Gustav Landauer - Metaphysics and Religion

Metaphysics and Religion

Landauer's ideas about metaphysics and religion changed around 1900. In his essay "Christentum und Anarchismus" ("Christianity and Anarchism" published in 1895 in the magazine Sozialist) Landauer was posed against religion. He especially rejected monotheist religions, such as Christianity, Judaism or Islam, saying that he denied any revelation. This can also be seen in an 1895 text in a series of articles "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Individuums" (On the Developmental History of the Individual) in which Landauer pronounced himself in favour of Buddha. Unlike the religions mentioned before, Buddha supported his statements with arguments. Under the mystic-symbolic cloak of the teachings of Reincarnation he believes to have discovered the deep-lying "Core of Truth" and that he could now express this truth without the cloak. Until 1903 Landauer clearly rejected religious concepts such as god, immortality, the hereafter, revelation etc. Instead, he believed in rationality and enlightenment.

But in his essay "Skepsis und Mystik" (Scepticism and Mysticism) published in 1903 there is a turn in Landauer's thinking towards mysticism. His translation, the "Doctrines of Meister Eckhart" (Die mystischen Schriften des Meister Eckhart) from Middle High German into High German is also published in 1903. Although Landauer is still sceptical about Meister Eckhart's concept of God, because instead talking about God he actually only talks about world, worldly or world spirit. The divine-oneness of Meister Eckhart is seen from the perspective of essence and bliss of nature; the "essential" of things is transcendent. Thus, it can be argued that Landauer had "pantheism" in mind. He also often wrongly called Meister Eckhart a pantheist. For Eckhart the term "pan-en-theism" ("All things are in God") would probably be more fitting. Landauer's view of religion during the conception of his mysticism can be characterized as follows: He still regards the concrete manifestations of "ecclesiastical Christianity" as negative, among them "priests and professors of philosophy" but also priests and founders of philosophies "who quickly find peace in something positive". He sympathizes with those "who passionately desire peace but cannot be appeased by anything, such as heretics, sectarians and mystics". Amongst others, in "Skepsis und Mystik" (Scepticism and Mysticism) Landauer mentions Dionysius Areopagita, Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Meister Eckhart, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Jakob Böhme, Angelus Silesius and Alfred Mombert. Their common trait was that they did not accept terms and concepts as intellectually correct and that they therefore opposed religious groups. For these thinkers the world of senses was only something metaphorical. By segregation they would try to unite their self with the world. Landauer's reverence for mysticism enabled him to include Christ into his thinking. He interprets Christ is a "Symbol of Man becoming God". For Landauer becoming God means the merger of the self with the world and that's exactly what Christ showed us.

At the age of 22 Landauer broke with the Jewish religious community. As described before, he rather referred to Christian-mystical tradition than to Judaism. Around 1907 he consciously returned to Judaism and its religious traditions. An important impetus for this reversal came from Martin Buber with whom he was good friends. Buber also occupied himself at the beginning of the century with Christian mysticism. From then on Landauer also included "Hasidic mysticism" into his thinking.

It is interesting how Landauer coins the terms of "time" and "eternity" in his essay "Skepsis und Mystik" (Sceticism and Mysticism). Eckhart or Neoplatonists of the Christian and Pre-Christian tradition (Plotinus, Augustinus, Dionysius Areopagita, Scotus Eriugena, Bonaventura etc.) respectively, did not define eternity as a time span which was forever expanded. Eternity is rather present in every moment of time, it contains time as a whole and transcends it at the same time. An "secluded" person that can free himself from time, experiences eternity by "mystical show" (spiritual perception) (Plotinus). For Landauer eternity at the same time is an everlasting temporal continuation but also the source of the temporal stream of development (Entwicklungsstrom). The idea of past and future is a "distortion of space" because only by applying ideas of space it could be suggested that we are standing at a point from which one can see into the past and into the future. The two opinions that, on one hand, eternity is an everlasting temporal continuation and on the other, it is the source of time, seem to contradict each other. For Landauer eternity remains bound to the course of time. He declares eternal renewal to be a constant through which "temporal quality differences" quite possibly appear in the "eternal presence".

Landauer's perception of time and eternity distinguishes itself by regarding past, present and future not as a category of time but as a result of "distortion of space". Thus eternity for him is a temporal course which, at the same time, is the source of time. Neoplatonists (Meister Eckhart) also talk about a temporal course of time that is embraced by eternity which at the same time is the source of time. Thus, eternity can be experienced by "mystical show" (spiritual perception) (Plotinus) within time. For Meister Eckhart as well as for Landauer the key to this experience lies in the so called "secludedness".