Lessing: Philosophical and Theological Writings

Wolfenbüttel, 1778

At last Hauptpastor Goeze, after such lengthy and tiresome preliminaries as only the worst kind of exhibition fencers employ, seems ready to take up his blade and concentrate on the fight.

At least he now declares that he will give immediate and proper attention to the point which he disputes with me, namely whether the Christian religion could survive even if the Bible were lost completely, if it had been lost long ago, or if it had never existed, as soon as I have given a definite statement concerning what kind of religion I understand by the Christian religion.

If I knew that my conscience were less clear than it is, who could hold it against me if I rejected this demand, which contains a genuine calumny, on the same grounds as those on which he sees fit to decline a far less offensive demand of mine? For he declares that ‘the Librarian of Wolfenbüttel cannot give orders to the Hauptpastor in Hamburg’. Very true! But what authority does the Hauptpastor in Hamburg have over the Librarian in Wolfenbüttel that allows him to serve the latter with a public summons to answer a question which assumes that he cannot answer it satisfactorily?

But the Librarian will not insist on his rights. For the Librarian, as already mentioned, knows that his conscience is clear, and must laugh heartily when the Hauptpastor claims to be convinced ‘that if I had known in advance that the controversy would take this course, I would have taken care not to give my position away so soon and to reveal the true sentiments of my heart’.