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HANS ERICH BÖDEKER
II
As traditional theological principles, governing expectations, ways of think¬
ing and empirical knowledge were questioned in the eighteenth century, a new
concept of Christianity developed. The Enlightened religious subject demanded
certainty of belief; a growing awareness of individual dignity emerged, answer¬
ing directly only to God. This meant that Enlightened subjects were no longer
prepared to put up with being kept in theological leading strings. Their plea
for recognition that they had come of age in religious matters was the turning
point in the emergence of an Enlightened religious awareness, something that
can hardly be imagined without the long-term process by which subjectivity
emerged."
The young Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, son of a parson and student of protes¬
tant theology, was well aware of the specific conditions governing this change
in consciousness, and of its dimensions. “Time will tell whether the person
who has learned the fundamental doctrines of Christian teaching and is always
repeating them, but without understanding them, who goes to church and takes
part in all the rites because it is the useful thing, is a better Christian than
someone who has once prudently doubted and has found conviction, or is at
least seeking it by the path of inquiry.” This is what the twenty year old theol¬
ogy student Lessing wrote to his father, who, although to an extent receptive
to new theology, was deeply concerned about his son’s religious development.
In his letter Lessing continued: “The Christian religion is not a work that one
should accept from one’s parents on trust. Most people inherit it from their
parents in the same way that they inherit property, but their behaviour shows
what Christians they are”!
Lessing, who rejected the state of theological tutelage, could no longer un¬
questioningly and uncritically see Christianity as a tradition that one could
simply accept from ones parents on trust. He demanded forms that would
allow him to continue being a Christian without losing his intellectual and
moral integrity. Lessing believed that people had to “earn” religious truth “for
14 Cf. JELLOUSCHEK, Hans, “Zum Verhältnis von Glauben und Wissen”, Zeitschrift für katholische
Theologie, 93 (1971), 306ff.; THIELECKE, Helmut, Glauben und Denken in der Neuzeit. Die großen
Systeme der Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, Tübingen, Mohr, 1983.; OELMULLER, Willi, Die
unbefriedigte Aufklärung. Beiträge zu einer Theorie der Moderne von Lessing, Kant und Hegel,
with a new introduction, Frankfurt/M., Suhrkamp, 1979.; EBERSOLD, Günther, Mündigkeit. Zur
Geschichte eines Begriffs, Frankfurt/M. et al, Peter Lang, 1980.
15 Lessing to his father (30 May 1749); Lessing, Schriften LM, Vol. 17, 17f, cf. YAMASUTO, Toshi¬
masa, Lessing’s Philosophy of Religion and the German Enlightenment, Oxford, Oxford Uni¬
versity Press, 2002, chapter 1.
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