Historical Finitude Plus Divine Transcendence: Temporality and ‘Double Origin’ in Herder’s Biblical Writing

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2024

Abstract

The chapter examines implications of Herder’s radical “temporalization and historicization of experience” for his biblical writings. As a committed Christian and clergyman, he could not unreservedly refute the notion of the infinitude of God the Creator. Given Herder’s resolutely historical approach to biblical texts, this posed somewhat of a dilemma for Herder. As will be seen, he wrestled with the issue of how the temporal relates to the divine, and his dynamic pantheism tended to contradict the Augustinian view, evident in the nunc stans credo, that God stands outside of temporality. At the same time, Herder emphasised the Bible’s human origin and the necessity to read biblical texts as historical documents. The Bible’s double character—human and divine—has been stressed in recent Herder scholarship; however, the temporal dimension of the issue remains unexplored. In this chapter, the author addresses the problem by asking how Herder in his biblical writings was able to reconcile his Christian embrace of divine infinitude with his consistent quest to underscore the historically conditioned, temporally constricting and enabling essence of human existence and creativity.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Forms of Temporality and Historical Time in the Work of Johann Gottfried Herder

First Page

172

Last Page

194

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