Secularization, Scripture, and the Theory of Reading: J. G.

Herder and the Old Testament Author(s): Daniel Weidner Reviewed work(s): Source: New German Critique, No. 94, Secularization and Disenchantment (Winter, 2005), pp. 169-193 Published by: New German Critique Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30040954 . Accessed: 19/12/2011 02:11
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and Secularization, Scripture, the Theory of G Herderand the Old Testament1 Reading:J.
Daniel Weidner

Today,JohannGottfriedHerder(1744-1803) is regardedas a pioneer of post-Enlightenment thought. His philosophy of history anticipated much in 19th-centuryhistorical thought, particularlythe idea of the of "individuality" nationsand their"inner,organic"development.His art criticism made importantstridestowardthe formulationof the modem concept of a work of art, stressingart's historicaland culturalparticularHerder- the "theologianamong the ity, as well as artisticsubjectivity. classic writers,"as Karl Barth called him - developed these modem concepts with constantreferenceto religious heritage.One finds traces and of providencein his philosophyof history,and notionsof inspiration in incarnation his conceptof art.He found in religioustraditiona means had to describewhatthe Enlightenment ignoredor suppressed. into aestheticsor philosHowever,religion is not merely transformed his in Herder'sthought. Throughout career,Herderwrote extenophy on sively on the Bible, particularly the Old Testament.His early works,
Concerning the First Documents of Mankind and Fragments of an Archaeology of the Orient, published posthumously, elaborate on

Hume's theory of naturalreligion, claiming that the creation story is mainly an etiology of the Sabbath.From 1774 to 1776, in a period of renewed theological interest, Herder wrote his most voluminous and
ambitious book on the Bible, The Oldest Document of Mankind, an

enthusiasticand deeply theological- even mystical- readingof Genesis 1-6, reflectingalso on the religionsof Egypt, Babylonia,Persia,and even Kabbalistic teachings. However, Herder's attempt to prove the
1. A shorterversionof this essay was presentedin August2002 at the Conference of the North AmericanSociety for the Studyof Romanticism London,Ontario.It was in developed in the context of the "Dialecticsof Secularization" projectat the Zentrum fiir Berlin. I would like to thankmy colleagues Prof. Sigrid Weigel, Dr. Literaturforschung, ErnstMNiller, Dr. Martin Treml. and 169

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originalityof the creationstory and its primacy in respect to all other

religious traditions had little success. Later, he wrote on the Old Testament in the Letters Concerning the Study of Theology (1780/81) and on

the Bible in general in his The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry (1782/83), where he returnsto his earlier,more criticalposition. In the Letters, he makes a programmatic statement:
We must readthe Bible in a humanway, since it is a book writtenby man for man: the language is human, it was written and preserved it, throughhumanmeans, and the sense, in which one can understand the whole purpose,for which it may be used, is human.2 These oft-cited lines seem to reveal Herder's position: for him, the

it but Bible is "human"; is no longersacredscripture, a book amongother

books. Thus, Herder apparently takes a decisive step toward a modernm, secular understanding of the Bible. This would reflect a double shift: a transfer in which literatureis interpretedthrough religious ideas, while the Bible becomes literature. Dieter Gutzen describes this chiastic substitution as "secularization": of as If we understand "secularization" the transfer a religiousexperiof ence to poetry,music, and art, it implies the substitution the Bible necesas revelationby the Bible as poetry.However,"secularization" sarily goes hand in hand with the sacralizationof the object which of the actuatesthe new religiousexperience.Therefore, secularization to of the Bible corresponds the sacralization poetry.

is However, a few lines later in Herder'sLetters, this interpretation

called into question: "You can be sure," he writes to the fictional young correspondent, "that the more you read the word of God in a human way,

who made man of the closer you get to the intention its author[Urheber], in his own image and acts in a humanway in all his works and deeds.'4 Reading the Bible "in a human way" does not prevent Herder from There is, for speakingof "theword of God"or even of divine authorship. him, no clear division between a theologicalreadingand a profaneone.
2. Johann Gottfried Herder, Briefe, das Studiumder Theologie betreffend,in DeutscherKlassikerVerlag, vol. 9/1, ed. MartinBollacheret al. (Frankfurt/Main: Werke, All are to referred as Werke. translations mine. 1993) 145. Hereafter zu und 3. DieterGutzen,"Poesieder Bibel: Beobachtungen ihrerEntdeckung ihrer im diss., U of Bonn, 1968, 11. Interpretation 18. Jahrhundert," 4. Herder, Briefe 145.

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To understand the ambiguity here, one needs to formulate a concept of secularization that goes further than Gutzen's notion of a replacement or a transfer of meaning from the religious to the secular. I Recently, it has become fashionable to speak of secularization. The relation of modem "secular" society to its own past, as well as to other

"religious"societies, has been revisited.This renewedinterestis seen in culturalstudies and in the media, but the theoreticalmeaning of "secuhas larization" remainedvague, even though most would agree that we live in an age of "secularization." Under the implicit postmodem consensus, however, lies an older, more controversial discourse about secularization. The heated exchanges that took place between Karl L6with, Carl Schmitt, Hans Blumenberg,and Jakob Taubes in the 1960s and 1970s demonstrated
that secularization is by no means a neutral or innocent term of analysis. Blumenberg vehemently attacked what he believed to be an ideological concept of secularization that had never emancipated itself from

its theological heritage.In his The Legitimacyof the ModernAge, Bludistinction: menbergmadean important
There simply is a differencebetween claiming that "secularization" advances in [a] certain country (and that this fact is visible in the to empiricaldecline of the commitment the church),and saying that the valuationof professionalsuccess in capitalismis the secularization of personalsalvationon the premisesof the belief in predestination.5 In fact, most of the ambiguity of and fascination with the concept of secularization results from its often unrecognized dual meaning. On the one hand, secularization means the disappearance of religion; on the other hand, it refers to the transformation of religion. Schematically, one can distinguish an "intransitive"use of the concept (secularization takes place) from a "transitive"use (something is secularized into something). The second meaning in particular has generated strong and interesting narratives, such as the secularization of the Puritan ethos into capitalism; of the Christian concept of salvation into the modern concept of history; or of God's omnipotence into the political idea of sovereignty. Whereas
5. Hans Blumenberg,Die Legitimitit der Neuzeit (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1996) 18.

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the intransitive of secularization relativelyunproblematic Bluuse is for menberg,the transitivecategoryappearsas an ideological concept that never lost its originally political sense: the expropriationof church propertyby the modernstate. As a "categoryof historicalillegitimacy," it implies that the process of transformation illegitimate, and that is what is "secularized" has only a derivative meaning comparedto its religious "origin." Moreover, this notion is substantialist, since it assumes that some kind of identical element passes through the religious as well as the profane: "Withoutsuch substantialidentity, to and would have no meaning."6 speakof reconstruction transformation Even if one doubts Blumenberg'sideological criticism,his argument against substantialismis convincing. It is hardly possible to demonstratethe kind of continuityassumedin thatview of secularization, e.g., to prove that the Christianidea of providencehas in fact transformed into the modern idea of an invisible hand. Similarly,it is difficult to took place, which in a quasishow exactly how the "transformation" alchemical way changed an idea from religious to profane. Much of in what is said about secularization literaryhistory can be criticized in the same way, a "historyof ideas," which purportsto trace the fate of ideas in a sphere of pure spirit, can hardlyavoid this kind of substantialism and intellectualalchemy. However, to dismiss the "transitive" category, as Blumenbergproposes, is no solution. First,this overlooksthe tension between religious and profane thought. The religious motifs in Herder'sthought are no veil for Herder's"real"ideas. mere "dogmaticresidue,"no unnecessary To the contrary, interplayof religious and profanemeaningis a prothe ductive one, and it cannot be graspedby the transitivenotion of "secularization" alone. Second, it is difficultto distinguishthese two concepts of secularizationfrom each other. In a culturalsphere, the intransitive and the transitive, the "descriptive"and the "ideological" concepts, in belong together and imply each other. This is clearly demonstrated Max Weber's narrativeof modern "disenchantment" [Entzauberung], which encapsulatesboth the transitiveand the intransitivetheories of Weber'shistoryof the emergenceof Westernrationalism secularization. and is a prime example of a theory of modernization the disappearance
24. 6. Blumenberg On this point see the critiqueby Gerhard Kaiser,Pietismusund Athenium, 2nd ed. 1973) Patriotismus im literarischenDeutschland(Frankfurt/Main: and Simtliche Schriften,vol. 2 (StutXIII-XXXIV, KarlL6with'sreview of Blumenberg, tgart:Metzlerm1983)452-459.

