Mystical Sources of German Romantic Philosophy (Pittsburgh Theological Monographs) <\/a> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=leithartcom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0915138506\")
), Ernst Benz notes that, in contrast to France where philosophical terminology could be smoothly translated from Latin, German philosophy drew its first philosophical language from mysticism: <\/p>\n \u201cThe philosophical and theological language, the language of German schools and universities, was the same Latin as in France, since Latin was the European language of theologians and scholars. \u00a0No philosophical terminology existed outside Latin disputations, Latin lessons, and Latin scholastic books. \u00a0On the contrary, the German language of the High Middle Ages was essentially poetic. \u00a0German literature of the Middle Ages was the literature of the Minnesang, of the troubadours, and of the Hiedenlied, of epic songs such as the Nibelungenlied <\/em> , which means that it was a language of images, allegories, parables, not a language of abstract concepts and philosophical and logical terms. \u00a0There was no philosophical terminology in the German language, and there were no German translations of Latin philosophical or theological treatises.\u201d <\/p>\n That changed with \u201cGerman Thomistic mysticism,\u201d particularly with Eckhart. \u00a0In his preaching to nuns, he could not rely on Latin theological terms and treatises, and so he had either to \u201ctranslate the abstract terms of theological language into poetic images\u201d or \u201ccreate a new terminology of abstractions improvised in German.\u201d \u00a0If he translated theological terms into poetic images, \u201cthe translator was forced to form some very audacious and dangerous paradoxes, which were capable of being understood and considered as heresies\u201d \u2013 and in Eckhart\u2019s case were so understood. \u00a0But the alternative was to use \u201cnew concepts and unheard-of abstractions\u201d that would make the sermon incomprehensible. <\/p>\n
Eckhart is responsible for the development of a \u201cnew German philosophical and theological terminology\u201d but one that had a strong poetic and mystical component. \u00a0Boehme continued the project, introducing all the basic vocabulary of German philosophy down to Heidegger and beyond. \u00a0Sein, Wesen, Wesenheit, das Seinende, das Nichts, Nichtigkeit, as well as Form, Gestalt, Anschauung, Erkenntnis, Erkennen, Vernunft, Verstand and Vertandnis, Bild and Abbild, Grund and Ungrund, Ich and Ichheit and Nicht-Ich \u2013 all of it came from \u201cGerman mystical speculation.\u201d <\/p>\n
Perhaps this is as good a description of \u201cContinental\u201d philosophy as any: It\u2019s not merely the philosophy of Kant\u2019s Third Critique, but philosophy whose categories (including Kant\u2019s!) came from German poetic mysticism. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his book on the origins of German Romanticism and idealism ( Mystical Sources of German Romantic Philosophy (Pittsburgh Theological Monographs) ), Ernst Benz notes that, in contrast to France where philosophical terminology could be smoothly translated from Latin, German philosophy drew its first philosophical language from mysticism: \u201cThe philosophical and theological language, the language […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy"],"yoast_head":"\n
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