After Enlightenment: Hamann as Post-Secular Visionary

by John R. Betz (Loyola College, Maryland, USA )

• ISBN13: 9781444304589
• ISBN10: 1444304585
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2009-01-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

After Enlightenment: The Post-Secular Vision of J. G. Hamann is a comprehensive introduction to the life and works of 18th-century German philosopher, J. G. Hamann, the founding father of what has come to be known as Radical Orthodoxy. Provides a long-overdue, comprehensive introduction to Haman's fascinating life and controversial works, including his role as a friend and critic of Kant and some of the most renowned German intellectuals of the age Features substantial new translations of the most important passages from across Hamann's writings, some of which have never been translated into English Examines Hamann's highly original views on a range of topics, including faith, reason, revelation, Christianity, biblical exegesis, Socrates, theological aesthetics, language, sexuality, religion, politics, and the relationship between Judaism and Christianity Presents Hamann as the 'founding father' of a distinctly post-modern, post-secular theology and, as such, as an alternative to the 'postmodern triumvirate' of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida Considers Hamann's work as a touchtone of modern Jewish-Christian dialogue, in view of debates with his friend Moses Mendelssohn Explores Hamann's role as the visionary founder of a 'metacritical' movement that radically calls into question the basic principles of modern secular reason, and thus reprises the debate between those defending Hamann's views and those labeling him the bête noir of the Enlightenment

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

The Making of a Christian Socrates

Life and Writings 1730-1788

The Making of a Philologist

Hamann's Conversion

Hamann's Falling Out with Berens

Hamann's Relationship with Kant

The London Writings: On the Glory of Trinitarian Condescension

Night Thoughts: On the Interpretation of Scripture

Glory in the "Rags" of Scripture

Biblical Meditations

"Reflections on church hymns"

"Fragments" and "Prophecies"

A Typological Re-reading of Socrates: On Faith, Reason, and History

The Prophet and the Idol

From Socratic Irony to Christian Humor

Toward a Philosophy of History

A Propaedeutic to Real Enlightenment

Converting Hume: Knowledge "By Faith Alone"

Kant, Hamann, and the So-called "Kinderphysik Fiasco"

Crusades of the Philologist.

Life and Writings 1760-1774

Against the Purification of Language

The Magi and "The Knight of Faith"

Crusades of the Philologist

On "Solomon of Prussia" and High School Drama

The Hamann-Herder Connection

A Satirical Masterpiece and Other Writings

Toward a Christological Poetics: A New Aesthetics of Scripture and Creation

Cloverleaf of Hellenistic Letters: On the Style of Scripture

Aesthetica in nuce: On the Language of Creation

The Dithyrambs of a Christian Dionysus

Seeing All Things in Christ

Toward a Christological Poetics

Correcting a Disciple: Hamann and Herder on the Origin of Language

Hamann's Review of Herder's Preisschrift

The Return of Aristobulus

Philological Ideas and Doubts

The Crusading Knight's Last Will and Testament

The Mystery of Language: The Alpha and Omega

Masks and Mystery Writings

Life and Writings 1775-1780

Hierophantic Letters

Family Life: Portrait of a Christian Sensualist

Two Mites: On the Tabernacle of Language

The Sibyl Speaks: On the Protological and Eschatological Mystery of Marriage

The Mystery of Marriage: A verum signaculum Creatoris

Essay of a Sibyl on Marriage

"Aprons of fig leaves": On Reason's Inveterate Shame

Fragments of an Apocryphal Sibyl: On Rational and Apocalyptic Religion

Doubts

Konxompax: An Apocryphal Letter to Lessing

Metacritique of Reason, Natural Religion, and Secular Politics.

Life and Writings 1780-1784

Hamann's "Twins" of 1784

Hamann and Jacobi

Divestment and Transfiguration

"Metacritical tubs"?

Hamann's Metacritique of Kant: Deconstructing the Transcendental Dream

Transcendental "Mystique": The First Review of the Critique of Pure Reason

The Metacritique: A Brief History of the Purisms of Reason

The "Genealogical Priority" of Language

Language as a Sacrament

Metacritical Politics: On Mendelssohn's Jerusalem and the Modern Secular State

A Synopsis of Mendelssohn's Jerusalem

Golgotha and Schleblimini: By a Preacher in the Desert

Built upon Sand: The Babel of Modern Natural Rights

Defending Judaism against Secular Reason, or the Real Content of the Real Jerusalem

Prospect for Jewish-Christian Dialogue

A Final Journey: Hamann's Last Will and Testament

Life and Writings 1785-1788

The Mûnster Circle

The "Dictators of Pure Reason"

Portrait of a Christian Greatness in Knechtsgestalt

Una Saancta Ecclesia

A Cryptic Final Testament

The Journey Home

Conclusion. After Postmodernity: Hamann before the Postmodern Triumvirate

Hamann and Postmodernity

Hamann before Nietzsche

Hamann before Heidegger

Hamann before Derrida

A Concluding Postscript to Postmodernity

Biblical Index

Index

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