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of religion. At the same time, his thesis aboutthe relationshipof Protestantismto capitalismis the paradigmfor most theoriesof transitivesecularization.This dual orientationis deeply embeddedin Weber'sentire which not only has a dual meaning as "a rhetoricof "disenchantment," process"and "the resultof a process,"but also suggeststhat the process moment.This is all the more has of "disenchantment" an "enchanting" importantbecause Weberdid not develop a theory of secularization he hardlyuses the term - but rathera dense, overdetermined narrative in which the metaphoricalanalogy of capitalism to Protestantismis with linked to the idea of theirmetonymic succession,and supplemented of futuredespotism.This complex narrative an anticipation a threatening is paradigmatic secularization for narratives,which tend to be complicated precisely because they simultaneouslysuggest unity and difference: how the religious becomes secular while it retains its religious means:by symbolism,motinature.This paradoxis solved by narrative structure narration.7 of andthe temporal vation, mentionsWeberonly once in TheLegitimacyof Tellingly,Blumenberg as "secularization" a concept belongs the ModernAge. For Blumenberg, to philosophy of history. As such, he rejects that it is tendentiousor But merely rhetorical. theremay be a deeperlevel on which "secularization" is less of a theoryand more of a certainnarrative, rhetoric,or techthe nique of representing religious in the profane(or vice versa). This rhetoriccannot be reducedto a philosophical position without losing its To which lies preciselyin its ambiguity. analyze"secularization" strength, on this level necessitatestakinginto accountnot only the theoriesabout but also the more intricateand indirect discourses that secularization, relatereligiousand profanemeanings.A focus on the rhetoricand the literarytechniquesof these discoursesis perhapsa way to preventthe confrom lapsinginto substantialism, withoutdissolving cept of secularization the tensionsandconflictsinherent the above-mentioned in debates.8 II to To returnto Herder,it would obviously be substantialist say that he
7. On Weber,see my article"ZurRhetorik Sikularisierung," der Deutsche Viertel78/1 (2004): 95-132. und jahrsschrift Literaturwissenschaft Geistesgeschichte fiir 8. Recently, some scholarshavecalledintoquestionthe dogmaof secularism the and mechanical model of secularization froma postmodern Cf. perspective. TalalAsad FormaIslam,Modernity Stanford 2003) and GraUP, (Stanford: tions of the Secular Christianity, ham Ward, True Blackwell,2003). Bothstressthatreligionandthe secular Religion(Oxford: should always be analyzedin relationto each otherwith special referenceto the rhetoric theirspecificmutual and that strategies constitute relationship theirchangingboundaries.

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"secularized" idea of providenceinto that of progress.But even to the and formulateit "dialectically" to say that Herdersecularizedthe Bible and sacralizedliterature vague and problematic; assumes the existis it ence of two distinctspheres,sacredand secular,which was anachronistic in Herder'stime. Other concepts are more sophisticated.Meyer H. of Abrams, for example, analyzes secularizationas a "displacement" ideas: an undertaking save traditionalconcepts, schemes, and val"to ues which had been based on 'revelation,'to reformulate them within the prevailingtwo-termsystem of subjectand object."9Even if Abrams seems reductivein his analysis of the evolution of "ideas,"to speak of and is "displacement" "reformulation" obviously more complex than to assume a mere "transfer" ideas. ConcerningHerder,Abrams also of He in speaksof "translation." writesthatHerder, TheOldestDocument, translated Biblicalaccount Eden,the Fall,andthe restoration the of intohis versionof universal for he history; the Scriptural story, said, to embodies the thoughtold with a simplicity appropriate children, truehistory of theentire both human andof eachmember.1o race is It of "Translation" an intricate metaphor. is not the conversion content from one language into another,but a complicatedprocedurewhose objects are not ideas but texts. Since to refer to "ideas"and "concepts" I necessarilyrunsthe risk of substantialism,will not exploreHerder'sbibbut lical "ideas," his readingof the biblicaltext.Readinghas its own figurand ality,producing processingtensionsbetweentext and context,writing to be andspeech,partandwhole,whichcannot reduced a stable"content." As demonstratedabove, it is astonishing to see Herder repeatedly change his attitudetoward the text. While in his early works, he sees the creationstory as a man-madeetiology for the Sabbath,in The Oldest Documenthe reads it as divine pedagogy,and later he returnsto his earlierreadingof the Bible as humanpoetry.These changes are all the natureof his readingdoes not more puzzling given thatthe fundamental and Herder is even able to incorporatemuch of his earlier change,
9. Meyer H. Abrams,NaturalSupernaturalism (New Yorkand London:Norton, 1972) 13. 10. Abrams202f. Here, AbramsmentionsHerdertogetherwith Lessing and Kant, ignoring an importantdifference in their methodologiesof readingthat confirms that to For as is "translation" merelya metaphor. a moregeneralapproach secularization transZur Konversionen, lation,cf. Sigrid Weigelet al., Bersetzungen, Maskierungen: Dialektik der Sakularisierung 1800 (forthcoming), the firstand second chapters. um esp.

