The Political Perfection of Original Judaism: Pedagogical Governance and Ecclesiastical Power in Mendelssohn's Jerusalem
Moses Mendelssohn famously penned his Jerusalem; or, On Religious Power and Judaism in response to a public challenge. Mendelssohn had declared “ecclesiastical power” to be a contradiction in terms, and had thus come out strongly against the use of coercion in religious life, and against the ban of excommunication by rabbinic authorities, in particular. In the anonymously published The Search for Light and Right, August Cranz defies Mendelssohn to explain how he could reconcile this liberal view of religion with his continued commitment to—and his insistence that Jews were still obligated to observe—Jewish law. “As reasonable as all you say [about religious power] may be, to just that degree it contradicts the faith of your fathers . . . and the principles of its church . . . expressly set down in the books of Moses,” Cranz argues. “The theocratic ruling staff drove the whole people . . . with force and punishment.” True, Cranz concedes, exile reduced the capacity of Jewish authorities to enforce Jewish law, “but these ecclesiastical laws are there even if their exercise is no longer a must.” Cranz challenges Mendelssohn to explain his apparently irreconcilable commitments: “How can you persist in the faith of your fathers and shake the whole structure by clearing away its cornerstones, dear Mr. Mendelssohn, when you contest the ecclesiastical law given as divine revelation through Moses?”
Moses Mendelssohn;: A biographical study
Preface 1 Years of Growth Childhood in Dessau * Early Years in Berlin * The Budding Philosopher * Lessing * The Metaphysician * The Bel Esprit * A Learned Society * Kohelet Mussar 2 Maturity and Fame Marriage and Family Life * Thomas Abbt * The Prize-Essay * The Correspondence about the Vocation of Man * The Phaedon * Questions and Answers * Cognate Hebrew Writings 3 Turning Point: The Lavater Affair 'Juif de Berlin' * The Prehistory of the Lavater Affair * Lavater's Challenge and Mendelssohn's Reply * First Reactions and Behind-the-Scene Activities Lavater's Reply and Mendelssohn's Epilogue * Reverberations of the Conflict * Literary Concerns and Another Lavater Episode 4 Changes in the Pattern of Life The Strange Illness * Ups and Downs A Chronicle of Events * Hebraica and Judaica * The Chronicle Continued * Some Philosophical Preoccupations * Friends in Unexpected Quarters 5 The Teacher The Avant-Garde of Haskala * The German Translation of the Pentateuch * Obstacles on the Road * Completing the Work 6 Political Reformer Spokesman of his People * Co-operation with Dohm * A Momentous Event and a New Tract for the Times * The Issue of Educational Reform * The Summer of 1782 * Jerusalem 7 Strains and Stresses Friendship with Lessing: The Last Phase * A Projected Essay on Lessing's Character * Jacobi's Attitude toward Mendelssohn: Antecedents of their Conflict * An Uneasy Correspondence 8 Guardian of the Enlightenment The Contest * Literary Activity, 1783-1785 * Morning Hours * In Combat * The Social and Domestic Scene * The End * Epilogue Notes Index of Subjects and Names
Mendelssohn’s Metaphysical Defense of Religious Pluralism*
Monotheism has a bloody history. It has become common to account for this bloodiness by contrasting monotheism’s exclusiveness with polytheism’s tolerance: “Monotheism, in its war against polytheism, is an attempt to impose unity of opinions and beliefs by force, as a result of an uncompromising attitude towards the unity of God. Polytheism, by contrast, by its very nature includes an abundance of gods and modes of ritual worship, and so has room for different viewpoints and beliefs and therefore is pluralistic. This pluralism is not just the product of compromise, but is in fact an ontological pluralism that constitutes a deeper basis for tolerance.” But there is another side to monotheism. For in claiming the universality of religious truth, monotheism contains a strong foundation for human unity. In the wake of the Reformation and the Hundred Years’ War, many European philosophers sought to articulate a conception of monotheism that allowed for and indeed encouraged religious pluralism. Moses Mendelssohn, the great Enlightenment Jewish philosopher, is known for his eloquent pleas for the political tolerance of religious