Gotthelf Samuel Steinbart

Gotthilf Samuel Steinbart, engraving by Daniel Berger (1785) after Johann Georg Rosenberg

Gotthelf Samuel Steinbart (born September 21, 1738 in Züllichau , † February 3, 1809 in Frankfurt (Oder) ) was a Protestant theologian , educator and philosopher of the Enlightenment . Steinbart was a representative of theological rationalism and neology .

Life

The father Johann Christian Steinbart ran a pietistic orphanage in Züllichau . At the school at Berge Kloster Gotthelf came into contact with Voltaire's writings for the first time , which he increasingly used for the Enlightenment. Steinbart studied Protestant theology in Halle with Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten and in Frankfurt (Oder) with Johann Gottlieb Töllner, before finally taking over the management of the orphanage in Züllichau from his father after a stay in Berlin.

In 1774 Steinbart was appointed to the Frankfurt professorship for philosophy and later, as an associate professor of theology, he was also the successor of his teacher Töllner. In 1778 Steinbart's work System der Pure Philosophy or Christianity's Doctrine of Bliss appeared ... which, in a rationalistic way, seeks to emphasize the connection between Christian teaching and lifestyle and inner-worldly happiness. Even though the virtues named by Steinbart, such as honesty, prudence or modesty, were generally recognized, self-love, happiness and contentment as maxims of Christian life challenged the protest of Lutheran Orthodoxy . The accompanying humanization of the figure of Jesus Christ to a virtue teacher provoked further conflicts.

Nevertheless, Steinbart received his doctorate in theology with his work, which was still published several times, and then in 1787 as theological advisor to King Friedrich Wilhelm III. appointed and appointed as high school board member and in the Berlin high school board. Other more or less popular scientific works followed. A teachers' seminar was attached to the Züllichau educational institution, which he still managed, and Steinbart also took over the management. It was only with the decline of historical theology and the increasing validity of Kant's moral philosophy that the importance of Steinbart's approach, which was later assigned to eudaemonism , declined , but found a successor in Bernard Bolzano .

Act

As a learned and frank theologian, an astute philosopher and a considerate pedagogue, he had earned claims to the respect of his contemporaries. In his philosophical and theological lectures, as in his writings, he combined thoroughness and acumen with clarity of concept. He sought to specify what was merely speculative of the practical by drawing on the latter and to interweave principles of wisdom in it. To justify the ecclesiastical concept of doctrine, he worked particularly through his " System of pure philosophy or the doctrine of happiness of Christianity", published in 1778 and published for the third time in 1786 .

The work, which attracted much attention, met with opposition. Steinbart tested his opponents in 1782 in his “ philosophical conversations for the further elucidation of the doctrine of happiness. “His“ Instructions for the eloquence of Christian teachers ”, which appeared in 1779, and the“ Instructions for the mind for regular self-thinking ”, which came out in 1780, contain relevant comments. The proposals for an appropriate school improvement, upbringing and popular education, which he communicated publicly in several small works, deserve to be mentioned.

Fonts

• Diss. De Pentateucho, codice Hebraeorum divino. Frankfurt 1760
• Thoughts on the appropriate establishment of public speaking exercises. Frankfurt 1764
• Thoughts on the public school exams. Frankfurt 1755
• Message from the orphanage in Züllichau. oO 1766
• Thoughts on the appropriate choice of what to teach in public schools; plus three sequels. Züllichau 1766–1771
• Is it advisable to have clergymen prepare criminals for death and accompany them to execution? Berlin 1769
• According to Scripture and reason, what value can one attribute to quick conversions, especially on the deathbed, and what is advisable to teach about it publicly? Berlin 1770
• Examination of the motives for virtue, according to the principle of self-love, German and French. Berlin 1770
• Reasons for the complete abolition of the school language of the theological system. Berlin 1772
• Thoughts about the appropriate behavior of the teachers towards the youth in educational institutions, especially with the intention of punishment. Züllichau 1772
• System of pure philosophy or doctrine of happiness of Christianity, set up for the needs of its enlightened countrymen and others who ask for wisdom. Züllichau 1778; 1780, 1786, 1794
• Instruction on the eloquence of Christian teachers. Züllichau 1779, 1784
• A means of conveyance of conjugal bliss, recommended in a copulatory speech. Frankfurt 1780
• Instruction of the human understanding to the most complete knowledge possible. Züllichau 1780–1781. 2 parts, 2nd edition (under the title: Non-profit guidance of the mind for regular self-thinking ). Züllichau 1787, 1793 digitized
• Educational letter to Director Gedike about the improvement of the learned schools. Berlin 1781
• Philosophical conversations for further elucidation of the doctrine of happiness. Züllichau 1782–1784. 3 booklets
• About the worth of a good housewife; to my daughter Johanna Dorothea Henriette Steinhart when she was married to Mr. EG Krüger, field preacher. Frankf. ad Or 1784
• Basic concepts of philosophy about taste. 1st booklet, which contains the general theory of all fine arts and the special theory of music. Züllichau 1785
• News of the current constitution of the educational institutions in Züllichau, along with an advertisement of its principles on teaching and education in schools. Züllichau 1786
• Proposals for general school improvement, provided that it is not a matter for the church but for the state. Züllichau 1789
• The advantages of the Königl. Prussian state constitution and government administration, put to the light at the coronation celebration in a pulpit speech. Züllichau 1801

literature

• Paul Tschackert :  Steinbart, Gotthelf Samuel . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 35, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, pp. 687-689.
• Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Verlag Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, 1835, Neustadt an der Orla, vol. 4, p.
• Klaus-Gunther Wesseling :  Steinbart, Gotthelf [Gotthilf] Samuel. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 10, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-062-X , Sp. 1292-1293.
• Richard Hildenbrand: Gotthilf Samuel Steinbart. A contribution to the history of popular philosophy in the eighteenth century. Phil. Diss., Univ. Tubingen 1906.

Web links

• Works by and about Gotthelf Samuel Steinbart  in the German Digital Library