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drafts into his later work verbatim.It seems that his reading remains he roughly the same, despite the very differentpresuppositions proffers regardingdivine or humanauthorship. disSimilarly,it is difficultto place Herderin relationto contemporary courses on the Bible. Herderrefersto diverse and sometimescontradicJohannDavid tory positions, discussing scholarssuch as the Orientalist Michaelis (1717-91), proponentof historicalcriticism, Robert Lowth's (1710-87) poetics and rhetoricof the Bible, and his close friend Johann Georg Hamann (1730-88), a vehement proponentof Pietist readings, to who urges the interpreter confrontthe text with humility.The juxtaposition of these differentdiscoursesis not simple, nor does Herderrelate to his predecessorsin a stable way. This is most obvious in his relation to Michaelis, whom he praises in his youth, despises in his middle period,andrespectsonce againat the end of his life. deal differently with these inconsistenThe existing interpretations and characterof cies. Older researchstresses the "Romantic" "modern" Herder's reading, focusing on his later works, while considering The More recent studies tend to stress Oldest Documentto be an aberration. the difference between Herderand his Romanticsuccessors. For these scholars, it is in the more radicalBtickeburgwork that Herderis most of original and where he lays out the fundamentals his thought." Both are interpretations insufficient,as they tend to force Herderinto either theological or profanecategoriesthat are, for him, not mutually exclusive. Instead of asking the vexed question of whether he "really"had religious or profaneintentions,readingsof Herdershould promptus to question the category of secularizationitself. To do so, we must alter our startingpoint. Instead of constructingcontinuitiesbetween the old and the new, or the religious and the secular,I assume a discontinuityin or orderto analyze how the old is represented, at least cited, in the new. instead of asking how Biblical motifs are transformed In other words, into secularones, I ask whathappensto the Bible afterit is secularized. It must be emphasizedthat Herder'sreading of the Bible is a reaction. Biblical interpretation, especially of the Old Testament,underwent in responseto rationalist deist criticismof the 17th and 18th and a crisis
11. Cf. Rudolf Haym, Herder:Nach seinem Leben und seinen Werken dargestellt vom Hofe, "Herders (Berlin:R. Giirtner, 1877-1885).More recentworks includeGerhard Zur einer 'h$heren Dich'Hieroglyphen'-Poetik: sch6pfungstheologischen Grundlegung in tungslehre'in der 'AltestenUrkunde'," Biickeburger Gesprdiche iiberJohann Gottfried Studien,1989) 190-209,and Herder,vol. V, ed. BrigittePoschmann (Rinteln: Schaumburger und UlrichGaier,Herders Fromann, Sprachphilosophie Erkenntniskritik (Stuttgart: 1988).

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centuries.Specifically,allegoricand figuralinterpretation (i.e., the interpretation of the Old Testamentas foreshadowingthe New) lost its the standing. In Foucault's "episteme of representation," sign is no a mysteriousinscription,but a discursiveand arbitrary longer representation of ideas. It is no longer possible to claim that a text has multiple meanings or a hidden significance. Biblical texts lose their symbolic force and become mere stories. Largepartsof the Old Testament,especially the detailed codes of ritual law, thus become irrelevantand, in a For sense, illegible for a Christianreader.12 example, the story of the creation and the fall is not only called into question by natural sciences, but it loses its meaningwhen Genesis 3:15 (God's predictionthat the seed of man will bruise the seed of the serpent)is no longer interChrist.When the Wertheimer translationappeared pretedas anticipating to of in 1735, the rationalistaccommodation the creationnarrative condid not arousemuch suspicion,but numerouscritics temporaryphysics vehemently opposed the omission of referencesto Christ, for example by translating "seed" (of the serpent) with the more prosaic term But "descendants."l13 even apologists had difficulties explaining the hermeneusemiotic nature of the prophesies;following contemporary or a moral tics, they tended to read the Bible either as a true account doctrine. Thus, there was no clear boundarybetween "apologetic"and "critical"readings. The most effective secularizedreadings were not (in accomplishedby skeptics and radicalslike Wertheimer fact, he also but of had apologeticintentions), throughan affirmation the Bible's truthits fulness that radicallytransformed meaning.In any case, the prefiguraIf in tion of the New Testament the Old continuedto lose its importance. it it was at all considered, was no longerseen as basedon a salvationnarrative,but as a kind of secret writingthroughwhich Moses, well-versed in Egyptian hieroglyphictechnique, expressed his esoteric doctrine.14
12. Cf. Hans W. Frei, The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative(Cambridgeand London: while attackingthe Frei Yale UP, 1974), esp. the introduction. stressesthatthe Reformers, Even if Frei'sbook rests rely allegoricinterpretation, heavilyon typologicalinterpretation. difficultto make sense on the premiseofa (normative) "realistic" reading,which is rather to of of, it still offers the classical presentation the problem.Thereare some resemblances Foucault'sanalysisof the epistemicshiftto the classic age, however,Foucaultpersistently ignorestheology andexegesis. Cf. MichelFoucault,TheOrderof Things(New York:Vintage, 1970). Johann cf. 13. On Wertheimer, Paul J. Spalding,Seize the Book, Jail the Author.: LorenzSchmidtand Censorshipin Eighteenth-Century Germany (WestLafayette:Purdue UP, 1998). of 14. On the apologetictreatment typology cf. Frei, esp. chapters6 and 7. On the see concept of an esoteric religion in the Enlightenment, JanAssmann,Moses, the EgypMA: HavardUP 1997). Monotheism tian. TheMemoryof Egyptin Western (Cambridge

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This entailed a fundamental change in the evaluation of the role of the Jews, who were no longer the chosen people, but an Oriental, primitive one, to which the Old Testament had, unfortunately, been molded to suit. As the abject of Christian theology, their position became more and more fragile. It is telling that Michaelis, the major German critic of the Old Testament, was also a vehement opponent of Jewish emancipation.15 The decline of figural interpretationdoes not concern elements of biblical content, but rather the status of the text as such. It may even be more important than the debate concerning the human authorship of the Bible, which is often overrated in historical hindsight. For as long as the figural framework was intact, one could speak of "the Mosaic author" without endangering the Bible's religious function. At least in Protestantism, the

Bible is more than a containerof ideas, it is conceived as the source of these ideas and of religious truthin general,as Scripture. Figuralinterof its pretationis paradigmatic one essentialfeatureof Scripture: ability to "interpret itself."The spiritual force and liturgical of performativity the text are groundedin its self-reference, are its normativestrengthand as cognitive depth.Each partof the Bible can elucidateany otherpart,each section has profoundmeaningbecauseit can be understood light of the in
others.l16This internal signification is most clear in interpretationsof the

in conOld Testament light of the New Testament. Figuralinterpretation

cerns the "scripturality" of the Scripture, the element that makes the Scripture into more than just a text, into a source of knowledge and a site of the holy. The whole form of this truth, the religious "episteme" changes radically if the function of the Scripturechanges. Herder is a part of this process. He does not reaffirm the old Protestant understanding, nor does he develop a completely different one. Instead, Herder redefines the original Christian meaning within a new context. This is not a simple "translation" of theological concepts into philosophical discourse. Herder's reading tries to represent the content
15. Cf. Jonathan Hess, Germans, M. Jews and the Claimsof Modernity (New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2002). I will not treatthe relationof Biblical interpretation Judaismhere, to which would have given the topic a morepoliticalimpetus.Forthis subject,see my "Politik undaesthetik: der und in Poesie Lekttire Bibel bei Michaelis,Herder de Wette," Hebraiische Die Johann GottfriedHerdersim Judentum undjiidischer Volksgeist. Wirkungsgeschichte Mittel-und Osteuropas, Christoph ed. Schulte(Hildesheim/Ztirich: Olms2003) 35-66. 16. Cf. GeraldL. Bruns,Hermeneutics Ancientand Modern(New Havenand London: Yale UP, 1992), esp. chapters4 and 7. For a concept of scripture an indissoluble as mixtureof propositional normativestatements,see Shlomo Biderman, and Scriptureand (Leiden:Brill, 1995). Knowledge:An Essay on ReligiousEpistemology

