What created our future—sovereign grace or free choice? What happened to the sixteenth-century reformation and the counter-debate two centuries later? Did it fade into the Aufklärung / le Siècle des Lumières, promoting natural theology over revealed theology? Samuel Werenfels (1657–1740), with a category-5 tailwind of theology heritage from Grynäus and Buxtorf dynasties, attacked disputations in academic Latin. Yet with Basel’s French refugees, he radiated fervent revival preaching on Holy Spirit–inspired perseverance. Innovative Basel also launched contrasting enlightenment scholars in mathematics messiah Leonhard Euler and Shakespeare translator Simon Grynäus V, minister of Basel’s St. Peter.