ABSTRACT
The Bible provided a major source of the language through which the selfconsciousness of national identity evolved in Europe. The power of prophecy in relation to nationhood, the theme of a Chosen People, the recurring figures and tropes: all these were enlisted and redirected in the cause of promoting national pride. The themes and language of the Old Testament had been used in the service of particular territorial claims, embattled armies and competing sovereignties for centuries: as, for example, in Martin Luther's adoption of the battle themes of the Old Testament to reawaken the idea of the Germans as a warrior people. In the period 1770-1850 there were still plenty of examples of a continuing emphasis on Old Testament language, themes, and imagery, but there was, at the same time, a move towards the language of the New Covenant; that is, a development which linked nationhood more with spiritual than material identity, a self-conscious shift towards the gospel of the spirit. The epicentre of this development was, once again, German; nationhood was linked here not so much to the idea of social relations or to the politics of the state, but more to the idea of national spirit, the spirit of the Volk, a dynamic but noumenal reality. German writers in this period claimed for their nation not only a direct inheritance from the ancients, but a unique spiritual and philosophical inheritance and power. The Gospel of John was of particular interest to those, such as Fichte, Schelling, Humboldt, Novalis, who saw a direct line of philosophical inheritance from the Greeks to the Germans (as did Coleridge). The logos of the 'Prologue' provided them with a principle which reinforced this inheritance. It appeared to confirm their own view of language as the key not only to the evolution of spirit and mind but to nationhood itself which was a means to this end. Through this Gospel, intellect could be reconciled with feeling, critical inquiry with faith, a reconciliation crucial to the evolution of national self-consciousness. In order to understand the importance of references to St John in relation to Word and Nation, it will be useful to explore the grounds of interest in the Fourth Gospel.