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of the text, but also tries to make it readableand meaningfulprecisely

by its ambiguities. He does not develop a systematic discourse on the Bible, but rather performs a mixed, flexible, even over-determined reading strategy by confronting different concepts from different contexts with the Biblical text. His reading is neither mere hermeneutic "empa-

thy" [Einfiihlung]nor applicationof modernconcepts to the text; it is

rather a dialectical process of decomposition and recomposition. III An examination of the categories which organize Herder's reading of the Bible is in order. They are: document, song, image, force, and creation. My focus here will be on the text which most captures Herder's attention, Gen. 1-3. While I refer mainly to The Oldest Document, my aim is to characterize Herder's reading in general, leaving aside the differences between the earlier sketches and the later works. For even if Herder's theories about the text change radically, the categories he uses remain the same. Since Herder originally developed many of these con-

cepts in relationto poetics and aesthetics,I will also refer to his early
ideas on these subjects.17 From the very beginning Herder sees several documents [Urkunden] in the different parts of the creation story (Gen. 1, 2, and 3). The first and second creation story and the story of the fall are seen as different documents, which Moses later combined. Herder does not question that the beginning of Genesis contains original "announcements of the oldest affairs of mankind," but to read them as one "coherent story by Moses" would lead to "doubt and misinterpretation,"even to the notion that creation took place twice, once according to Gen. I and once according to Gen. 2.18 In view of this, Herder assumes that Moses combined different stories and even supplemented them with commentary in verses like Gen. 2: 24. Interestingly, Herder considers Gen. 1 as the oldest docu-

ment, since it is more universaland more poetic than the ratherprosaic

account offered by Gen. 2. Current criticism regards Gen. 2 as the younger version for precisely the same reasons. Herder's technique of dividing the creation story into segments is fun-

damental to all of his readings. Even the enthusiasticreading in The

detailed of Biblical 17. Fora more esp. analysis Herder's interpretation, in TheOldest Document, Christoph see Die in Bultmann, biblische Urgeschichte derAufklkirung: Herders der als Johann Gottfried Interpretation Genesis Antwort die Religionskritik auf DavidHumes Mohr-Siebeck, 1999). (Ttibingen: der Vol. (Werke, 5) 22. 18. Herder, dieerstenUrkenden Menschheit Uber

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Oldest Document, which sharply polemicizes against historical criticism, presupposesthe initial division of the story into different"documents," a method Herderborrowsfrom historicalcriticism. Even if he does not use a consistentmethod,e.g., the division of the whole book into differentdocumentsaccordingto the name of God (Jahwehor EloBiblical criticism, e.g., to arguhim), Herder refers to contemporary ments of textual coherence and historicalplausibility,to the Deists, to Michaelis'worksand, later,to JohannGottfried Eichhom(1752-1827). To speak of "documents" this way does not only mean to historiin cize the referentof the text (the oldest epoch of mankind),but also to the understand text itself historically,as the productof a compositional This gives it a rationality differentthan it had before, and offers process. He the exegete a new understanding. no longer asks what God wants to tell us througha certaindetail of content or form, but instead narrates why Moses or anotherauthorchose a certainexpression,therebyrefiguring the text by projectingit onto the life of Moses.19Nevertheless, while the critic tries to separatethe authorfrom the act of writing and to the writtentext, we will see thatHerderattempts combinethem. Herder'scommentaryfocuses on Gen. 1, the most originaland poetic part of the creationstory, "This holy saga has to be conserved:according to the customs of the nationalsagas of that time it was conservedin a song. It was clothed in a story, in an epic poem."20The categories the "epic poem" and "song"allow Herderto understand compositionof and the firstcreationstory:"Ithas seven sections,andI find symmetry oriin as of entalparallelism the outerrhythm well as in the innerconstruction in these main parts."21 Herderarguesthat there is a certainstructure the work of creation.The secondandthirddays (the creationof heaven,earth to and water)correspond each other as well as to the fifth and the sixth days (the creation of sea, air creaturesand land animals). These pairs of constitutethe structure the story.Herdereven drawsa sketch, resema structuralist which will play an important bling diagram, role22:
19. This strongrefiguration the authoris particularly via presentin Michaelis,who considers Moses as the authorof both the truthfulaccountof the mosaic books and the moralfable of Hiob. See JohannDavidMichaelis,Einleitungin die gottlichenSchrifiendes writesa draftaboutthe life of Moses in his Bohn, 1787). Herder AltenBundes(Hamburg: vol. 32, ed. Bernhard Werke, Suphan(Berlin: Weidmann, youth. See Herder,Saimtliche does not play a decisive role in his readings. 1899) 206-211. In general,the mosaicauthor 54. 20. Herder,Oberdie ersten Urkunden 44. 21. Herder,Oberdie ersten Urkunden 47. 22. Herder,Oberdie ersten Urkunden

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First day Light Secondday of Heights Heaven Fourth day Lights Fifthday Creatures AirandWater of Seventh day Sabbath Sixthday Creatures the Earth of Third day Depthof Earth

In this poetological analysis of Gen. 1, Herder relies heavily on Robert Lowth's Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (1753), especially to Lowth's discovery of parallelism. Hebrew poetry, according to Lowth, has no measure, but distinguishes itself through parallelism - a formal or semantic symmetry between the lines of a poem as in David's hymn, "For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall" (2 Sam. 22, 30). According to Herder, however, parallelism is not only a figure of style but has a much broader meaning as a universal and original means of expression. Because primitive language has no precise concepts, its speakers have to repeat themselves until the desired intention can be communicated. Moreover, parallelism is also a natural and necessary tool to memorize the spoken word at a time when writing did not exist.23 In The Oldest Document, parallelism even seems to have an ontological status. Commenting on the first verse ("In the beginning, God created heaven and earth"), Herder stresses the juxtaposition of heaven and earth as a first structure of the universe and of knowledge, which remained fundamental for the Hebrews: For them, everythingis built on this parallelism: naturalscience and morals, religion and science, teachings on body and spirit, Heaven works on earth,Earthstrives for Heaven. The division groundsand stimulates their systems andpetries, their view from Earth to Heaven, fromHeavento Earth!24
23. On the repetition synonyms,see Herder, of Fragmenteiiberdie neueredeutsche Literatur(Werke,vol. 1) 194-99. On the poetic propertiesof parallelismin Warburton, Condillac, and Diderot, see John Milbank,"Pleonasm,Speech and Writing.Hamann's English Sources," in Johann Georg Hamann und England Hamann und die englischsprachige (Frankfurt/Main: Aufklarung Lang, 1999) 165-196. 24. Herder, Aelteste Urkunde Menschengeschlechts des vol. (Werke, 5) 201.

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of is Obviously,the "parallelism heaven and earth"25 more than a formal propertyof the text. It seems that the actualprocess of creationand the narrativeof it run parallel,i.e. are structured parallelrepetitions. by If man has no other possibility to speak apart from repeatinghimself, God, similarly, can only express himself by means of a symmetrical structure. Here,poetologicalanalysismingleswith theology. as The sequence of days is not only interpreted a song but also as a of images.Throughout readingsof the creationstory,Herder his sequence conceives each day's work as a quasi-visualscene, which he develops and depicts in long paraphrases. Again, the readingproceedsthrougha process of division, breakingdown the text into sensual images. The hermeneutic doctrineof a simple and naturalreadingdependsupon this division,since the text is clearandsimpleon this level of images: thanthe clothingof the One shouldnot interpret imagefurther an wholedemands, it contributes thepoeticmeaning, its ongothan to in one in ing stream, its relation; shouldnot transplant figural expresor demonstrationhistorical sionsintothesoil of rigorous proof.2 because it refers to the new aesthetics This is all the more important and poetics that Herder developed in his early writings. He criticizes representationalist poetics for considering images and poetic expressions as mere "clothing"for rationaldiscourse. For him, "images"do not representsomething external, and poetic expressions are no mere with which to impartmoral teachings "modes of speech" [Redensarten] or factual accounts;they belong to the poetic world of the text. Content and expression are indivisible in poetry, because in poetry thought is relatedto its linguisticexpression"notlike the body to the skin that covers it, but like the soul to the body that it inhabits."27 Obviously,the distinction between a natural,organicform of designationand a technical,
25. Herder,Vom Geist der Hebraiischen Poesie (Werke, 5) 706. vol. 26-27. This strategyof division into images 26. Herder,Uberdie ersten Urkunden is most obvious in his readingof the Song of Songs, the allegoricalmeaningof which he totallydismisses in favourof an atomizedreadingof eroticimages,"withno moreconnection than a row of beautifulpearlson a string"(Herder,Liederder Liebe [Werke, vol. 3] of "'Gottals Schrifts450). On the hermeneutics this reading,see HelmutMUller-Sievers, in teller': Herderand the hermeneutic tradition," Herdertoday,ed. KurtMueller-Vollmer (BerlinandNew York:de Gruyter,1990) 319-330. 27. Herder,Fragmente uiberdie neuere deutsche Literatur402. For a reading of Herder'spoetics as anti-representationalist critique,see RobertS. Leventhal,The Disci(Berlin:de Gruyter,1994) ch. 3. plines of Interpretation

