The Rebirth of Revelation

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

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Historical Revelation in the Protestant Enlightenment

Reason and Revelation: Spinoza, Leibniz, and Wolff
Reimarus and the Neologians on Pagan Salvation
G.E. Lessing on the Historicity of Revelation
The Kantian Critique of Revelation

2. The Comparative History of Religion, 1770–1800

David Hume and the Comparative History of Religion
J.G. Herder’s Älteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlechts (1774)
The Comparative Religious History of Christoph Meiners
J.A. Starck and J.G. Hamann on Rational Ur-Monotheism
The Göttingen School of Comparative Religious History

3. God’s Word in Comparative Mythology, 1760–1830

The Divine Origins of Language: Hamann and Herder
The Ursprache and Mosaic Revelation: Friedrich Schlegel
J.A. Kanne’s Elusive Ursprache
The Language of Revelation Nationalized: Friedrich Rückert
The Symbolism of God’s Word: Joseph Görres

4. Revelation in Nature from Physicotheology to G.H. Schubert

Natural Theology and the Collapse of Intelligent Design
Restoring Revelation to Naturphilosophie
Nature Divested of Sacred Tradition
G.H. Schubert in the Spinoza Renaissance
Physica Sacra: The Urwelt, Creation, and Scripture

5. The Philosophy of Revelation: Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Schelling

Schleiermacher: Revelation as Subjective Experience
The Self-Revelation of God in Hegel
The Dark Ground of Revelation in Schelling

6. The Epistemology of Grace: Revelation in Catholic Theology, 1770–1850

Enlightened Catholicism and the Semi-Rationalist Defense of Revelation
The Moral Necessity of Revelation for Georg Hermes
The Comparative History of Religion in Enlightened Catholic Theology
Syncretism in Post-Kantian Catholic Histories of Religion
Catholic Philosophies of Revelation: Anton Günther and J.S. Drey
The Neo-Scholasticism of Joseph Kleutgen

7. Revelation in Jewish Religious Thought from Mendelssohn to Geiger

Revelation and the Law: Moses Mendelssohn
Kant and Pre-Mosaic Revelation: Saul Ascher
Salomon Ludwig Steinheim on Primordial Revelation
Revelation 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, 1820–1850

Revelation and Neo-Confessionalism: August Tholuck
The Self-Revelation of Humanity: Ludwig Feuerbach
Søren Kierkegaard: Revelation in Existentialist Thought

Conclusion

Bibliography