Description
Book SynopsisDespite being a pillar of belief in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the idea of revelation was deeply discredited over the course of the Enlightenment. The post-Enlightenment restoration of revelation among German religious thinkers is a fascinating yet underappreciated moment in modern efforts to navigate between reason and faith.
The Rebirth of Revelation compares Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish reflections on revelation from 1750 to 1850 and asserts that a strategic transformation in the term’s meaning secured its relevance for the modern age. Tuska Benes argues that propositional revelation, understood as the infallible dispensation of doctrine, gave way to revelation as a subjective process of inner transformation or the historical disclosure of divine being in the world.
By comparatively approaching the unconventional ways in which Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism have rehabilitated the concept of revelation, The Rebirth of Revelation
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“Benes focuses on the period between 1750 and 1850 in the German lands, which boasted some of the most important intellectual minds of the period. They include Lessing, Mendelssohn, Kant, Herder, Schleiermacher, and Hegel. The most intriguing part of Benes’s book, however, is not the responses of these intellectual giants; rather, her approach is. She provides a much broader picture, including the religious struggles that haunted Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish intellectual communities at the time.” -- Ulrich Groetsch, University of North Alabama * Central European History *
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Historical Revelation in the Protestant Enlightenment Reason and Revelation: Spinoza, Leibniz, and Wolff Reimarus and the Neologians on Pagan Salvation G.E. Lessing on the Historicity of Revelation The Kantian Critique of Revelation 2. The Comparative History of Religion, 1770–1800 David Hume and the Comparative History of Religion J.G. Herder’s Älteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlechts (1774) The Comparative Religious History of Christoph Meiners J.A. Starck and J.G. Hamann on Rational Ur-Monotheism The Göttingen School of Comparative Religious History 3. God’s Word in Comparative Mythology, 1760–1830 The Divine Origins of Language: Hamann and Herder The Ursprache and Mosaic Revelation: Friedrich Schlegel J.A. Kanne’s Elusive Ursprache The Language of Revelation Nationalized: Friedrich Rückert The Symbolism of God’s Word: Joseph Görres 4. Revelation in Nature from Physicotheology to G.H. Schubert Natural Theology and the Collapse of Intelligent Design Restoring Revelation to Naturphilosophie Nature Divested of Sacred Tradition G.H. Schubert in the Spinoza Renaissance Physica Sacra: The Urwelt, Creation, and Scripture 5. The Philosophy of Revelation: Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Schelling Schleiermacher: Revelation as Subjective Experience The Self-Revelation of God in Hegel The Dark Ground of Revelation in Schelling 6. The Epistemology of Grace: Revelation in Catholic Theology, 1770–1850 Enlightened Catholicism and the Semi-Rationalist Defense of Revelation The Moral Necessity of Revelation for Georg Hermes The Comparative History of Religion in Enlightened Catholic Theology Syncretism in Post-Kantian Catholic Histories of Religion Catholic Philosophies of Revelation: Anton Günther and J.S. Drey The Neo-Scholasticism of Joseph Kleutgen 7. Revelation in Jewish Religious Thought from Mendelssohn to Geiger Revelation and the Law: Moses Mendelssohn Kant and Pre-Mosaic Revelation: Saul Ascher Salomon Ludwig Steinheim on Primordial Revelation Revelation as Historical Experience: Samson Raphael Hirsch Jewish Philosophies of Revelation: Salomon Formstecher and Samuel Hirsch The Genius of Revelation: Abraham Geiger 8. Revelation Imperiled in Protestant Religious Thought, 1820–1850 Revelation and Neo-Confessionalism: August Tholuck The Self-Revelation of Humanity: Ludwig Feuerbach Søren Kierkegaard: Revelation in Existentialist Thought Conclusion Bibliography
