Hermann Samuel Reimarus

Hermann Samuel Reimarus (December 22, 1694, Hamburg - March 1, 1768, Hamburg), a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment who is remembered for his Deism, the doctrine that human reason can arrive at a knowledge of God and ethics from a study of nature and our own internal reality, so we do not need religions based on revelation.

Analysis

Modern estimates of Reimarus may be found in the works of B Pünjer, Otto Pfleiderer and Harald Høffding. Pünjer states the position of Reimarus as follows: "God is the Creator of the world, and His wisdom and goodness are conspicuous in it. Immortality is founded upon the essential nature of man and upon the purpose of God in creation. Religion is conducive to our happiness and alone brings satisfaction. Miracles are at variance with the divine purpose; without miracles there could be no revelation" (Pünjer, History of Christian Philosophy of Religion since Kant, Engl. trans., pp. 550-57, which contains an exposition of the Abhandlungen and Schutzschrift).

Related Topics:
B Pünjer - Otto Pfleiderer - Harald Høffding

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Pfleiderer says the errors of Reimarus were that he ignored historical and literary criticism, sources, date, origin, etc., of documents, and the narratives were said to be either purely divine or purely human. He had no conception of an immanent reason (Philosophy of Religion, Eng. trans., vol. i. p. 102). Høffding also has a brief section on the Schutzschrift, stating its main position as follows: "Natural religion suffices; a revelation is therefore superfluous. Moreover, such a thing is both physically and morally impossible. God cannot interrupt His own work by miracles; nor can He favour some men above others by revelations which are not granted to all, and with which it is not even possible for all to become acquainted. But of all doctrines that of eternal punishment is most contrary, Reimarus thinks, to true ideas of God; and it was this point which first caused him to stumble" (History of Modern Phil., Eng. trans. (1900), vol. ii. pp. 12, 13).

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Richard N. Soulen (Handbook of Biblical Criticism, Atlanta 1981, pp. 166-7) points out that Reimarus: "is treated as the initiator of "Lives of Jesus Research" by Schweitzer and accorded special honor by him for recognizing that Jesus' thought-world was essentially eschatological, a fact overlooked until the end of the 19th cent. The portions of R's study on Jesus which were published were done so posthumously by G. E. Lessing in 1774-78 as "Fragments by an Unknown Author". While demurring at Schweitzer's exalted assessment, W. G. Kümmel acknowledges that R. saw the need to distinguish between the proclamation of the historical Jesus and the proclamation of the Early Church and to ask to what extent Jesus himself is the origin of his followers' break with Judaism".

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W. G. Kümmel (The New Testament: The History of the Investigations of Its Problems, 1973, p. 89), quotes a letter of Reimarus wherein he states that he had set himself the task: "completely to separate what the Apostles present in their writings" "from what Jesus himself actually said and taught during his lifetime".

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