To conclude this week’s focus on the launch of John Kleinig’s translation of J. G. Hamann’s London Writings, I want to give you a sense of the importance of this book and Hamann’s other writings for theology, especially since they anticipate and show a way forward from some of the problems and confusions of contemporary Christianity.
What Hamann says about the authority and use of Scripture, the atonement of Jesus Christ, God’s involvement in the physical realm, his theology of the body, the application of Christianity to secular disciplines, spiritual conflict, and many other topics, seems utterly fresh and stimulating. He approaches such issues from a different perspective than we have been used to, and yet he remains wholly in line with the historic, orthodox faith.
Hamann is often misunderstood, even by those who claim his influence. He was a catalyst for Romanticism, in bringing emotion back into aesthetics, but he was no Romantic. He influenced Kierkegaard, mainly in his Christian faith, but he was no existentialist. Some shallow scholarship has called him an “irrationalist,” of the sort that would lead Germany to Nazism, but Hamann, though demonstrating the limitations of reason alone, sought to ground reason in something beyond itself, namely, the Logos of God. Furthermore, he defended the Jews and opposed the tyranny of Frederick the Great, a true precursor of Hitler. Today Hamann is invoked by the Radical Orthodox movement, which brings postmodernism to bear against modernist theology, but he is no Platonist, as most of the radically orthodox theologians are, and his embrace of the Reformation does not fit well with that movement.
The reason Hamann is so misunderstood and misapplied is not only the eccentric style of his mature writings, but that many of his readers miss the link that ties them all together: His Lutheran theology. And the English world has missed this because the London Writings have not been translated into English until now.
John Kleinig has not only given us an excellent translation of Hamann’s work–before he adopted his idiosyncratic way of writing–he guides us through that work. He has written a comprehensive introduction to the volume, in which he not only orients us to the text and its history, but traces its key themes. He also includes separate introductions to each of the nine distinct works that constitute the London Writings. He also provides thorough annotations throughout the text, explaining Hamann’s references and allusions. Finally, Dr. Kleinig, a Bible scholar of the highest order, includes citations in the margins of Hamann’s Biblical allusions, which are everywhere in the text and which ground Hamann’s musings in the Word of God.
Dr. Kleinig traces four key theological themes and metaphors in the London Writings: God as author (including the implications of that authorship for Scripture); spiritual battle (against Satan, in the cosmos, the earth, and the soul); divine advocacy (how Jesus and the Holy Spirit intercede for us); and divine condescension (how the entire Trinity descends in grace).
Let me have Dr. Kleinig himself explain that last one, which, to me, was especially illuminating:
The second metaphor is the picture of divine condescension. The German term for this is Herablassung. It describes an act by which a person in a high position with superior knowledge and power leaves that place to sit down on the ground with lowly people to interact with them in their own terms, like a mother with her baby. That is what the triune God does for the benefit of human beings, without showing off to them and patronizing them in any way. The paradigm for this is the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9.72 Even though the human race wanted to ascend into heaven on the tower of reason to make a great name for itself, the Triune God descends from heaven to earth to meet with them there. His condescension is the only means by which they can approach Him.
The Bible tells the great story of divine condescension, the condescension of God the Father in creation, God the Son in His incarnation, and God the Holy Spirit in the inspiration of the Bible. . . .
That God the Son descended to us in the depths is well-known, but that God the Father does, in a different way, in His providential care for every sparrow that falls and every worm that burrows in the dung, and that the Holy Spirit does, in the lowliness of the Bible, never occurred to me! But it’s grace all the way!
Next week, we’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming. But there is so much more that I’d like to blog about from this book. I’ll probably have more to say about it later, especially in bringing up specific topics that it raises. In the meantime, buy this book, spread the word about it, and urge any libraries you are involved with to order it.
This could have been brought out by a major publisher, but George Strieter commissioned this work for his micropublishing company Ballast Press. This means Amazon isn’t doing the fulfillment, so Prime doesn’t apply; and it’s not on Kindle, which is fine because this is a book you’ll want to pore over, underline, work through the indexes, and consult again and again (especially for the de facto Bible commentary that Hamann provides in his “Biblical Meditations,” which offer astonishing insights into the Christological implications from Genesis through Revelation).
Also available directly from Ballast Press.
Photo: John W. Kleinig via Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary, St. Catharines, Ontario
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In