Reformierte Morallehren und deutsche Literatur von Jean Barbeyrac bis Christoph Martin Wieland

Max Weber referred to Reformed religion and life-style as 'interior asceticism'. With reference to Francophone texts of the late 17th and the 18th century (instruction manuals, essays, periodicals, speeches/speech drama, philosophical novels), this comparative study on the history of literature and ideas shows that Weber's description, though accurate, does not go far enough. Reformed moral teaching stands not only at the (new) beginning of German literature in the age of Enlightenment, it also scrutinizes its own morality both at the 'empirical' level and in its dissemination through literature with a view to indicating its limitations.