ABSTRACT
Søren Kierkegaard recognized in the writings of the early modern critic, playwright, and littérateur Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-81) a kindred spirit with whom he could profitably form an alliance. On the surface it appears an unlikely partnership, with Kierkegaard defending religious faith in all its paradoxical irrationality and Lessing instigating the German Enlightenment with its advocacy of reason as the true basis of authority. Closer scrutiny, though, doing justice to the complex interaction of faith and reason in Kierkegaard, uncovers his appreciation of Lessing’s independent thinking, valuing of subjectivity, self-awareness in the modes of communication, acknowledgment of reason’s limits, and avowal of the unending quest for truth. Such an investigation also exposes the complexity of Lessing who-behind the veil of ambiguity created by prudent care not to parade his heterodox philosophical, religious, and theological viewpoints-is finally endorsing a theological naturalism that affirms the divine while insisting that all things must be understood within the confines of a natural account. The purpose of this essay is to tell the story of the unholy alliance Kierkegaard made with Lessing. It will unfold by first giving a synopsis of Lessing’s life and work, then treating Lessing as a source for Kierkegaard’s writings, and finally offering an interpretation of the relationship between these two fascinating intellectuals separated by a century in time but united in outlook on issues of existential import.
