Rebirth of Revelation

Tuska Benes is an associate professor of History at The College of William and Mary.

"Benes focuses on the period between 1750 and 1850 in the German lands, which boasted some of the most important intellectual minds of the period. They include Lessing, Mendelssohn, Kant, Herder, Schleiermacher, and Hegel. The most intriguing part of Benes’s book, however, is not the responses of these intellectual giants; rather, her approach is. She provides a much broader picture, including the religious struggles that haunted Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish intellectual communities at the time." - Ulrich Groetsch, University of North Alabama (Central European History)

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction 1. Historical Revelation in the Protestant EnlightenmentReason and Revelation: Spinoza, Leibniz, and WolffReimarus and the Neologians on Pagan SalvationG.E. Lessing on the Historicity of RevelationThe Kantian Critique of Revelation2. The Comparative History of Religion, 1770–1800David Hume and the Comparative History of Religion J.G. Herder’s Älteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlechts (1774)The Comparative Religious History of Christoph MeinersJ.A. Starck and J.G. Hamann on Rational Ur-MonotheismThe Göttingen School of Comparative Religious History3. God’s Word in Comparative Mythology, 1760–1830The Divine Origins of Language: Hamann and HerderThe Ursprache and Mosaic Revelation: Friedrich SchlegelJ.A. Kanne’s Elusive UrspracheThe Language of Revelation Nationalized: Friedrich RückertThe Symbolism of God’s Word: Joseph Görres4. Revelation in Nature from Physicotheology to G.H. SchubertNatural Theology and the Collapse of Intelligent DesignRestoring Revelation to NaturphilosophieNature Divested of Sacred TraditionG.H. Schubert in the Spinoza RenaissancePhysica Sacra: The Urwelt, Creation, and Scripture5. The Philosophy of Revelation: Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Schelling Schleiermacher: Revelation as Subjective ExperienceThe Self-Revelation of God in HegelThe Dark Ground of Revelation in Schelling6. The Epistemology of Grace: Revelation in Catholic Theology, 1770–1850Enlightened Catholicism and the Semi-Rationalist Defense of RevelationThe Moral Necessity of Revelation for Georg HermesThe Comparative History of Religion in Enlightened Catholic TheologySyncretism in Post-Kantian Catholic Histories of ReligionCatholic Philosophies of Revelation: Anton Günther and J.S. DreyThe Neo-Scholasticism of Joseph Kleutgen7. Revelation in Jewish Religious Thought from Mendelssohn to GeigerRevelation and the Law: Moses MendelssohnKant and Pre-Mosaic Revelation: Saul Ascher Salomon Ludwig Steinheim on Primordial RevelationRevelation as Historical Experience: Samson Raphael Hirsch Jewish Philosophies of Revelation: Salomon Formstecher and Samuel Hirsch The Genius of Revelation: Abraham Geiger 8. Revelation Imperiled in Protestant Religious Thought, 1820–1850Revelation and Neo-Confessionalism: August Tholuck The Self-Revelation of Humanity: Ludwig FeuerbachSøren Kierkegaard: Revelation in Existentialist Thought ConclusionBibliography