Hamann's "Aesthetica in nuce"

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 I feel frightened to enter into discussion on Johann Georg Hamann (1730-88). He is an intriguing figure of the German enlightment and 18th century literature, whom many contemporaries (presumably those who were positively disposed towards him) regarded as an obscure thinker. The less positively disposed thought he has completely lost it. Those who need a magisterial introduction to his theological thinking should consult Oswald Bayer's superb "A Contemporary in dissent" (Eerdmans 2012). I admit that I lack the thoroughness and perspicuity of Bayer's study. Nevertheless, the very boldness of Hamann's writings, his disregard of rules of grammar and philosophy, his appetite for the lowly and contradictory, urge me to read and comment his famous essay "Aesthetica in nuce" (aesthetics in a nutshell).

Hamann's texts are a jungle of diverse styles and literary genres where  "exuberant demonstrations of learning" (to employ words of Kenneth Haynes) abound. Those features both annoy and delight the reader. Hamann's predilection toward languages, and not just his native German, results to lengthy quotations in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and French, creating a kind of patchwork anticipating modern collage technique. All this belongs to Hamann's aesthetics, and it would be utterly rude to present these quotes as translations (which has, luckily, been understood in the editions that I know). In the global media reality permeated by bad English, I find this variety of languages refreshing. [Let me tell you an anecdote about Sibelius and Mrs Rosa Newmarch who met during the First World War. Due to the war, Mrs Newmarch refrained from speaking German. Sibelius grumbled because his French was not as fluent as his German. It was noticeable that English was out of the question.]

What is the point of "Aesthetica in nuce"? I suggest the following: "Poetry is the mother tongue of the human race (Poesie ist die Muttersprache des menschlichen Geschlechts), as the garden is older than the ploughed field, painting, than writing, song, than declamation, parables, than logical deduction." In a word, the primordial dimension of humanity is aesthetic. Correspondingly, religion is not so much about truth or morality than beauty. Hamann is not explaining Bible texts. Rather, Biblical images cascade, because our senses or emotions understand nothing but images.

"Let there be light", was the first word of God, and Hamann continues: "Here begins the the perception of the presence of things." God crowned the sensory revelation of his majesty (die sinnliche Offenbarung seiner Herrlichkeit) with the masterpiece of man. Hamann employs the classical idea of two books, i.e. creation and Scripture. The book of nature contains instances of general concepts (Exempel allgemeiner Begriffe), that God wants to express to creatures through creatures (Rede and die Kreatur durch die Kreatur). As for the Scripture, it contains instances of articles of faith (Exempel geheimer Artickel) that God reveals to men through men. All this speech of God has a paradoxical nature:

"The unity of the Author is mirrored even in the dialect of his works - in all of them a tone of immeasurable height and depth! A proof of the most splendid majesty and of total self-emptying! A miracle of such infinite stillness that makes God as nothing, so that in all concience one would have to deny his existence, or else be a beast. But at the same time a miracle of such infinite power, which fills all in all, that we cannot escape his intense solicitude."

 The majesty of God is on the verge of disappearing - an aesthetic variation of the Lutheran theology of the cross. The physical reality of the world is sacramental: everything we encounter in this world created by God is an occasion for theosis - becoming divine.

"This analogy of man to the Creator endows all creatures with their substance (Gehalt) and their stamp (Gepräge), on which depends fidelity and faith in all nature. The more vividly this idea of the image of the invisible God dwells in our heart, the more able we are to see and taste his loving-kindness in creatures, observe it and grasp it with our hands. Every impression (Eindruck) of nature in man is not only a memorial but also a warrant of fundamental truth: Who is the Lord. Every reaction of man unto created things is an epistle and seal that we partake of the divine nature, and that we are his offspring." 

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