 As his contribution to the Atheism Controversy of 1798/99, which led to Fichte’s departure from Jena, Reinhold published a pamphlet in Fichte’s defense. However, it was not long before he grew dissatisfied with what he perceived to be the “one-sidedness” of Fichte’s philosophy—and indeed, of transcendental idealism as a whole—and publicly sought some “third way,” which could reconcile the opposing positions of Fichte and Jacobi (whose contribution to the Atheism Controversy was an influential “Open letter,” criticizing philosophy in general and Fichte’s transcendental idealism in particular as “nihilism.”) This effort on Reinhold’s part to mediate the differences between the transcendental idealist “philosopher of freedom” (Fichte) and the common-sense “non-philosopher of faith” (Jacobi) pleased neither party, and signaled the quick and abrupt end of Reinhold’s short-lived “Fichte phase.”