2010 Conference at the University of Notre Dame

30 September-2 October 2010, Notre Dame, Indiana

Herder and Religion

Although it is a commonplace that Johann Gottfried Herder was „the theologian among the classical writers“ of eighteenth-century Germany, relatively little scholarly attention has been devoted to the place and function of religion in Herder’s life, work and influence. This is not to imply that the subject has been ignored altogether: there have been many fine studies on his Älteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlechts, Vom Geist der Ebräischen Poesie, and on his Gott. Einige Gespräche. But many other works – his Briefe, das Studium der Theologie betreffend, the Christliche Schriften and many others are not as well-known and widely read as his works on aesthetics, the philosophy of language, and of course the philosophy of history. And yet, there is no apparent reason to believe that Herder did not conceive all of his works as part of his larger oeuvre, and above all his practical work as a preacher and minister, as forming a cohesive whole.

Recent work has begun to emphasize the centrality of religion and theological concerns to Herder’s activity and self-conception. Prominent among these newer efforts is the volume Johann Gottfried Herder. Aspekte seines Lebenswerks, ed. by Martin Keßler and Volker Leppin (Berlin 2005), which collects papers given at a conference in Weimar in 2003, many of which treat religious and theological topics. Keßler’s two-volume study of 2007, also marks an important milestone in the reevaluation of the aspect of Herder’s life, further amplifying and extending the earlier work of Christoph Bultmann and others.

At the biennial meeting of the International Herder Society in 2010, which will take place at the University of Notre Dame from 30 September through October 2, we will consider the nature, role and consequences of religion in Herder’s thought and his impact. Papers will be welcome that consider Herder’s relationships to the religious traditions of the past, as well as his involvement with figures and controversies contemporary to him that centered on religious issues; Herder’s place within comparative religious studies; and Herder’s role in subsequent debates – historiographical, methodological, and theological – surrounding the specific questions he addressed in his writings. Especially encouraged are proposals that explore the overlap and implications of the various areas of Herder’s work; for instance, what are not just the theological implications of Herder’s philosophy of history, but how does it bear on personal salvation? What are the consequences of the fact that Herder developed his concept of poetry on the basis of biblical texts? Or, conversely, that Klopstock provides a model of biblical exegesis? What other traditions of hermeticism and speculative thought beyond theological orthodoxy can be identified as pertinent to these questions? These questions are intended to exemplify the kinds of issues participants are encouraged to pursue and should not be considered exclusive.

http://cce.nd.edu/attend.shtml

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