Pietismus, Medizin und Aufklärung in Preußen im 18. Jahrhundert

Georg Ernst Stahl (1659-1734) opposed reducing living nature to the inorganic laws of physics or chemistry. His »Theoria Medica Vera« (1708) showed the importance of 'whole person' medicine, in which the unity of all perceptive intelligence, mental, emotional, and physical, are used by the organism to sustain both its moral and material actions. The book traces the life of Stahl and his teaching career at the University of Halle and his influence at the court in Berlin, where he was first physician to King Frederick William I. Special attention is paid to his affiliation with August Hermann Francke and Pietism in Halle, but also to Stahl's popularity in more radical religious circles.