Band 2: Johann Georg Wachter: De primordiis Christiana religionis (1703/1717) u.a.

The theory that Christianity was a branch of the Jewish sect of the Essenes, a theory which had been often advocated since the Enlightenment, was developed for the first time in Wachter’s treatise ›De Christianae religionis primis incunabulis‹, published here for the first time. The work ›Origines juris naturalis‹ is one of the few examples of a further development of Spinoza’s philosophy of law. The synthesis of Kabbalah and Spinozism in ›Elucidarius cabalisticus‹ caused a sensation, above all as an apologia from Spinoza, and was an important point of reference for studying Spinoza, for Leibniz among others.

Contents:

• Origines juris naturalis (1704)
• Elucidarius cabalisticus (1706)
• Leben J. G. Wachters, aus seiner eignen Handschrift (1763)
• G. W. Leibniz: Réfutation inédite de Spinoza
• Jakob Staalkopff: De atheismo Benedicti de Spinoza … adversus Wachterum (1707)