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superficial one - which will later become the Romantic distinction between symbol and allegory - is still difficult for Herder to make. Therefore, he refers to the theological figure of incarnation. If there is

of any secularization theologicalthought,it is still in the making.

Moreover, Herder's concept of the poetic "image" has some traits that do not square with the later, Romantic concept. First, for Herder, not only does the work of each day of creation constitute an image, but the whole sequence of days is also an "image." Herder urges the reader to envision this unity: Firstly,my reader,leave out everythingunessential:the day's works, the blessing, naming,the imagination, move the simple nakedimages, in their succession, closer to each other:What do you see? Nothing of more or less thanthe portrayal dawn,imageof the becomingday.2 Herder assumes that the sequence of the seven days represents the breaking of dawn, leading from the darkness of the first day via the appearance of differences in the dawning light to the successive awakening of creatures. This "image" does not function like the Romantic

It symbol of art [Kunstsymbol]. is not a totality, instantly grasped by

vision, but rather a series, which has to be "read" again and again: "The most ancient and brilliant Revelation of God appears to you every morning as a fact, as the great work of God in Nature."29 Furthermore, there is a tension between the single images of the days and the ongoing process, since the former fail to represent "the Invisible, who nowhere in creation appears like he is."30 Thus, the "image" of creation involves the tension between simultaneous and discursive representation. Second, the term "image" refers directly to a theological discourse about the creation of man "in the image of God." The creation of man

is not only the last work of creation;it constitutesthe unity of creation on a differentlevel, since Man is "the crown, the highest sensual unity of anythingvisible."31In Man, creationnot only reaches its summit, it is containedin a microcosmicform. Man representsthe creatorin creof ation, since he is "almostan after-image[Nachbild],a representative Herdereven suggests that the form of the divinity in a visible form."32
Aelteste Urkunde 239. 28. Herder, Aelteste Urkunde 239. 29. Herder, Aelteste Urkunde 244. 30. Herder, Aelteste Urkunde 230. 31. Herder, 32. Herder,Aelteste Urkunde230. Compareto the long descriptionof the human vol. body in Herder'sPlastik(Werke, 4) 283-96.

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the humanbody "resembles" textual structure has depictedas the the he seven-parthieroglyph.As such, man is not only a creatureamong others, but an over-determined symbol of creationas a whole, of the creof ator,and of the narrative creation. Third, Herderrefers to the traditionof moral types. The account of creationis not only an image of natureand the process of creation,but also an "example"[Vorbild]or "archetype" [Urbild] of human culture and human deeds. Following the political theology of the Enlightenment, Herderanalyzes religious institutionsin terms of their social benefit. It is particularlythe sanctificationof the Sabbathwhich Herder regardsas the archetypeof culturalorder.Whereasmost Enlightenment thinkers focus on the Mosaic laws, Herderthinks of a better way to institute order: "No word, no order, no advice - but only the silent example, the deed, which however is God's deed and example, goes from Heaven to Earth,penetrating whole natureof the Worldand of the man."33 will return this important to We pointlater. Herder'scritiqueof representationalist poetics often refersto the category of force. If poetry is not mimetic, but ratheran expression,it presupposes an inner force which "expressesitself." Therefore,criticizing Lessing, Herder stresses that poetry representsneither spatial coexistence (like art) nor succession in time (like music), but succession by force: "By force which accompaniesthe words, which goes throughthe ears, but immediatelyhas an effect on the soul."34 "Force"is the new principleof a "genetic"poetics, in the dual sense that "genesis"has for Herder,concerningbothpsychologicalandhistoricalorigins. Accordingly,the most forceful poetry is, for Herder,the most original. Lowth had already referredto the rhetoricaltraditionof the sublime to characterizebiblical poetry, which is ratherodd, comparedto the standardsof classicist poetics, as essentially "forceful."However, what for Lowth remains only one category among others, framed in a system of rhetoric figures, becomes fundamentalfor Herder's entire Forceful expression is not only poetics, and even for his anthropology. the basis for poetry,but constitutesthe poetic natureof all human language. The Bible, and especially its most sublime chapters, e.g., the account of the creation,stand as paradigmatic all languageand sigfor nification.In his commentary, well as in his embeddedtranslations as of biblical verses, Herderreproducesthis original sublimity,brevity, and
33. 34. Aelteste Urkunde 266. Herder, ErsteskritischesWildchen(Werke, 2) 194. vol. Herder,

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forcefulnesswith an elliptic,eruptive,andexpressivestyle.35 Moreover,as in his use of parallelism,"force"is a metaphysicalconcept for Herder.In his pantheisticphilosophy of nature and history, force is the central element that connects everything in the universe: "Movementin natureis force, is soul, is spirit, is acting and living of heaven."36Thus, the forceful language parallels the force of creation itself, as is most evident in the parallelismof Gen. 1:3: "And God said, Let there be light: and therewas light."In fact, the parallelismof words and events characteristic the whole accountof Gen. 1 representboth for the power of words and the infinite force of an omnipotentwill. Everything predictedis broughtinto existenceexactlyas it was predicted.37 The poetic form does not seem arbitrary creation,since the perforto mance of creation and the performanceof the text intermingle.Creation is a poetic act, poetry is "creative."The category of a poetic "creation"is anotherimportantconcept throughwhich Herder reinterprets the text. However,he hardlyrefers to the well-knowntraditionof the artistas a second creatorwho brings fortha world by a decision of his will. For Herder,the artistimitatescreation.In TheSpirit of Hebrew Poetry, Herder stresses that the origin of poetry is human as well as divine, since God gave man the ability to express himself poetically. to This relationis determined be mimetic: and everything Man,by namingeverything by sensually arranging of the the around himself,becomes imitator divinity, secondcreator,
therebypoet, too. If one has seen the essence of poetryin the imitation

of nature, to according this originone can see it moreboldlyin the of and imitation thecreating naming divinity.8

Poetry is neither mimesis of nature,nor sheer invention by a sovereign subject;it is mimesis of the divine act, an imitationof the force of
in become successively shorter,most apparent Gen. 1, 3, 35. Herder'stranslations the classical paradigmof the sublime:"Gottsprach:Sei Licht! / und 's war Licht"and, "Sei leaving out the agent, even more dramatically: Licht!und 's war Licht!"See Herder, 205. Aelteste Urkunde 203. 36. Herder, Aelteste Urkunde of 37. On the representation omnipotenceby (parallelistic)series of announcment The and fulfillmentin Genesis, see Meir Sternberg, Poetics of BiblicalNarrative(Bloomington:IndianaUP, 1985) 104-108. Poesie 963. On Herder's Geistder Hebraiischen 38. Herder,Vom religiousaesthetics, Herders als vom Hofe, "Sch6pfung Dichtung: see Gerhard DeutungderGenesisals Beitrag in einertheologischenAesthetik," Wasaber bleibetstiftendie Dichzu einer Grundlegung der ed. ter? ZurDichter-Theologie Goethezeit, P. Pfaff(Munich:Fink, 1986) 65-87.

