"Der kecke Griff nach der Bibel und die davongetragene Beute"

Gottfried Menken (1768-1831) worked as a pastor in the late phase of the Enlightenment. In the fight against them, he renewed the Reformation scriptural principle with serious changes. Menken becomes a representative of so-called biblicism in its pure form. The unity and clarity of Scripture is revealed to him in a salvation-historical conception of scripture, the "core and star" of which is the kingdom of God. The Old Testament, despised and rejected in the Enlightenment, is highly valued by Menken and regarded as indispensable. Above all, it is thanks to him that the Old Testament sermon was renewed in the 19th century. The crisis of the Reformation scriptural principle begins in the Enlightenment. Menken's respectable attempt at a solution can be appreciated by us, but not accepted. The crisis continues.