Band 5: Johann Georg Schlosser (1739–1799)

Goethe’s brother-in-law attempted to create an instrument for the moral education of the peasant population which could replace traditional ethics with reasonable moral commandments. It is here that Schlosser’s demand to appoint a professorship for practical theology at faculties of theology can be found, a demand which attracted a great deal of attention, in order to train future country pastors not only to be scholars of religious language and literature but also to be teachers of morals for their peasants. Schlosser‘s ›Katechismus‹ (Catechism) triggered a lively discussion about the means and goals of the Enlightenment of the common people.