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creationby the force of poetry.To createby word is poetic,thus poetryis creativein that it names things.However,since it does not invent names butemploysexistinglanguage, sense. poetryis creative only in a derivative The correspondence poetryand creationis far from abstract.In the of context of this equation,Herdermentionsthe accountof creation:"The first poetry was a dictionaryof terse names and expressions filled with images and sensations.The first piece that we have of this poetry (Gen. 1) is a great panel of images, a view of universe, arrangedby human Not sensibility."39 only is the act of creationa paradigmfor poetry,but also its narration.Gen. 1 is not only poetry about the beginning, but also the beginning of poetry. In a kind of mise-en-abime,Gen. 1 has poetic properties and is also the primal scene of poetry itself. The poetryof creationis the creationof poetry. Herder'sreadingof the Bible cannotbe understood a "transformaas tion"of a religioustext into a "poetic" one, at least if one is not willing to in leave open the meaningof "poetic" this context.Whatis at stakehere is of of nor neitherthe secularization the scripture the sacralization poetry, of but a re-reading the Bible in the contextof both a developingpoetics of The is anda new understanding scripture. "poetic" not a given, imposed in the Bible from outside;it is constituted the courseof reading.To upon be sure,Herder'sreadingis apologetic.However,it goes beyondthe horiunlikeeven historical zon of his contemporaries: criticism,he does not try accurate. caresaboutthe force, the He to provethatthe text is historically momentof the text. This kindof readingproducesuncertainperformative ties, butit is preciselyin themthatmeaningis found. If Herder'sreading is unstable,it transgressesthe bounds of a fixed hermeneuticsystem. Herderdoes not merely read with empathy [Einfiihlung]. At the very least, empathy has different and more complex meanings here than it does in conventional hermeneutics. Nothing reveals this ambiuitymore clearly than the fact that even if Herderpermanently urges us to "empathize"with the spirit of the Orient, he leaves open the question of whether we should empathize with the writeror the originalreaderof the text. IV We have already seen that Herder's "humanreading"of the Bible implies much more than simply readingthe text as if it were writtenby
39. Geist der HebriischenPoesie 963. Herder,Vom

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human beings. As Herder'sdiscussion of "image"shows, he not only conceives the biblical text as a poetic image of something,but also as an archetype something,e.g., humanculture.The text speaks of the for but past or present objects represented, also of a futurethat, from the of the reader,is still to come. This predictiveas well as norperspective mative dimension, in which the text addresses its readers,was indeed where the dominantin the traditional readingsof the Bible as scripture, biblicaltext was applieddirectlyto the presentsituation. In Herder'sreading,archetypal meaningopens up anotherlayer of sigand oriin nification,articulated a series of ideas:pedagogy,inscription, gin. Comparedto the concepts analyzedabove, these ideas refer less to poetic discourses than to philosophicalor theological ones, suggesting that the "literary" refigurationof the text is insufficient and must be however,is accomconcepts.This strength, by complemented "stronger" panied by an even higher degree of ambiguity,which amplifies the reading.Moreover,these alreadyambiguoustendenciesof the "literary" tend to re-enterthe biblical text to which they were applied. concepts Ratherthan remainingabstractschemes to explain what the biblical text does and means, they are at work "inside"the text itself. Thus, the disone. tinctionbetweenthe two sets of ideasis not a fundamental For Herder,to read the Bible "in the humanway" means to read it as a text for humans, as a pedagogical text. Whereas other Enlightenment thinkers speak of divine "pedagogy"in the context of a general philosophy of history,Herderdirectlyrelates it to the text of Gen. 1. In Lessing's The Educationof Mankind,"pedagogy"is a model to ratiothe nalize the history of salvation,particularly idea of revelation.God the naturalprogress of reason by educatingthe primitive polyhelped theistic humans.For Herder,"pedagogy"is not so much a question of gradualprogress,but rathersomethingpresentat the beginning.Accordthe ing to him, primitivemen could not understand order of natureby themselves; in order "to grasp and to attain the picture of creation, a was voice of instruction added.'"40 this Herdercharacterizes divine help in an ambiguousway. On the one hand, he sees a "sensualpedagogy"in the events of creation,especially the creation of dawn. Here, God teaches through images, facts, and events, by a languageof light.41On the other hand, Herdermentionsa
246. Even if Herderdoes not speakof a divine pedaAelteste Urkunde 40. Herder, gogy in his laterworks, the pedagogicalsetting of the LettersConcerningTheologyand for TheSpiritof HebrewPoetry is obvious:botharefictive instructions youth. 252-253. Aelteste Urkunde 41. Herder,

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"voice of instruction"that establishes "the fundamentals of human knowlIt edge - The words of God! - in the soul of the child."42 is unclearif

creationis pedagogyby itself, or if it needs a supplementary voice for its is not a model for whatthe text does, but belongs completion."Pedagogy" inside the text, inside its poetic world, which Herder'sparaphrase sugteachinghis children.This interpretagests is a scene of God-the-father but tion is not an externalrationalization, dwells within the text itself, as It within its poetic imaginary well as its performance. reflects the fact that Gen. 1 containsdivine speech as well as divine deeds. Theologically we of speaking, face herethe paradox the "wordof God." Obviously, Herder tries to refigure this paradox by letting the text speak for itself. Like man (the "imageof God"),the "voice"of God has
a dual function in Herder's reading of Genesis. On the one hand, it belongs to the story, as one element among others; on the other hand, it contains the whole story within itself.43 This has an important function

for Herder'sreading. In its ambiguity,it destroys the simple reference

of the text and subverts the assumed simplicity of the "human read-

ing." Moreover,it obscuresthe relationof the biblical text to its origin,

of the written text to the act of its performance. Herder does not decide

if Gen. 1 is only speakingabout an act of teaching or if it is the teaching itself, i.e., if the biblical text should be read as the story of the events of creation or as a citation of the divine voice of instruction. Kant, for example, decidedly understoodHerderin the sense of the latter.For him, Herderconsidersthe firstchapterof Genesis,
of not as a storyof the creationof the world,but as an abstract the first instructionto the humanrace. It is a kind of tabularmethod which God used to createthe conceptsof humanity the division of natural by objects accordingto the differentdays; of which the seventh day is used to containthe whole.44 The symmetrical structure of the text is thus a necessary means for
42. Herder, Aelteste Urkunde255. This ambiguityis condensedin one albeit long both"thatthe firstrevelationof God sentence,cited above: Herderclaims to demonstrate is nothingbutrevelationin nature,actuallyin the most simple, beautiful,comprehensible, and impressionable orderly,reappearing image [i.e. the dawn], and that to grasp and to attainthis picturea voice of instruction added,for which no one else except God was was presentat the beginningof time"(246). 43. In a similarway, Herderarguesat the same time that the religion of originary man is a universalfeeling withoutritesanddogmasandthatthe seventhday is set apartas a special day for worship.See Herder, 283-288. Aelteste Urkunde 44. LetterfromKantto Hamann April 1774),reprinted Hamann, in (6 Briefwiechsel, vol. 3 (Wiesbaden: Insel, 1957) 81.

