Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848

82 } Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany

patriotically for Germany against Napoleon “to their own detriment,” because

Napoleonic law was far more progressive toward Jews and in general than any

German legislation, and because Germany’s victory brought with it both anti-

semitic nationalism and retrograde Restoration policies. Thus the meaning of

the French word nationaliers is richly layered. Moser designates this cause as

“empty,” “vain,” and “pitiful” in its own right, not only (though doubly) for the

Jews who devoted themselves to it. Moser’s lofty hope, then, is to transform the

Prussian state in ways that would give Jews a more progressive political model

to strive for than the illusory project of German nationalism fueled by crude

Christian-German chauvinism. By establishing itself as a sort of Hegelian minis-

try for Jewish education, the Verein would both check Prussia’s encouragement

of Jewish conversion and open up possibilities for talented Jews to develop their

gifts. In Moser’s vision of the emerging Hegelian state, Jewish quasi–civil ser-

vants would enlighten the Jewish nation and also provide Jews with a patriotic

alternative to the post-Napoleonic German nationalist cause. Moser’s hope is

that Jews will raise their level of culture and knowledge and be able to partici-

pate fully, as Jews and not as converts, in a more perfect state. Hegel’s vision

of the state lent the Vereinler a vantage point from which to critique Prussian

policies and German nationalist movements, and to imagine a Jewish place in a

differentiated universal political culture.

Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion

Other lectures by Hegel reinforced the lessons the Vereinler had derived from his

lectures and book on the philosophy of right for conceptualizing Judaism, their

work as Jewish Wissenschaftler, and the relationship of both to the state. The sub-

ject and timing of Hegel’s lectures on the philosophy of religion—first delivered

summer 1821 —made them a key text for the Vereinler as they theorized their central

aims. These lectures elaborate on the relationship between religion and the state

explored by Hegel in Philosophy of Right (published as a book in January 1821 ).

Just as Philosophy of Right made clear the political necessity of a scientific engage-

ment with religion, these lectures present a philosophy of religion as politically

urgent lest the definition of religion be ceded to contemporary epistemological

and religious subjectivists, in whom Hegel discerned a pernicious threat.

One of the terms by which Hegel—early in the introduction to the 1821 phi-

losophy of religion lectures—designates the task of articulating the objective

truth of religion is Wissenschaft der Religion (science of religion). The Uni-

versity of Berlin’s 1821 summer semester began on April 30.^126 The timing is

significant because Gans first used the term Wissenschaft des Judentums at a