Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is not to defend a particular thesis, but to shed light on a figure who, in the words of Hans Urs von Balthasar, "stands in the background of the whole idealist movement, which he mysteriously overshadows yet equally mysteriously supersedes and frames, for no one, not even his closest friend Herder, not even Jacobi and the Munster circle, still less Kant, really understood his purpose; he points to a dimension that has never been filled &ldots; " This figure, too unique to find hospitality in the System, is Johann Georg Hamann. Known as the Magus in Norden, he defended Christianity with nearly unparalleled wit against the "purisms of pure reason," doing so on the basis of a profound theological vision. The introduction gives a brief history of Hamann's influence and the interpretation of his writings, from Goethe, Friedrich Schlegel, and Jean Paul to Schelling, Hegel, and Kierkegaard. The first chapter introduces Hamann's confessional writings, his biblical hermeneutics, and his understanding of trinitarian condescension. The second chapter then sets the contemporary stage, as it were, to which Hamann presents and provokes a response, addressing Kant and postmodern interpretations of the sublime from the vantage of trinitarian kenosis. The third chapter then continues this response to Kant and modern philosophy in the form of a corresponding theology of perception, which develops Hamann's radical, Lutheran interpretation of Hume. The dissertation then attempts to correct an oversight in Kierkegaard scholarship, namely, Kierkegaard's profound indebtedness to Hamann. The fifth chapter then gives a close reading of Hamann's "linguistic turn," his reduction of reason to language, and his corresponding deconstructive "metacritique" of Kant's theoretical philosophy. Having attempted to show how reason ends in philology and a "grammar of scripture," the dissertation then concludes with a chapter on the relation between being and language; and, finally, in response to Nietzsche, with a Hamannian account of genius and "what it means to be an author."