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human memory. However, the relation of this structure or tabular method to the actual text of Gen. 1 remainsunclear.This problem is articulated the conceptof a hieroglyph. by Herderspeaks not only of a divine voice, but also of an inscription. After describingthe sensual pedagogy,the instructionby the image of the dawn, Herder suggests that God occupied the human mind in anotherway as well: "with a toy, with a mechanicalimage of thought He [Denkbild]."45 claims that Gen. 1 contains a seven-part "hierowhich is in fact the seven-partdiagramof the story depicted glyph," above. To speak of hieroglyphsis to evoke a contemporary discourse that is rathercomplex and a hybrid itself, consisting of older speculations of naturallanguage(or the languageof Adam) as well as modern aesthetic theories like Diderot's philosophy of style and, most important, of Warburton's historyof writing. If we believe, as Foucaultdoes, the that in the episteme of representation paradigmof linearspoken discourse replaces an older one of mysteriousinscription,then the hieroglyphic discourseis partof a counter-discourse.46 Herder uses the "hieroglyph"in a manifold and over-determined sense. First, the "hieroglyphof creation"is not a secondaryconstructo tion, it is "not appended[untergeschoben] the first holy oracle, but woven into it [eingewebt],founded on nothing else than on the structure of heaven and earththemselves."47 Moreover,the hieroglyphis not only an abstractdiagram,but has a sensual resemblanceto the human body. Exclaiming "Man, image of God! and the visible image and Herder equates the image, the hieroglyph, hieroglyph of creation,"48 the and the structureof man's "innershape."Furthermore, hieroglyph materialexistence.Herderstressesthat it has apparently an independent is an original inscription,a "fact"that will put an end to the hypothetical reflectionson the origin of mankind.It does not prove, accordingto that Moses had takenhis knowledgefromEgypt- a thesis quite Herder, commonto Enlightenment religioushistory- butjust the opposite:that the various ancient traditionsare only derivationsof the one original
45. Herder, Aelteste Urkunde 267. see 46. On the Enlightenment of understanding hieroglyphics, MadeleineDavid, Le de et aux ddbatsur les dcritures l'hidroglyphe XVIIe XVIIIe et sikcleset I'application la notion aux mortes(Paris:SEVPEN,1949)andmy article"Hieroglyphen de dichiffrement &critures Herder-Jahrbuch(2004):45-68. 7 undheilige Buchstaben. Herders Semiotik," orientalische 269. 47. Herder, Aelteste Urkunde Aelteste Urkunde 48. Herder, 292; 294. In this respect,the hieroglyphis also a figure of Christ.

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on hieroglyphof creation.Herdergoes one step further: an anthropological level, the hieroglyphis also the originof speech,writing,and calculation, as well as the prototypeof all humanknowledgeand memory.It is "the most simple symbol of all teachingof nature,morals,religion, calculationof time" and even "God's contribution speech and writing," to his "firstattemptof writing for man.'A9 Not only is poetry mimesis of the creativeact, but languageas suchis mimesisof a divineinscription. Herder'stheory of the hieroglyphreinforcesthe paradoxicalqualities of this reading.At least in the case of The OldestDocument,it seems to postulate a beginning before the beginning:before God has spoken to humansand before humanshave startedto name the animals,the hieroglyph is inscribedin the world as a paradigmfor language.This holds true of the textual accountin Gen. 1. Before the text actuallyunfolds, it is inscribedin its origin, condensedin a kind of meta-writing.The text is not identical with the pure act of creation,but there is a pretext of hieroglyphicwriting, which exists only in the text. Even if Herderdoes not maintainthis ratherstrangetheory, writing plays a significant role throughout his reading of Genesis. Discourses on primitive signs, hieroglyphs,the "memorialscript"of the sanctificationof the Sabbath, and even the antiquityof the Hebrew alphabetare omnipresentin his theological as well as in his criticalwritingson the Bible.50 Is this secularization? the one hand, Herderrefers to the process On of writing in its materialityand therebyunderstands scriptureas an artifact. On the other hand, it is precisely this referencethat allows him to represent the complex signification of the Bible and to refigure its As we "scripturality." with "pedagogy," are faced with a reintroduction of the concept in the text: the hieroglyphis not a model for the text but already"in"it. This complicatesthe relationof text, reading,and signification. Because hieroglyphs are complex signs, oscillating between the iconic and symbolic designation,they can represent paradoxesof an absolute writing that containseverything.If the archae-or meta-textof the hieroglyphis the origin of all languageand writing,Gen. 1 is both the oldest text ever writtenand the only text that speaksaboutthe origin
276. 49. Herder, Aelteste Urkunde 50. On the prominent of(written) Hebrewin Herder'slogocentrictheoryof lanrole heilige Sprache.'Das Hebriischebei Michaelisund guage, see my article:"'Menschliche, und Herder," Monatshefte deutschsprachige Literatur Kultur95/2 (2003): 171-206. As fiir more recentresearchhas shown, the sevenfoldhieroglyphalso plays a significantrole in Herder'sown writing, which also follows a sevenfold structure.Cf. esp. Ulrich Gaier, "Poesieals Metatheorie: des in Zeichenbegriffe friihenHerder," JohannGottfriedHerder: Sauder(Hamburg: 1744-1803, ed. Gerhard Meiner,1987) 202-224.

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of texts in general, includingitself. Because the "poetryof creation"is the text" of Gen. I is a simultaneously creationof poetry,the "originary text on originsas well as the originof texts. this moment is a counter-current Herder's to Furthermore, scriptural of language.Whereaselsewhere, Herder general logocentricconception stresses the spoken, immediate,and living word, in his reading of the deferBible, he postulatesan originalwriting,which includesmateriality, of of ment,and figurality the sign. Fromhere,a re-reading Herdermay be of possible, by revisingthe older,"Romantic" preconception his thought. to Unlike the tendencyof laterRomantics see only symbolsof immediate as is translucence trueaestheticobjects,aesthesisforHerder also writing. A new theory of origin follows from Herder'stheory of the hieroglyph. At first glance, Herder'sthesis abouthieroglyphsseems not only the of to contradict program readingthe Bible "in a humanway,"but also his famousthesis in On the Originof Language(1770), wherehe stresses the humanorigin of languageand the primacyof spoken languageover writing. In The OldestDocument,Herderexplicitly criticizeshis former inquirymerelyuncoversthepossibilposition,stressingthatphilosophical unless a factual ity of the originof language,but it has to remaincircular, accountwould give evidence how the origin actuallytook place in prethe history,unless, in otherwords,he "discovered" originalhieroglyphof Gen. 1.51 However,in a famous 1772 letterto Hamann,Herderalready the deniedthatthe thesis on the originof languagecontradicts divine orithe of Like the questionof authorship scripture, quesgin of language.52 tion of the originof languageis not an either-or questionfor Herder. tension in Herder'sconcept This ambiguityresults from an important of origin, even in his genetic method in general.In his early essays on the history of culture and knowledge, Herder stresses that fluid and changingthings are not rooted in rationalprinciples,but in their origin, whose discovery requireshistoricalinquiryand psychological analysis. The evidence needed for this is necessarily belated: "There is, so to speak, generationand birthin every invention;at best, we have reports of the latter,but the inquirerwants to analyze and use the former."53
277-78. Aelteste Urkunde 51. On this self-critique,see Herder, 52. Cf. Herder'sletterto Hamannof August 1772, Herder, Briefe,vol. 2 (Weimar: see and B5hlau,1977)209-10. Onthe debatebetweenHamann Herder, HansGeorgKemper, in "Gottals Mensch- Menschals Gott. Hamannund Herder," Johann Georg Hamann: "derhellsteKopfseinerZeit,"ed. OswaldBayer(Tibingen:Attempto,1998) 156-178. 53. Herder,Versuch Werke, (Saimtliche iiberdie Geschichteder lyrischenDichtkunst vol. 32) 90-91. The specific problemwith the origin of poetryis that accountsof original poetics presupposethe origin of writing(88). Obviously,for Herder"origin"is paradox, since it is supposedto be spiritual, living, andspoken,and,at the sametime, inscribed.

