Neologische GeschichtsphilosophieJohann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalems "Betrachtungen über die vornehmsten Wahrheiten der Religion"

Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem's "Betrachtungen über die vornehmsten Wahrheiten der Religion" were a bestseller of German Englightenment, although they are a theological book. In this article, the "Betrachtungen" are treated as a text which tries to synthesize the newly established Philosophy of History with more or less traditional theological patterns. Jerusalem uses the argument of universal development and progress in history to demonstrate the evidence of divine Providence. So his book comes close to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's "Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts", that it may have influenced. The main purpose of Jerusalem's is calming and pacifying the individual's soul; he wants to prove that the individual's life makes part of a general order of history. This is also the purpose of ‚profane' Philosophy of History in German Englightenment. Jerusalem's neological Philosophy of History gives news answers to the problem of Evil after the decline of the metaphysical theodicy in the tradition of Leibniz