oa Gottfried Arnold, Unparteiische Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie (1699-1700)

G. Arnold’s Impartial History of the Church and of Heretics (1699-1700) offered a radical-pietist view of church history, originating from Lutheranism. With its fundamental criticism of the church as an instrument of power, it deprived confessional ‘partial’ historiography of its foundations. Arnold insisted on the rehabilitation of persecuted and oppressed minorities. His work not only promoted the debate on the dependence of historiography on the historian’s particular standpoint, but over a long period of time also inspired advocates and critics of a tolerant Christianity based on individual religious convictions. The work bears witness to the contribution of Pietism to the modern subjectivation and individualization of faith and religion.