Religion Reason And Culture In The Age Of Goethe

Investigates how culture in the Age of Goethe shaped and was shaped by a sustained and multifaceted debate about the place of religion in politics, philosophy, and culture. 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 asGoethe, 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. Religion, Reason, and Culture in the Age of Goethe 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. Contributors: Frederick Amrine, Claire Baldwin, Lisa Beesley, Jane K. Brown, Jeffrey L. High, Elisabeth Krimmer, Helmut J. Schneider, Patricia Anne Simpson, John H. Smith, Tom Spencer. Elisabeth Krimmer is professor of German at the University of California, Davis. Patricia Anne Simpson is professor of German at Montana State University.

"Hanslick im Kontext / Hanslick in Context" umfasst Beiträge von internationalen ExpertInnen, die sich mit Eduard Hanslick und seinen Schriften unter vielfältigen Gesichtspunkten auseinandersetzen. In den Essays wird der Kontext zwischen Hanslicks zentraler Abhandlung "Vom Musikalisch-Schönen" und möglichen Vorläufern (Leibniz, Michaelis, Nägeli etc.) sowie umliegenden Diskursen untersucht. "Close Readings" des Traktats machen wesentliche Begriffe (Arabeske, Form, Schönheit) und Konzepte (Aufführung, Performanz, Funktionalität) zum Thema. Zudem erforschen und analysieren die BeiträgerInnen Hanslicks Verhältnis zur Musikpsychologie und Kunstgeschichte, sein Verständnis des Religions-Begriffes sowie seine Vorlesungen. Mit Beiträgen von Mark Evan Bonds, Thomas Grey, Nicole Grimes, Andrea Korenjak, Christoph Landerer, Manos Perrakis, Anthony Pryer, Lee Rothfarb, Andrea Singer, Markéta Štědronská , Werner Telesko, Alexander Wilfing und Nick Zangwill

One of the most prolific and versatile writers of all time, Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832) made an impact that continues to extend far beyond his native Germany. The variety of human questions and experiences treated in his works is arguably without parallel. He also had (for his era) an unusually long life, which spanned the French Revolution, the end of the Holy Roman Empire and subsequent reshaping of the German-speaking world, and the rapid onset of industrial modernity. In thirty-seven short essays, leading international scholars explore Goethe's life and times, his literary works, his activity in the realms of art, philosophy and natural science, his reception of – and indeed by – other cultures, and, finally, the resonance of his work in our time. The aim of this collection is to open as many windows as possible onto Goethe's wide-ranging intellectual and practical activity, and to give a sense of his ongoing importance.

Cutting-edge scholarly articles on diverse aspects of Goethe and the Goethezeit, featuring in this volume a special section on environmentalism.

Faust Adaptations, edited and introduced by Lorna Fitzsimmons, takes a comparative cultural studies approach to the ubiquitous legend of Faust and his infernal dealings. Including readings of English, German, Dutch, and Egyptian adaptations ranging from the early modern period to the contemporary moment, this collection emphasizes the interdisciplinary and transcultural tenets of comparative cultural studies. Authors variously analyze the Faustian theme in contexts such as subjectivity, genre, politics, and identity. Chapters focus on the work of Christopher Marlowe, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Adelbert von Chamisso, Lord Byron, Heinrich Heine, Thomas Mann, D. J. Enright, Konrad Boehmer, Mahmoud Aboudoma, Bridge Markland, Andreas Gössling, and Uschi Flacke. Contributors include Frederick Burwick, Christa Knellwolf King, Ehrhard Bahr, Konrad Boehmer, and David G. John. Faust Adaptations demonstrates the enduring meaningfulness of the Faust concept across borders, genres, languages, nations, cultures, and eras. This collection presents innovative approaches to understanding the mediated, translated, and adapted figure of Faust through both culturally specific inquiry and timeless questions.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ... early rejection of historical Christianity. In both his early and his middle life this rejection was, in its extent, not unlike the unbelief of the rationalists who were so numerous in his time; yet he was not altogether a man of their school. They did not like his poetry; and he did not like their cold, prosaic teaching. There are three facts that may be easily established on evidences supplied by his own writings: --He rejected the central tenet of Christianity; he found for himself and others like himself, but "not for all men "--this he expressly tells us--that moral and assthetic culture might serve partly as a substitute for religion; lastly, in the time of his old age, he entertained feelings of veneration for the leading ideas--even for the mysteries--of the Christian faith. The evidences on which these assertions rest may here be briefly noticed. There is found in Goethe's correspondence one letter especially remarkable as containing a distinct and emphatic declaration that he rejects the truth--the central tenet--of the Christian religion. He gives not a syllable of reasoning to justify his unbelief, but asserts it as an axiom. Thus he gives, in few words, the main result of all the rationalism so popular in his time. He was a great man; but when writing this declaration he was in fact making himself an echo of the vulgar rationalism he had learned from Basedow (pp. 59, 115) and his disciples. The tone of the letter--addressed, by-the-by, to a faithful old friend--is altogether wrong, and would be so, even were the subject one not demanding any especial reverence. A man's faith--whatever it be, if but earnest--ought never to be thus rudely contradicted. The letter referred to was addressed to Lavater as a reply to an assertion...

Provides a panoramic account of the radical ways that life began to change for ordinary people in the age of Locke, Voltaire, and Rousseau. In this book, familiar Enlightenment figures share places with voices that have remained largely unheard until now, from freethinkers and freemasons to French materialists, anticlerical Catholics, pantheists, pornographers, readers, and travelers. Jacob reveals how this newly secular outlook was not a wholesale rejection of Christianity but rather a new mental space in which to encounter the world on its own terms. She takes readers from London and Amsterdam to Berlin, Vienna, Turin, and Naples, drawing on rare archival materials to show how ideas central to the emergence of secular democracy touched all facets of daily life. Jacob demonstrates how secular values and pursuits took hold of eighteenth-century Europe, spilled into the American colonies, and left their lasting imprint on the Western world for generations to come. --Adapted from publisher description.