Munich 2001, p. 412.
• Martin Pott: Enlightenment and superstition. The early German Enlightenment as reflected in its criticism of superstition . Tübingen 1992, pp. 295-303.
• Gottfried Stiehler : Materialists of the Leibniz Period , Berlin 1966, p. 27.
• Gottfried Stiehler: Contributions to the history of pre-Marxist materialism . Berlin 1961, pp. 139-163.
• Paul Tschackert:  Stosch, Friedrich Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 36, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, p. 463.
• Erich Wenneker :  Stosch, Friedrich Wilhelm. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 15, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-077-8 , Sp. 1360-1365.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Siegfried Wollgast: The Socinianism and the German Early Enlightenment. Würzburg medical history reports 21 (2002), pp. 397–445; P. 435 f.