Jerusalem: Religious Power and Judaism by Moses Mendelssohn

Author:Moses Mendelssohn [Mendelssohn, Moses]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781376257403
Amazon: 1376257408
Published: 2017-09-27T20:20:42+00:00

Jerusalem

Moses Mendelssohn

4. Judaism and Christianity

Lord, send me Thy light, Thy truth,

systems of religion that lie before your eyes in various that they may guide and bring me

forms and versions. Perhaps you have come nearer unto Thy holy mountain, unto Thy dwelling place!

to the Christian faith, having •torn yourself from the slavery of your church’s iron grip, and •started It is in any event harsh and offensive to credit me with teaching the liberal system of a more rational worship having the odious intention of overthrowing the religion I of God, which constitutes the true character of the profess and of renouncing it surreptitiously but not openly.

Christian religion, thanks to which we •have escaped That is what I am accused of by the anonymous Searcher for coercion and burdensome ceremonies and •no longer Light and Right and by Daniel Mörschel, the non-anonymous link the true worship of God either to Samaria or author of a postscript to the work of the ‘Searcher’. This Jerusalem, but •see the essence of religion, in the sort of coming-to-conclusions ought to be banished forever words of our teacher, wherever the true worshippers from interchanges between learned men. Not everyone who worship the Father in spirit and in truth [John 4:24].’

holds a certain opinion is prepared also to accept all its This suggestion is presented with a good deal of solemnity consequences, however strictly they follow from it; ·so a and pathos. But, my dear fellow, should I take this ‘step’

person’s not accepting a consequence shouldn’t be automat-without first thinking about whether it really will extricate ically taken as evidence the he doesn’t sincerely accept the me from the confusion you think I am in? If it’s true that the opinion·. Such imputations of bad faith are malevolent, and cornerstones of my house are dislodged and the structure lead only to bitterness and strife from which truth rarely threatens to collapse, would it be wise for me to remove my gains anything.

belongings from the ground floor to the top floor for safety?

Am I more secure there? As you know, Christianity is built 4. Judaism and Christianity

upon Judaism, and if that falls Christianity has to collapse with it in one heap of ruins. You say that my arguments

[Regarding ‘the wishes that Lavater addressed to you’: Johann Lavater undermine the foundation of Judaism, and you offer me the did a German translation of a book called Evidence for Christianity, in his safety of your upper floor—mustn’t I suppose that you’re Preface to which he challenged Mendelssohn to refute the book or, if he making fun of me? When there seems to be a contradiction couldn’t do that, to ‘do what wisdom, the love of truth and honesty must between truth and truth, between Scripture and reason, bid him’, meaning ‘convert to Christianity’.]

surely a Christian who is in earnest about ‘light and truth’

Indeed, the Searcher goes so far as to address me thus: won’t challenge the Jew to a fight! Rather, he’ll join him in

‘Might the remarkable step you have now taken actu-an effort to discover the source of the trouble.

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