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    History: Lutheran romantics

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    Through Hamann, Luther became a formative influence to modern thought.  Beiser writes, “It was Hamann’s mission to defend the spirit of Luther when the Aufklarung threated to destroy it.  Hamann never made any disguise of his great debt to Luther, and he explicitly affirmed his wish to see a restoration of his master’s doctrines.  There are indeed many Lutheran themes that reappear in Hamann’s writings: the authority of the Bible, the importance of a personal relationship to God, the denial of freedom of will, the superrationality of faith, and the necessity of grace.”  Instead of simply repeating Luther’s doctrinal formulations, though, he “defended Luther by exploiting the latest ideas of modern philosophy, especially the scepticism of David Hume.  Using such modern weapons, he made Lutheranism seem not antiquated and superstitious but modern and irrefutable.”

    Luther thus shapes German romanticism as he shapes Hamann who shapes Herder who shapes Goethe.

    posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, September 29, 2008 at 2:17 pm