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HANS ERICH BÖDEKER
heart” (Kopf und Herz).'*’ In the young Swiss theologian Johann Caspar Lavater
(1741-1801), who visited and stayed with him for some time in 1763, Spalding
found someone who exemplified this “noble, engaging Christianity”: “And the
whole warm life of his heart was nevertheless at the time so fully under the
sway of an Enlightened, reflective and steady reason ...”1°8
For Jerusalem, too, reasonable subjectivity acquired an effective emotional
dimension. He regarded pious “emotion” as an authentic theological princi¬
ple. Although it was only concerned with the rational evidence of revelation,
this was not absolutely necessary. In its simplicity it was sufficient reason for
religion and theology: “my experience is my proof” Because human reason,
schooled by Christ’s teaching, could recognize God as the creator of the world
through intercession from nature, Jerusalem also spoke of a direct relation¬
ship between men and God. The ultimate purpose of Christian religion is “to
connect men with God as closely and directly as possible, without mediators
and intercessors, and to make them willing to do good through trust, gratitude
and love of God, which is the easiest and most powerful truth.” !* This sort of
religiosity did not rest upon “deep, metaphysical deductions”, but turned to
“feeling” and spoke directly to the “heart”.
Herder merely emphasized the emotional moment of Enlightened religion:
“Religion, even seen as an intellectual exercise, represents the highest human¬
ity, the supreme blossoming of the human’s soul ... an exercise for the human
heart and the purest direction of its capabilities and powers.” “ On the other
hand, he also criticized merely devotional sentiment for diminishing faith, a
temptation to which he himself repeatedly fell victim.
Nor did the young Fichte ever suggest that religious truth was fully exhaust¬
ed by its rational functions.‘ Rather, he believed that only the religion of the
heart achieved the goal of all religions, namely, “the bringing to perfection of
137 Cf. LENZ, Jakob Michael Reinhold, Anmerkungen iibers Theater, in F. Blei (ed.)., Gesammelte
Schriften, München - Leipzig, Cassirer, 1909-1913, Vol. 1, 221.; for the context cf. SAUDER,
Gerhard, Empfindsamkeit. Voraussetzungen und Elemente, vol. 1, Stuttgart, Metzler, 1974.
188 SPALDING, Lebensbeschreibung (note 23), 37.
139 JERUSALEM, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm, Predigt über Mt. 22, 39-46, in id., Zweite Sammlung
einiger Predigten, Braunschweig, Schröder, 1752, 306; Id., Betrachtungen,(note 58), vol. 2, 9.
140 Jerusalem, P. C. (ed.), JERUSALEM, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm, Nachgelassene Schriften, second
and final part, (Braunschweig, Schulbuchhandlung, 1793, 298.
141 JERUSALEM, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm, Fortgesetzete Betrachtungen über die vornehmsten Wah¬
rheiten der Religion, Hinterlassene Fragmente, in. P. C. Jerusalem (ed.), Nachgelassene Schriften,
part one,Braunschweig, Schulbuchhandlung, 1792, 300.
142 HERDER, Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, Werke, vol. 13, 163.
143 Cf. PREUL, Reiner, Reflexion und Gefühl. Die Theologie Fichtes in seiner vorkantischen Zeit, Berlin,
De Gruyter, 1969.
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