erkennen(to know), andbekennen(to confess) are the verbs to
express epistemic attachment. As the German translation of Calvin’s
Institutio (1572, cf. section 2.7 in this volume) shows,erkennen
is most often employed, covering the entire domain ofcognosco,
agnosco, andrecognosco.Bekennenalso appears; in addition, allusions
to the Augustinian terminology of memory (Gedechtnisetc.) are
apparent. Interestingly,betrachten(to contemplate) appears several
times as the translation ofrecognosco. While this verb is typical of
Pietist language, it contains a broad variety of biblical terminologies
related to contemplation.
Before we consider the early appearances ofAnerkennung,itis
useful to pause over the discussions regarding personal appropriation
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The idea of appropri-
ation was already significant in Luther, and it becomes one of the
distinctive features in the emerging Pietism, an evangelical revival
movement emphasizing individual faith. Scholars have found con-
nections between classicaloikeiosis/commendatioand Pietist ideas of
personal appropriation.^21 The continuing popularity of Cicero as well
as the Protestant Neo-Stoicism of the seventeenth century provide
sources for making this connection. At the same time, the modern
ideas of individuality contribute to the self-understanding of Pietism.
While Pietism is critical of the Protestant orthodoxy of the German
universities, it adopts many of its teachings. The doctrine of personal
appropriation is also discussed by the representatives of orthodoxy.
The Protestant orthodoxy of the seventeenth century contains several
early modern ideas, especially since the adoption of the so-called
analytical method, a new manner of investigating theological con-
cepts through focusing on the underlying causes and conceptual
structures of ecclesiastical doctrines.^22 We will focus on one typical
representative of this method, Johann Friedrich König, whose text-
bookTheologia positiva acroamatica (1664) is a compendium of
Lutheran orthodoxy.^23 This textbook was widely used in Lutheran
universities until the Enlightenment. After König, we compare his
(^21) Franz 2000; Horn 2009. For the origins ofoikeiosis, see Engberg Pedersen 1990.
(^22) For the analytical method in theology, see Appold 1998, 16–29; Nüssel 2000,
300 – 12; Muller 2006, 184–7.
(^23) König,Theologia. This new edition of 2006 contains a German translation of
Stegmann. All English translations are my own. For the general nature of König’s
theology, see Stegmann 2006.
The Modern Era 117