Historical and Systematic Theology. Early Modern Lutheranism, Reformed Orthodoxy, and Cartesian Method

This article explores the reception of René Descartes and his new philosophy by the late-seventeenth- to early-eighteenth-century Lutherans in the German academic context, paying particular attention to their engagement with methodological doubt and the relationship between philosophy and theology. The article focuses on the primary works of three German Lutheran theologians: Johann Adam Osiander (1622-1697) of Tübingen, Justus Christoph Schomer (1648-1693) of Rostock, and Gustav Leopold Hornbostel (1689-1747) of Helmstedt. By focusing on these three individuals’ primary works, the article demonstrates that these Lutheran theologians utilized Reformed polemical argumentation to defend their doctrine of Scripture and their traditional understanding of theology and philosophy against Descartes’s novelties and the advancements made by his followers.