Georg Bernhard Bilfinger

Returning to theology, he attempted to connect it with philosophy in a treatise, Dilucidationes philosophicae, de deo, anima humana, mundo (Tübingen, 1725, 1746, 1768).

His friends at Tübingen disapproved of his new views, and in 1725, on Wolff's recommendation, he was invited by Peter I of Russia to lecture in Saint Petersburg, where he was well received.

His success in winning the prize of a thousand crowns offered for a dissertation on the cause of gravity by the Académie des Sciences of Paris secured his return to his native land in 1731.

[1] In 1735, largely on account of his knowledge of military engineering, Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg (reigned 1733–1737) made him a privy councillor, but his hands were tied owing to the frivolous atmosphere of the court.

[1] After his return from Imperial Russia, he won the highest respect at home and abroad, and Frederick II of Prussia is recorded to have said of him, "He was a great man whom I shall ever remember with admiration.