G.W. Leibniz and Protestant Scholasticism in the Years 1698–1704

This chapter examines G.W. Leibniz's attitude to what one calls nowadays or Reformed orthodoxy. The name Protestant Scholasticism is due to the fact that post-Reformation theology is characterised among other things by its exponents' lack of interest in empirical reasoning and their correspondingly greater interest in applying reason to first principles or axioms such as God's essence or double predestination which are supposedly drawn from the Bible and from certain normative texts such as the confessions of faith or the decrees of the Synod of Dordt. Leibniz collaborated on it with the Lutheran irenicist abbot of Loccum, Gerhard Wolter Molanus, his partner in all church-union negotiations, with Catholics as well as Protestants. The organisation and structure as well as omissions from UB2 as against UB1 are due very largely to Leibniz and he did not reveal their nature to Molanus until as late as 1701. Keywords: church-union negotiations; G.W. Leibniz; post-reformation theology; protestant scholasticism; Synod of Dordt