Goethe und die Bibel by Johannes Anderegg, Edith Anna Kunz

Abstract

878 Reviews Zwischen Naturgeschichte undAnthropologie: Lichtenberg im Kontext derAufkldrung. By CARL NIEKERK. (Studien zur deutschen Literatur, 176) Tubingen: Niemeyer. 2005. Viii+395 pp. E64. ISBN 987-3-484-I8I76-2. Lichtenberg readwidely innatural history and anthropology and was close to influen tial thinkers in these areas, notably Blumenbach. Hence Carl Niekerk's application of thisbody of thought,much studied and exploited in the last twentyyears, toLichten berg's essays and notebooks, has an immediate appeal. Although Niekerk flirts with a constructivist view of natural history (deriving fromFoucault and Rorty), he settles foranEnlightenmentcloser to thatofErnst Cassirer. The earlyEnlightenment's (sup posedly) static conception of nature gives way to thedynamic conceptions of, say,Buf fon. Meanwhile anthropology emerges froman understanding of the (again supposed) causal effectsof climate on race and their interactionwith human reason. That isnot to say thatearlier essentialist notions of human nature did not persist into the latterpart of thecentury. Indeed, inNiekerk's view Lichtenberg isa typical representative of the Late Enlightenment, in thathe both accepts and questions earlier essentialist views. As the foregoing suggests, Niekerk prefers towork with big abstractions. Relating these to the detail of Lichtenberg's famously fragmentary and occasional forms of writing is difficult.There isno concerted or systematic engagement with anthropo logy inLichtenberg's writing; he can only be said to have had an anthropology 'in Bruchstiicken'. Still, Niekerk is able to demonstrate Lichtenberg's habitual engage ment with anthropological theories in a series of chapters on Lichtenberg's reactions to his own infirmity, anthropological and ethnological themes in the notebooks, an thropological perspectives on society in the commentaries on Hogarth, and scattered thoughts on Enlightenment philosophy of history.Of these themost illuminating is theanalysis of 'climate theory',which, asNiekerk isable to show,Lichtenberg applied tohis observations of social modernity inLondon. In this connection, themost intractable aspect of Lichtenberg's mental habits is his anti-Semitism. Niekerk argues thatLichtenberg's anti-Semitism is a product in part of his adoption of theanthropological theories ofCamper and Blumenbach (nei ther ofwhom, itmust be said, was anti-Semitic). Thus, ifone followsHorkheimer and Adorno's line on theEnlightenment, Lichtenberg's anti-Semitism becomes an example of 'instrumental reason'. At the same timeNiekerk argues thaton occasions Lichtenberg implicitly criticizes the basis of his own anti-Semitism, which begs the question why he did not do so explicitly. For themost part the anti-Semitism is ca sual and habitual, a product of the long tradition ofChristian Judaeophobia. Niekerk makes a brave attempt tomake sense of it,but linking the anti-Semitism toEnligh tenment anthropology does not get us very far.In other respects, however, Niekerk's study is a useful addition toour knowledge ofLichtenberg inhis intellectual context. KING'S COLLEGE LONDON MATTHEW BELL Goethe und die Bibel. Ed. by JOHANNES ANDEREGG and EDITH ANNA KUNZ. (Arbeiten zurGeschichte undWirkung der Bibel, 6) Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. 2005. 344 pp. E48. ISBN 978-3-438-o6256-7. This volume successfully throws new light on an old subject: Goethe and theBible. It is a tightlyfocused collection of essays that isnevertheless broad in itscoverage of Goethe's works. The editors have marshalled the articles in a chronological order, an approach thatdemonstrates Goethe's lifelong admiration for theBible asWeltlitera tur in itsown right,and furthershows thathe never tiredof drawing on theBible for literary inspiration from thehis earliestwritings toFaust II. The contributors wisely avoid dwelling on questions about Goethe's religiosity,although these are of course MLR, I02.3, 2007 879 touched on, and rather than follow previous scholarship that tended to scan Goethe's aeuvre forbiblical allusions, these essays investigateGoethe's use of theBible as a key source of his creativity. Thomas Tillmann explores Goethe's biblical exegesis in 'Zwo wichtigen bisher unerorterten biblischen Fragen', inwhich a pastor takes for his text the Day of Pentecost in theActs of theApostles, as well as sections of Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, toprove that theministrations of theHoly Ghost and themanifestation of speaking in tongues are signs of a living faith.Goethe was wary ofmysticism and opposed to a dry orthodoxy, yet open to individual inspiration. Christian Sinn considers how Goethe's earlywritings such as his planned epic on Joseph, theBelsazar fragment, and the 'Hollenfahrt JesuChristi' are literarypalimpsests...