Übergangstheologie

The theological movement found in German-speaking Protestantism during the early Enlightenment (represented above all by Siegmund Jacob Baumgarten, Johann Franz Buddeus, Johann Lorenz von Mosheim and Johann Georg Walch) is usually – though not uncontroversially – called Übergangstheologie. This essay reconstructs the history of the term's use, analyses central similarities of the theological movement, and concludes by arguing for a pragmatic-nominalist preservation of the term Übergangstheologie.