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Some Major Emphases of Hamann's Theology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

James C. O'Flaherty
James C. O'Flaherty
Affiliation:
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
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Extract

The position of Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788) in the history of German thought is an embarrassing subject for the English-speaking scholar. For, when pressed to state the significance of the so-called “Magus of the North,” he must do so in such epic terms that his hearers may well ask: “If Hamann is so important, why has so little been said about him in English? If it is true, as literary historians maintain, that he is the father of the Storm and Stress movement in German literature, that many of Herder's best insights stem from him, that he was the author from whom Goethe learned most, that the concept of the ‘total work of art’ (Gesamtkunstwerk)in German music derives ultimately from his theory of language, that he was, as Hendrik Kraemer maintains, ‘probably the most profound Christian thinker of the eighteenth century,’ why, if all these statements are true, have we Englishspeaking people heard so little about him?”

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , January 1958 , pp. 39 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1958

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References

1 von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Goethes Gespräche, ed. von Biedermann, F. W. (2nd ed.; Leipzig, 1909), I, p. 43.Google Scholar

2 Müller-Blattau, Josef, Hamann und Herder in ihren Beziehungen zur Musik (Königsberg, 1931), pp. 19, 26–27.Google Scholar

3 The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World (London, 1937), p. 117Google Scholar.

4 My monograph, Unity and Language: A Study in the Philosophy of Hamann (Chapel Hill, 1952), remains the only book-length study of Hamann in English. No complete work of any importance by Hamann has been translated into English. On account of this lack I have translated all quotations from his works occurring in the text.

5 From 1949 to 1953 Hamann's Sämtliche Werke were published in Vienna in a critical edition of five volumes under the editorship of the famous literary historian, Josef Nadler; a sixth volume containing an exhaustive index to the Werke has yet to appear. Since the earlier edition of Hamann's works (Schriften, eds. F. Roth and G. A. Wiener, Berlin, 1821–1842) did not contain all of his writings, the appearance of the Nadler edition is obviously of great importance. The letters of Hamann are currently appearing in published form also. See Johann Georg Hamann, Briefwechsel, eds. W. Ziesemer and A. Henkel (Wiesbaden, Vol. I, 1955, Vol. II, 1956). These three works will be cited below by the first letter of the names of their respective editors: thus, Nadler (N), Roth (R), and Henkel (H). Important for Hamann research is another currently appearing work: Johann Georg Hamanns Hauptschriften erklärt, ed. F. Blanke et al. (Gütersloh, Vol. I, 1956, Vol. VII, 1956). Excellent studies of Hamann's theology may be found in the following volumes: Blanke, Fritz, Hamann-Studien (Zürich, 1956)Google Scholar; Schreiner, Helmuth, Die Menschwerdung Gottes in der Theologie Johann Georg Hamanns (Tübingen, 1950)Google Scholar: Schoonhoven, E. Jansen, Natuur en Genade bij J. G. Hamann, den Magus van het Noorden (Nijkerk, 1945).Google Scholar

Professor Walter Liebrecht of the Harvard Divinity School informs me that his book Gott und Mensch bei Johann Georg Hamann, will be published shortly byxBertelsmann Verlag — a reminder that the Magus continues to attract the attention of the theologians.

6 Hamann, Johann Georg: An Existentialist (Princeton, 1950), p. 4.Google Scholar

7 von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret, trans. Oxenford, John (rev. ed.; London, 1892), p. 302.Google Scholar

8 In a letter of June 26, 1780 Hamann declares the contemporary philosophy to be “der wahrhafte Papst verklärt.” R, VI, p. 143.

9 N, II, pp. 42–43.

10 R, VII, pp. 264–265.

11 H, I, p. 201.

12 Ibid., p. 339.

13 N, II, p. 73.

14 O'Flaherty, op. cit., esp. pp. 74–94. See also Berlin, Isaiah, The Age of Enlightenment (New York, 1956), pp. 271–275.Google Scholar

15 Gildemeister, C. H., Hamanns, J. G., des Magus im Norden, Leben und Schriften (Gotha, 1868), V, p. 122.Google Scholar

16 N, III, p. 32.

17 Ibid, I, pp. 157–158.

18 Ibid., II, p. 197.

19 Ibid., p. 206.

20 Gildemeister, op. cit., p. 15.

21 N, III, p. 286.

22 Ibid., II, p: 206.

23 Ibid., p. 207.

24 Ibid., I, p. 5.

25 Ibid., p. 6.

26 Ibid., III, p. 27.

27 Ibid., p. 304.

28 Ibid., p. 303.

29 Ibid., pp. 303–304.

30 R, VI, p. 128.

31 N, III, p. 312.

32 Ibid., I, p. 125.

33 H, I, p. 340.

34 Ibid., p. 339.

35 R, VII, p. 419.