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is "Origin" not a simple site of presence,rather,it is two-sided:the hidden "generation" and the manifest "birth."This doubling or split prevents the origin from being representedby a single straightforward argument.Therefore,Herder'sown strategyto explorethe origin tries at once "to experience it historically,to explain it philosophically,or to supposeit poetically."54 The problemof a double origin becomes a paradoxin the case of the coincide. Thereorigin of language, where origin and representation fore, Herder'sstrategyin his thesis On the Originof Languageis not an attemptto solve the paradox,but to unfold it, using the discourses of the history,philosophy,and poetry.Philosophically, origin is a paradox: and languagepresupposesthought. This thought presupposeslanguage paradoxcannotbe solved but only eludedto: by equatinghumanityand the capacity of speech, Herderputs aside the older questionof how animals acquiredspeech. Historicalevidence, particularly from the forceand imaginarylanguageof the Hebrews,shows the simple natureof ful original language. Poetically,Herderimagines the scene in which language emerges.He replacesthe violent scenariosof beasts and brutesin Vico, Rousseau,and Condillacwith an idyllic, even pastoralpictureof teach theirchild, a the namingof sheep and a family scene whereparents scenariowhich recalls the pedagogicalsetting of Herder'sinterpretation of Genesis. In fact, the idyllic natureof Herder'sscenery may be the result of a differentexegesis: focusing on Gen. 1, Herderautomatically shiftsthe weight fromthe traditional emphasison the fall to creation. "Origin"is the centralprincipleof Herder'sgenetic thoughtand takes In the place of the rational"principle." fact, Herderoften uses "origin" It and "essence" interchangeably. is no accidentthat Genesis 1 plays a decisive role for him. Obviously,the text itself, beginning with "in the beginning,"deals with the problem of origin and the possibility of its representation,using a sequence of days to depict an absolute act. Throughthe parallelismof divine speech and divine deeds, the text conthat arrangesthe world of natureand prefiguresthe stitutes a structure coming history.Readingthe story of creation,Herder'sthoughtbecomes truly"genetic,"even in the biblicalsense of genesis. Originis not a pure textualized,andsplit origin. beginning.It remainsa structured, V One might say that in Herder,"origin"occupies the place of "creation" in theological doctrine.However, it would be erroneousto say
54. 601. Herder,Oberdie neueredeutscheLiteratur

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to that the idea of creation is "secularized" that of origin in Herder's reading. To some extent, it is just the opposite. The concept of "origin," resulting from a radical epistemologicalreflection, redefines the that idea of creation.It is only philosophicalreconceptualization allows one to speak of creationin the wake of criticism rooted in the natural sciences. However, this does not mean that the theological concept of "creation"is replaced by the profane notion of "origin."In general, Herder'sreadingdoes not try to save the content of the Bible by rationalizing or replacingthe idea of creation.Rather,it makes the biblical text readable and meaningful once again. Like the other terms menallows Herder tioned above (document,image, force,pedagogy),"origin" to reconfigurethe textualityof the Bible. In his re-reading,"creation" to and "origin"are neither theological dogmas transferred the profane nor philosophicalconcepts externallyappliedto the Bible. Instead,they are readingtools, which organizea transferfrom theology to philosophy andvice versa- figuresbetweentheologicalandprofanereadings. in To speak of "figures" implies two things.First,all "concepts" quesand tion are overdetermined cannotbe reducedto a fixed sense or a single is discourse.As an example,the conceptof "image" not intelligiblein aesbut also refersto the traditional thetic theoryalone, theologicaldiscourse, and to modemrn epistemology, to the processof readingin its most material as aspect,insofaras the Bible is understood a galleryof imagesor even as is the single image of a hieroglyph.Similarly, "origin" not a principleof rationalphilosophy,nor the step from non-beinginto being, but rathera of unfoldsthe paradoxes the beginning. of site wherea plurality discourses the "figures"of readingare not intelligible in themselves but Second, only in constantreferenceto the text from which they emerge. Herder's readingnever emancipatesitself entirelyfrom the text he reads, and his theory of origin retains an intertextualrelationshipto Gen. 1. Unlike Kant, who takes the biblical accountonly as a pretextfor a philosophiHerdernever clearly departsfrom it. WhereasKant cal anthropology,55 allegorizes the text according to the norms of independent reason, Herder's reading representsa more complex process, better described than as translation.In fact, Herderproduces a mixed as intertextuality text, which contains differenttypes of texts (translations,paraphrases, commentaries, philosophical interpretation,hermeneutic application, etc.) and allusions to different strata (linguistic, rhetorical, poetical,
vol. in 55. ImmanuelKant,Mutmafllicher Anfangder Menschengeschichte, Werke, Insel, 1964) 83-102. Il, ed. WilhelmWeischedel(Frankfurt/Main:

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imaginary etc.) of the biblical hypotext. Herder restates the symbolic dimension of the hypotext that has disappeared with the decline of figural interpretation. In his reading, the text acquires a multi-layered meaning that makes interpretation no longer an unpleasant job of apologetics, but a challenging task. Moreover, Herder takes into account the performative force and the materiality of the biblical text, which intrinsically belong to the function of the text as scripture. One might even say that Herder's is the last to attempt to establish theology on the basis of such a rich reading of the Bible. For Schleiermacher, whose influence soon surpassed Herder's, feeling is the inner principle of faith, while reading plays a secondary role. Nevertheless, Herder's reading is not a mere restoration of scripture on its own terms. The inner contradictions and ambiguities of scripturality surface and become productive, initiating a complex discourse with new and specific meanings. It is the discourse of literature, yet, neither in the contemporary, neutral sense, nor in the narrow sense of Romantic poetry as an aesthetic enterprise. It is the discourse of literature understood as a dynamic field of signification between emphatic and vulgar writing, between sacred and profane texts. It is difficult to determine whether the figures of this reading are religious or secular. In fact, both theological and profane means are used for both secular and theological purposes. Secularization in this field should no longer be conceived as the fate of ideas and concepts, but as an intertextual phenomenon. Secularization occurs when texts from the religious tradition interact with modern texts. Secularization in this sense is no longer a category of the quasi-alchemichal transformation of religious ideas into profane ones, but instead describes the citation of the religious in a more or less profane world. These processes can no longer be understood in the economic metaphors of a "transfer" of meaning or a "substitution" of the secular for the religious, or vice versa, implying a zero-sum situation, where a fixed amount of transcendence is displaced. Instead, secularization suggests an intertextual space, generative of meanings, where figures emerge as "creation" or "origin." As the terms "intertextuality" and "citation" denote, this is a more "literary" concept in that it takes into account the different literary techniques through which secularizing discourses constitute their meanings.