Goethe and the Christian Religion

• Authors: Herrbach Mark
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Over the course of his life Goethe felt constantly challenged to determine the relation of his own religious and philosophical beliefs to those of the Christian revealed religion. The resulting reflections, expressed in many of his works, letters and conversations, fall into distinct periods or phases that this article will attempt to analyze. Towards the end of his life, however, Goethe came to the conclusion that the Christian religion, owing to numerous apparent anomalies and contradictions in its beliefs and doctrines, can never be rationally comprehended, though it can be known to reflect incommensurable eternal verities of the spiritual life of every individual and community of individuals. Upon this basis, Goethe will be shown to have developed a philosophy of an actually existing ideal Kingdom of God embracing all cultures and their associated revealed religions.

Keywords

EN

Goethe; Christianity; Catholicism; Protestantism; revealed religion; invisible church; natural religion; primal religion; positivity of religion; believer; understanding; God; sin

• Publisher: International Étienne Gilson Society
• Journal: Studia Gilsoniana
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 589-624

Dates

published

2020-12-30

Contributors

author

Herrbach Mark

References

• Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Artemis Gedenkausgabe der Werke, Briefe, und Gespräche, vol. I–XXIV, edited by Ernst Beutler. Memorial edition of Goethe’s works, letters, and conversations in 24 volumes. Zürich: Artemis Verlag, 1948–1954.
• Goethe-Briefe, edited by Philipp Stein. Berlin 1924.
• Goethe-Tagebücher. Ergänzungsband 2 zur Artemis-Gedenkausgabe. Zürich, 1964.
• Goethes Sämtliche Werke. Jubiläums-Ausgabe, vol. I–XL, edited by Eduard von der Hellen. Stuttgart und Berlin 1902–1912.

Identifiers

ISSN

2300–0066

ISSN

2577–0314

DOI

10.26385/SG.090425