ABSTRACT
While debate continues concerning the relationship between nationalism and linguistic identity, there is general agreement as to the significance of the issues involved. Theories of language may have dominated twentieth century western philosophy, hermeneutics, history and literary criticism, but the importance of the nature and role of language as related to thought and its objects was recognized much earlier. The Christian theme of the divine Word became increasingly influential in secular, as well as religious, thought after the Reformation. Protestantism in its various forms emphasized a return to the Scriptures as the Word of God. Once the individual conscience had been given permission for direct access to the truths of the Bible, it increasingly claimed licence to broader spheres of enquiry. As the printing press gave greater access to new translations in the vernacular, questions concerning the nature and function of language itself were stimulated. 'Besides its polemical revolutionary contribution, Protestantism' argued Friedrich Schlegel in his Athenaeum 'Fragments', 'through its worship of the Bible, has also had the positive result of giving rise to philology, which is essential to any universal and progressive religion' (qtd. Beiser, 1996, 119). Novalis too, writing his Christianity or Europe in 1799, attributed the rise of philology to Protestantism but remarked that it 'interfered with religious concerns, and its corrosive influence has been unmistakable ever since' (ibid., 66). Certainly, after the Reformation, philosophers benefited from the freer spirit of enquiry which Protestantism seemed to offer, and often made issues of the use and abuse of language central to their argument. Although it is fairly common to find connections drawn between nationalism and the individualism which Protestantism encouraged, the correlation of nationalisms with an emphasis on the divine Word is stronger still. As Protestantism became increasingly identified with patriotism in, for example, England, and Prussia, so the Scriptures became a fundamental resource for patriotic texts.
