Abstract
Hamann distinguishes among a philosophy which is leading men away from Christ, a philosophy which is in Christ and a philosophy which is on the way to Christ. The symbol of the last is Socrates. Failure to see these distinctions in Hamann is a source of endless confusion.
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References
Cf. Salmony I, 140.
Ps. 51: 8 (Luther Bible).
Cf. Walter Leibrecht, Gott und Mensch, pp. 110–111.
Concerning the “Daimon”, Hamann himself (cf. II, 75) playfully suggests ‘demytholo-gization’ as one possible explanation among others. The Daimon could also be an angel, a kobold, a figment of Socrates’ imagination, etc. !
Cf. Fritz Blanke, Commentary on the Socratic Memorabilia, Vol. II of Johann Georg Hamanns Hauptschriften erklärt (Gütersloh: Gerd Mohn, 1959) p. 13.
The proclamation of the gospel in the world involves a knowledge of the world. The Christian must be open to truth however it appears. The philosopher and above all the “poet” (i.e. the novelist and playwright!) can help to interpret this world. Commenting on Titus I: 12 (concerning the “prophet” who said Cretans were always liars!) Hamann said: “All means of assistance are holy to the Christian and to be used for the spreading of the gospel! Above all is a knowledge of the moral character and taste of the times necessary. The poets are a help here and are the best assayers, who disclose to us the manner of thinking of men and of a people and their inclinations, and they test the truest and the firmest. The testimonies [reading plural — cf. R I, 119] of human art, science, and history serve as seals, — human seals of revelation, and as a Christian one has as little cause to neglect or abandon these as Paul to leave behind his coat in Troas. Paul does a poet the honor of calling him a prophet of his people.” (I, 241).
The connection probably derives from Hamann’s noting of the Septuagint word for “create” in Gen. I: I (POIEIN).
A movement which Hamann repudiated, referring to it as “the ridiculous ‘Sturm und Drang’” (To Jacobi, 18 Feb. 1786).
“Not only the end but the entire course of life of a Christian is the masterpiece of the unknown Genius which heaven and earth recognize and will recognize in transfigured human form for the one-together Creator, Mediator and Self-preserver.” (The Wise Men Out of the East, II, 140).
This passage in the Clouds (the “Postlude” to the Socratic Memorabilia) on madness is probably an oblique reference to one of the slurs of Christoph Berens. Evidently when Hamann refused to accept Berens’ invitation to abandon his newly found Christianity and to become gainfully employed once again in some enterprise of the Enlightenment, Berens accused him of madness and idleness. (At the time of the writing of the Socratic Memorabilia he was living off of his father, indeed without further plans.) The full title of the Socratic writing is: Socratic Memorabilia. For the Boredom [lange Weile] of the Public. By a Lover of Leisure [lange Weile], With a Double Ascription: To Nobody and to Two. In a letter to Johann Gotthelf Lindner, 21 Mar. 1759, Hamann refers to Berens’ “probings, with which he would feel out whether I am still of a sound mind and still possess ambition” (ZH I, 307). “If he wants to know what I do now, tell him I lutherize” (‘Here I stand. I can do no other’).
Cf. II Cor. 3: 14-17; Gal. 3: 24. Cf. Hamann to Joh. Gottfried and Caroline Herder (11-26 [25] June 1780, ZH IV, 195): “Reason is the bodily Moses — and our contemporary philosophy the bodily pope — transfigured …” But “without both [Judaism and Christianity] are papacy and Lutheranism piecework.”
Hume is as “Saul among the prophets. I will quote you a passage which should prove that even in jest and without one’s knowledge and will one can preach the truth…” Then follows the quote from Hume taken from the end of the chapter on “Miracles” in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 1748, 1750): “The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one…” etc. (To Kant, 27 July 1759).
Cf. the Clouds (II, 108): “Reason is holy, just and good [cf. Rms. 7: 12 where the text refers to “Law”]; by it however comes nothing but knowledge of the exceedingly sinful ignorance, which, if it becomes epidemic, steps into the prerogatives of philosophy. …”
Cf. II, 150; III, 144; ZH III, 215 (To Herder, 28 Jan. 1776).
Cf. the Socratic Memorabilia (II, 61): “I have written on Socrates in the socratic manner. The analogy was the soul of his inferences, and he gave irony to them for their body.” The reply to the critics of his book, in a reference to Aristophanes’ satire, he called Clouds (1761).
Cf. also the letter to Kant (27 July 1759), in which “metaschematism” is illustrated in Hamann’s reply to Kant on the attempt to reconvert him to the Enlightenment. He is going to “help” Kant convert him! “If you are Socrates and if your friend [Berens] wants to be Alcibiades, you will need the voice of a DAIMON to give you instruction. And this role suits me, without thereby incurring for myself suspicions of pride. — An actor lays aside his royal mask, his acting and his stilted speech as soon as he leaves the stage. Until then therefore allow me to call myself a DAIMON…. ”
Hamann drew back from any argument which came forward with too much pretension. If a philosophical argument furnishes a real foundation on its own (and becomes more than a movement toward the Christ), it has furnished a deity. “Flesh and blood knows no other God than the Universum, no other Savior than a Homunculum [a little man], no other Spirit than the letter. A man can take nothing, for it is given to him.” (To Wizenmann, 22 July 1786; G V, 377). “My mouth always waters for the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of what is good and evil” but “the mustard seed of my faith and conscience is holy to me. …” (To Jacobi, 23 Aug. 1786).
Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687–1752), Gnomon Novi Testamenti, 1742 (Editio Tertia, Tübingen: 1855).
Cf. the quote from Shakespeare at the beginning of Clouds (II, 85): “The play’s the thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”
Cf. Hamann’s remarks in the Biblical Meditations: “The first of these basic truths of faith, namely the irreconcilability of God with sin, the estrangement of human nature from its author, and the abominable deviation from righteousness, the necessity of which every natural man can perceive, is revealed to the heathen by the applying of their reason, by their reflection upon and consideration of nature and the visible world.” (I, 228). But the wisest heathen attains “no knowledge of the greatness of the disgrace, of the depth of the misery into which human nature has fallen.” (I, 28).
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© 1966 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Alexander, W.M. (1966). Agnosia: Philosophy Before Faith. In: Johann Georg Hamann Philosophy and Faith. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9237-8_7
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