Using Speech Act Theory as a tool for Understanding the Authorship of Balthasar Münter

Abstract

This paper sheds light on the German (Danish at that time) theologian Balthasar Münter’s authorship and focuses on how his writings adapted to his intellectual, social and cultural surroundings. Münter served as a preacher in the German congregation in Copenhagen between 1765 and 1793 and left many writings to posterity, including 17 volumes of sermons. These texts are written in a public and political environment, offering shifting conditions for the church. The reflection concentrates on how he changed his preaching and teaching under the different conditions the church was offered in this period. A central question is what Münter is doing when preaching, writing and teaching, i.e., how he wanted this to be understood by the 18th-century reader? This approach to 18th-century intellectual history draws on the speech act theory, such as this theoretical foundation developed by the British intellectual historian Quentin Skinner.