»Innere Differenzen des religiösen Lebens«

During the middle of the 19th century, Alexander Schweizer, Ferdinand Christian Baur and Matthias Schneckenburger engaged in a debate on the principle of the confessional difference between Lutheran and Reformed Protestantism. They were convinced that the inner Protestant divide was caused not only by contingent developments but was the result of a difference in religious subjectivity itself. Thus they were not only able to “legitimize” the confessional divide, which is now rooted in the principle of Protestantism, but they succeeded in reinstating dogmatics as an indispensable means of Protestant self-disclosure. By maintaining dogmatic controversy, its task is to keep alive the inner restlessness which is responsible for the historical development and advancement of Protestantism.