the general trend is clearly that acknowledgement is an opinion that
manifests personal autonomy and the changing nature of voluntary
convictions.
This trend can be considered as one aspect of Locke’s understanding
ofthechurchas‘free and voluntary society’. Locke teaches that people
voluntarily join a society in which they believe they have found true
religion and a proper form of worship. The only reason for entering a
church and staying there is the hope of salvation. Leaving a church
should always remain an option: for a member, it should be‘as free for
himtogooutasitwastoenter’.^18 In this manner, heteronomous faith
plays no role in Locke’s understanding of religion. HisLetter Concern-
ing Tolerationbuilds on a modern understanding of personal auton-
omy. Although Locke uses the old conceptagnosco/agnitiofrequently,
this concept belongs to a new model of religious autonomy.
At the same time, the position of Hobbes and Locke is more
‘horizontal’than the older ideas of recognition. The idea of equality
in Hobbes brings a horizontal feature to the discussion, and the view
that acknowledging opinions is a matter of basic free will strengthens
this. Obviously, Hobbes and Locke also speak of‘acknowledging’an
authority in the older, vertical sense of upward recognition.
This conclusion does not yet indicate Hobbes’s and Locke’s pos-
ition on the larger issues of freedom and determinism.^19 It only shows
that while the earlier traditions regarding religious acknowledgement
proceed from heteronomy, Hobbes and Locke ascribe autonomous
features to this concept that are not found in earlier tradition. In this
manner the English concept these philosophers employ covers new
semantic ground and becomes alienated from the older tradition of
heteronomy.
While Hobbes and Locke promote personal autonomy, the
German theology of the Enlightenment period continues the trad-
ition of heteronomy. At the same time, many modern ideas emerge in
the German discussion. The most conspicuous German concept, that
ofAnerkennung, only enters the theological debates during the last
decade of the eighteenth century.^20 Before that time, kennen,
(^18) Toleration,70–2.
(^19) For an introduction to these problems, see Sleigh et al. 1998.
(^20) Grimm-Neubearbeitung, 2, 844 offers one occurrence ofanerkennenin Luther.
However, something seems to be wrong in this, as the page reference does not match
and the digital WA (Luther-Chadwyck) cannot verify the quote.
116 Recognition and Religion