From Baroque to Storm and Stress 1720-1775 by Radandt Friedhelm;

Author:Radandt, Friedhelm;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 1977-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Lessing had at least maintained a certain disagreement with the ‘unnamed’ scholar, arguing that contradictions in the Biblical account of the Resurrection do not conclusively prove that the Resurrection was an invention. The quarrel became particularly bitter after Goeze attacked Lessing by name early in 1778. Lessing’s answers did not aim at reaching any understanding but merely at refuting Goeze, and he continued his replies until the Duke ordered him in July 1778 to cease work on his Anti-Goeze. Even that order did not keep Lessing entirely from writing against Goeze. However, he now concentrated most of his efforts on writing Nathan der Weise.

The play, one of the first German dramas written in blank verse, was called ‘ein dramatisches Gedicht’. Its setting is Jerusalem during the Crusades after the Moslem ruler Saladin had captured the city from the Crusaders. Thus three religions, Jewish, Moslem, and Christian, live side by side but fight each other. Nathan der Weise expresses Lessing’s theological tenet, through the famous parable of the three rings, that religious truth is not supported by historical facts but by an individual’s life. Therefore, tolerance is required. In the play the practice of tolerance leads to the discovery that the three religions represent one family. In this family the wealthy Jewish merchant Nathan turns out to be the true spiritual father, a moving figure who fascinates readers through his wisdom as well as his compassionate nature. The parable of the rings, which Lessing had found in Boccaccio, is used by Nathan to answer Saladin’s question about the one true religion. The three rings, representing the three religions, look so much alike that they cannot be distinguished from each other. The power of the original ring to make its bearer loved by others has vanished as the sons turn to quarreling. It is now up to each bearer to prove through his life the original power of the ring he possesses:

So glaube jeder sicher seinen Ring

Den echten. — Möglich; dass der Vater nun

Die Tyrannei des einen Rings nicht länger

In seinem Hause dulden wollen! — Und gewiss;

Dass er euch alle drei geliebt, und gleich

Geliebt: indem er zwei nicht drücken mögen,

Um einen zu begünstigen. — Wohlan!

Es eifre jeder seiner unbestochnen

Von Vorurteilen freien Liebe nach!

Es strebe von euch jeder um die Wette,

Die Kraft des Steins in seinem Ring’ an Tag

Zu legen!

[III, 7]

The forcefulness of the parable lies not in its logical consistency, or rather lack of it, but in the plot constructed around it, and in the crisp and lucid language of the dialogue.

The problems of tolerance and of overcoming every kind of prejudice as a way towards humanitarianism occupied Lessing also when he wrote Ernst und Falk: Gespräche für Freimaurer (1778). He had become a member of the Masonic order in 1771. A late work, Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts (1780), turns once again and in great detail to the relationship of revelation and rational insight. Lessing projects a development from revealed religion to a form of natural religion in which the necessity for

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.