even devils believe that there is a God. Instead of such believing, we
must‘learn to know properly’(recht kennen lernen) the name of
Jesus.^36 This name must be taken to the heart and emotional core
(herz,gemuth) of the believer.^37 The order of salvation starts from this
experience:‘People should not worryfirst about how to conquer sin
and become pious, but how one comes to know (erkennen lernen)
Jesus as Savior.’^38 Zinzendorf does not aim to downplay the moral
dimension. His theological approach focuses on coming to know
Christ as the primary event from which all other aspects follow.
For Zinzendorf,‘religion is not concerned with ordered and con-
sistent knowledge, but with our daily committing ourselves to engage
with religious matters’.^39 He claims that‘people need not be con-
cerned much with words, since the heart is full of the content’.^40 He
criticizes the‘doctrines of the head’(kopf-lehren),^41 teaching that God
ascribes faith to the heart.^42 The faithful appropriation is often
described in phrases relating to personal property:‘Christians are a
people of [God’s] property’ (volk des eigenthums).^43 People are
‘thrown to God (auf Gott geworfen) from the mother’s womb’. God
‘has us all before him’. This relationship is, however, dialogical: we are
‘free and blessed souls’,‘no slaves’.‘We must help God to promote his
kingdom.’^44 Belonging to God thus means a dialogical freedom. For
Zinzendorf, the personal appropriation and the appropriation of
Christians to God belong together in a dialogical fashion.
As Zinzendorf’s speeches are proclamations, their conceptuality is
not as strict as in the texts discussed above. To get a proper grasp of his
aims, I will analyse Speech Eight in some detail. Only two words of
Luther, namely,‘purchased and liberated’(erworben and gewonnen),
are expounded in this speech. While the verberwerbenhas economic
connotations, it also means more generally‘acquire’. I will use this
broader translation. Luther here speaks of acquiring freedom from sin
so that we can‘belong to Christ’. The language of appropriation,
ownership, and property is already present in Luther’s text in this sense.
Zinzendorf opens his speech by referring to 1 Cor. 3:22–3,‘All
belong to you, and you belong to Christ’, and John 17:6:‘They were
(^36) I use the often reprinted edition by Clemens (orig. 1758).Reden,9–10. All
translations are my own.
(^37) Reden, 13. (^38) Reden, 13. (^39) Reden, 71.
(^40) Reden, 46. (^41) Reden, 145. (^42) Reden, 145.
(^43) Reden, 46. (^44) Reden, 157.
122 Recognition and Religion