Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Further reading
- Note on texts and translations
- Introduction
- Philosophical and theological writings
- 1 The Christianity of reason (c. 1753)
- 2 On the reality of things outside God (1763)
- 3 Spinoza only put Leibniz on the track of [his theory of] pre-established harmony (1763)
- 4 On the origin of revealed religion (1763 or 1764)
- 5 Leibniz on eternal punishment (1773)
- 6 [Editorial commentary on the ‘Fragments’ of Reimarus, 1777]
- 7 On the proof of the spirit and of power (1777)
- 8 The Testament of St John (1777)
- 9 A rejoinder (1778)
- 10 A parable (1778)
- 11 Axioms (1778)
- 12 New hypothesis on the evangelists as merely human historians (1778)
- 13 Necessary answer to a very unnecessary question of Herr Hauptpastor Goeze of Hamburg (1778)
- 14 The religion of Christ (1780)
- 15 That more than five senses are possible for human beings (c. 1780)
- 16 Ernst and Falk: dialogues for Freemasons (1778–80)
- 17 The education of the human race (1777–80)
- 18 [Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Recollections of conversations with Lessing in July and August 1780 (1785)]
- Index
- Cambridge texts in the history of philosophy
13 - Necessary answer to a very unnecessary question of Herr Hauptpastor Goeze of Hamburg (1778)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Further reading
- Note on texts and translations
- Introduction
- Philosophical and theological writings
- 1 The Christianity of reason (c. 1753)
- 2 On the reality of things outside God (1763)
- 3 Spinoza only put Leibniz on the track of [his theory of] pre-established harmony (1763)
- 4 On the origin of revealed religion (1763 or 1764)
- 5 Leibniz on eternal punishment (1773)
- 6 [Editorial commentary on the ‘Fragments’ of Reimarus, 1777]
- 7 On the proof of the spirit and of power (1777)
- 8 The Testament of St John (1777)
- 9 A rejoinder (1778)
- 10 A parable (1778)
- 11 Axioms (1778)
- 12 New hypothesis on the evangelists as merely human historians (1778)
- 13 Necessary answer to a very unnecessary question of Herr Hauptpastor Goeze of Hamburg (1778)
- 14 The religion of Christ (1780)
- 15 That more than five senses are possible for human beings (c. 1780)
- 16 Ernst and Falk: dialogues for Freemasons (1778–80)
- 17 The education of the human race (1777–80)
- 18 [Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Recollections of conversations with Lessing in July and August 1780 (1785)]
- Index
- Cambridge texts in the history of philosophy
Summary
Wolfenbüttel, 1778
At last Hauptpastor Goeze, after such lengthy and tiresome preliminaries as only the worst kind of exhibition fencers employ, seems ready to take up his blade and concentrate on the fight.
At least he now declares that he will give immediate and proper attention to the point which he disputes with me, namely whether the Christian religion could survive even if the Bible were lost completely, if it had been lost long ago, or if it had never existed, as soon as I have given a definite statement concerning what kind of religion I understand by the Christian religion.
If I knew that my conscience were less clear than it is, who could hold it against me if I rejected this demand, which contains a genuine calumny, on the same grounds as those on which he sees fit to decline a far less offensive demand of mine? For he declares that ‘the Librarian of Wolfenbüttel cannot give orders to the Hauptpastor in Hamburg’. Very true! But what authority does the Hauptpastor in Hamburg have over the Librarian in Wolfenbüttel that allows him to serve the latter with a public summons to answer a question which assumes that he cannot answer it satisfactorily?
But the Librarian will not insist on his rights. For the Librarian, as already mentioned, knows that his conscience is clear, and must laugh heartily when the Hauptpastor claims to be convinced ‘that if I had known in advance that the controversy would take this course, I would have taken care not to give my position away so soon and to reveal the true sentiments of my heart’.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lessing: Philosophical and Theological Writings , pp. 172 - 177Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005