Prädestination und Providenz: Eine Spurensuche im frühen Zürcher Pietismus

Abstract

Double predestination, the dazzling concept of Calvinism, had tightened over time to become an orthodox dogma, stipulated by the Reformed Church of Zurich. The early Zurich pietists inevitably came into conflict with predestination as it proved to be incompatible with new, influential ideas from mysticism and spiritualism. They replaced it by "special providence". This rejection of strong theological determinism brought about a change in the history of mind and was a building block of Enlightenment. From the middle of the 18th century, double predestination was left to oblivion.