“Hineingehalten in die Nacht”: Heidegger's Early Appropriation of Christian Eschatology

In a letter to Elisabeth Blochmann from 12 September 1929, Martin Heidegger reflects on their impressions of a recent visit to the Benedictine Abbey St. Martin in Beuron, with which Martin was intimately familiar from his university days, when he had often used its library during the vacation. He and Blochmann spent a Sunday or holiday at the abbey, talked about religion, and attended two services: Solemn Mass and Compline. ¹ In a previous letter, Heidegger mentioned how deeply impressed he was by the latter. This last and shortest of the community’s daily liturgical prayers consists of three Psalms of trust and watchfulness (4, 91 and 134), the hymn Te lucis ante terminum, and a short reading from Jeremiah 14:9: “ Tu autem in nobis es, Domine, et nomen sanctum tuum invocatum est super nos; ne derelinquas nos, Domine, Deus noster.” ² Several other short verses and prayers, including the Kyrie eleison and the Pater noster, follow. A blessing by the Abbot and a Marian antiphon close the prayer, after which the monks maintain silence until the morning. ³