a mostly german debate on conversion and salvation hat must i do to be saved?”650 The gaolers question rings through the history of Christendom. How is someone to be ”W saved? What does God demand? Or is it only to receive what He gives? The question has been given many forms and the answers vary. Sometimes, however, the questions and answers invade and occupy the foreground and aspecific debate has started.One such invasion occurred 1769. Although one can hardly ever exactly pinpoint when a certain question becomes so interesting and also publicly mentioned that a debate can be said to have started, the Prussian ordinance of July 3rd 1769 to such an extent was in the focus for many in the debate that it seems reasonable to start there. The background against which the debate took place had for a long time been an execution where an important theme was that through preparation and liturgy lead the condemned to salvation, and thus result in the proclamation of both justice and the mercy of God.651 This view would now be challenged. On February 25th1769, five months before the ordinance was approved, a small book was published dedicated to the man, Ernst Friedemann von Münchhausen, soon to countersign the ordinance.652 It was hardly a coincidence. The book was called Ist es rathsam Missethäter durch Geistliche zum Tode vorbereiten und zur Hinrichtung begleiten zu lassen? and the author, Gotthelf Samuel Steinbart, was a professor teaching Reformed theology at the university of Frankfurt an der Oder.653 longing for the scaffold 650 Acts 16:30. 651 Dillon 2002 p 73 sq, Bergman 2011b p 109. 652 Steinbart 1769 p 3 sq. Richard Hildenbrand claims that Steinbart wrote the book as a response to the reaction of the populace to an execution while he was on a visit to Berlin, Hildenbrand 1906 p 17 sq. The identification of Steinbart as the author of Steinbart 1769 and Steinbart 1770 rests primarily on a list of the earlier publications of the author in Steinbart 1794 p LI sq. 653 According to Hausens 1800 p 104 Steinbart was as ”Öffentliche ausserordentliche Lehrer” a ”Lehrer der Gottesgelahrtheit Augsburgischer Confession.” However as Hausens states 188
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=