recognition is for Spalding a fairly autonomous entity; at this point,
he approaches the English idea of‘acknowledgement’and differs not
only from the Pietists but also from Fichte.
For the interests of our study, the difference between Spalding’s
essay of 1794 and his book of 1797 is that while in thefirst work
Anerkennungis only related to the specificaffirmation of Jesus Christ,
it later covers the whole of religion. This area was affirmed in terms of
‘practical knowledge’in 1794. As the content and message of both
works is similar, this difference is mainly terminological. For some
reason, Spalding considers it adequate to relateAnerkennungto the
entirefield of religious morality in 1797. His conspicuous use of this
concept in 1794 is significant; the shift from‘practical knowledge’
(1794) to‘recognition’(1797) is also of terminological interest.
The idea of seeingAnerkennungas the gate for grasping the
relevance of religion in general may be regarded as innovative.
While the older traditions ofagnosco/recognoscorelate to the specific
and non-philosophical approval of Christian truth, Spalding con-
ceivesAnerkennungas a condition of possibility for understanding
the relevance of religion in general in his 1797 book. In his work of
1794, he remarks in passing that the mere recognition of practical
morality would not distinguish a Confucian or a Socratic from a
Christian.^101 Given this, Spalding in a sense develops something
that could be called a generic religious recognition, distinguishing it
from the Christianagnitio. Although Spalding’s discussion involves
reciprocal elements, this generic view of recognition as the initial
condition of possibility may be his most distinctive contribution.
In sum, the overarching theological idea in Spalding’s view of
Anerkennungin 1797 concerns the primacy of religious recognition.
He considers that everything else follows from the primary recogni-
tion of a higher good, the rational basis of the religious world view in
which the individual encounters the divine. While this primary event
does not result from theoretical doctrine, knowledge, or assent, it
assumes a relatively strong idea of personal autonomy. The primary
event of recognition bears some resemblance to the idea of appropri-
ation, which may be the thread that connects Spalding with the longer
theological tradition. While the generic recognition remains upward,
its role as a condition of possibility gives this concept a new subjective
(^101) Von dem Wesentlichen, 398. Here he uses the verbanerkennen.
The Modern Era 135