"The magic formula we all seek": Spinoza + Fichte = x / Frederick Amrine. Personal impersonalism in Herder's conception of the afterlife / Tom Spencer -- Clever priests and the missions of Moses and Schiller: from monotheism to the aesthetic civilization of the individual / Jeffrey L. High -- "Then say what your religion is": Goethe, religion, and Faust / Elisabeth Krimmer -- Classicism and secular humanism: the sanctification of "Die Zauberflöte" in Goethe's "Novelle" / Jane K. Brown -- Saint Mary's two bodies: religion and enlightenment in Kleist / Helmut J. Schneider -- Catholic conversion and the end of enlightenment in religious and literary discourses / Lisa Beesley -- Sacred maternity and secular sons: Hölderlin's Madonna on music / Patricia Anne Simpson -- Leibniz reception around 1800: monadic vitalism and aesthetic harmony / John H. Smith -- "The magic formula we all seek": Spinoza + Fichte = x / Frederick Amrine.
Summary:
"The eighteenth century is usually considered to be a time of increasing secularization in which the primacy of theology was replaced by the authority of reason, yet this lofty intellectual endeavor played itself out in a social and political reality that was heavily impacted by religious customs and institutions. This duality is visible in the literature and culture of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Germany. On the one hand, authors such as Goethe, Schiller, and Kleist are known for their distance from traditional Christianity. On the other hand, many canonical texts from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries -- from Goethe's Faust to Schiller's Die Jungfrau von Orleans to Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas -- are not only filled with references to the Bible, but invoke religious frameworks. This book investigates how culture in the Age of Goethe shaped and was shaped by a sustained and multifaceted debate about the place of religion and religious difference in politics, philosophy, and culture, enriching our understanding of the relationship between religion and culture during this foundational period in German history." -- Publisher's description.
Series:
Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.