„ohne Zweifel würden unzähliche eben so gut schreiben“. Johann Joachim Spalding: eine neue Sprache für eine neue Theologie

[Autom. eng. transl.] At various points in his work, Johann Joachim Spalding demonstrated his confidence in the power of language. He was convinced that with her it was possible to appeal to common sense and to lead everyone to the most important matters in life: truth and virtue. This is made possible by a certain “type of lecture”, the properties of which are “a certain simplicity” and “truth of expression” - in which the Pomeranian Enlightenment theologian also saw the reasons for his own success. At the suggestion of Shaftesbury, whose language he also worked as a translator, he preferred not only first-person-centered text types such as letters and self-talk, in which first-person narrators and first-person readers can identify themselves, but also a logical structure of argumentation that ensured effective and direct communication. In his most famous work on the destiny of man, Spalding assumed the role of a rational self-reflection in promoting knowledge and presented it as a generally valid model of inner and outer clarity. This marked a decisive communicative paradigm shift that transferred theology from the technical area to everyday language. 'Clarity' and 'comprehensibility', which were pioneeringly used by Spalding, became key words in the 'popular philosophy' of the late Enlightenment, which sparked a lively debate about these linguistic terms.