Johann Joachim Spalding

Johann Joachim Spalding (1 November 1714 – 25 May 1804) was a German Protestant theologian and philosopher of Scottish ancestry who was a native of Tribsees, Swedish Pomerania.

He was a highly influential minister who had as friends, renowned personalities that included Ewald Christian von Kleist and Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim.

In 1748 he released Betrachtungen über die Bestimmung des Menschen (Reflections on the Destination of Man), a publication that is considered to be a manifesto of German Enlightenment theology.

In this work he rejected dogmatic authoritarianism and confessional orthodoxy, while promoting a common sense philosophy that explained an individual's path from sensuality to spirituality ultimately leading to immortality.

In his writings he strongly opposed Julien Offroy de La Mettrie's philosophy of French materialism.