Between Spinozism and Materialism: Johann Franz Budde and the Early German Enlightenment

The paper focuses on the role played by the Lutheran theologian Johann Franz Budde (1667-1729) in the struggle engaged in the early German Enlightenment against atheism, superstition and any form of threat for natural and revealed religion. Special attention is paid to the question of materialism, which turns out to be a central issue both in his contribution to the early German debate on Spinozism, and in his controversy with Wolff. Budde’s polemical writings reveal the presence of philosophical and methodological claims derived from Locke’s Essay, on which Budde grounds his conservative understanding of the relation between reason and religion.