a mostly german debate on conversion and salvation Through Steinbart the solution exposed in the ordinance was given theological support in neological form. In other parts of the struggle between the traditional and the modern he also was quite active. There were times he also clearly had influence over the Prussian government. For example, it had under influence of Johann Christoph von Wöllner during the period 1788–1797 to a greater extent urged the clergy to adhere to their confessions; Steinbart disagreed with this position and managed to have it altered through his contact with Friedrich WilhelmIII when he came to the throne in 1797.654 Steinbarts own background was Lutheran, but he was quite rationalistic and also proposed that the Lutheran and Reformed faculties of theology should be replaced by Protestant faculties.655 He was raised in a pietistic milieu and much of his theology and thought was shaped by the critique of Pietism. Enlightenment, deism, and Neology for him substituted traditional theology. Steinbart strived for a theologywith lesser darkness, without the need of repentance, as there was no original sin, but also hardly any reconciliation. Happiness substituted melancholia.656 The philosophical theology of Steinbart, however, aimed for greater happiness for the majority, though had its casualties among traditional theological ideas – much was seen as only allegorical and mystical – the remaining centre was the love of the Christians for God and fellow humans.657 Was happiness in this life even ultimately salvation itself? Traditional theology with ideas such as original sin and everlasting punishment was so problematic that some theologians of the Enlightenment, among them Steinbart, even came to distance themselves from both St Augustine and Luther while being more posithe theological faculty was to teach according to the ”verbesserten Augsburgischen Confession” which meant reformed theology, Hausens 1800 p 105 sq (quotations p 106), see also Bornhak 2019 p 36. The teaching of Steinbart officially reached over many subjects, such as the New Testament, dogmatics and its history, ethics, and pastoral theology, Hausens 1800 p 108 sq. 654 Sprenger 2009 p 147 sq. 655 Maser 1990 p 19 sq. 656 Schings 1977 p 189 sq, 391 sq, Aner 1929 p 85 sq, Hildenbrand 1906 p 46 sqq. Although Steinbart largely was an Enlightenment thinker, his father Siegmund Steinbart had been a pietist of some importance, having founded an orphan house with Halle as a model, Brecht 1995 p 343. 657 Sprenger 2009 p 143 sqq. 189
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