Difference between revisions of "Anton Kirchhofer - Ringvorlesung Religion und Gesellschaft WiSe 2007-08"

Revision as of 17:39, 6 February 2008

---1. Tolle, lege, Mr. Betteredge !

• Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868), Chapter 1: Gabriel Betteredge, Butler, wird gebeten, die Geschichte vom mysteriösen Verschwinden und Wiederfinden eines wertvollen Edelsteins niederzuschreiben, und beginnt so:

In the first part of ROBINSON CRUSOE, at page one hundred and twenty-nine, you will find it thus written:

"Now I saw, though too late, the Folly of beginning a Work before we count the Cost, and before we judge rightly of our own Strength to go through with it."

Only yesterday, I opened my ROBINSON CRUSOE at that place. Only this morning (May twenty-first, Eighteen hundred and fifty), came my lady's nephew, Mr. Franklin Blake, and held a short conversation with me, as follows:—

…

Two hours have passed since Mr. Franklin left me. As soon as his back was turned, I went to my writing desk to start the story. There I have sat helpless (in spite of my abilities) ever since; seeing what Robinson Crusoe saw, as quoted above—namely, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it. Please to remember, I opened the book by accident, at that bit, only the day before I rashly undertook the business now in hand; and, allow me to ask—if THAT isn't prophecy, what is?

[…] such a book as ROBINSON CRUSOE never was written, and never will be written again. I have tried that book for years—generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco—and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad—ROBINSON CRUSOE. When I want advice—ROBINSON CRUSOE. In past times when my wife plagued me; in present times when I have had a drop too much—ROBINSON CRUSOE. I have worn out six stout ROBINSON CRUSOES with hard work in my service. On my lady's last birthday she gave me a seventh. I took a drop too much on the strength of it; and ROBINSON CRUSOE put me right again. Price four shillings and sixpence, bound in blue, with a picture into the bargain.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/155/155-h/155-h.htm

• In Robinson Crusoe selbst findet sich eine Szene nach dem gleichen Modell:

…

I went, directed by Heaven no doubt; for in this Chest I found a Cure, both for Soul and Body, I open’d the Chest, and found what I look’d for, viz. the Tobacco; and as the few Books, I had sav’d, lay there too, I took out one of the Bibles which I mention’d before, […] and brought both that and the Tobacco with me to the Table.

What Use to make of the Tobacco, I knew not, as to my Distemper, or whether it was good for it or no; but I try’d several Experiments with it, as if I was resolv’d it should hit one Way or other: …

In the Interval of this Operation, I took up the Bible and began to read, but my Head was too much disturb’d with the Tobacco to bear reading, at least that Time; only having open’d the Book casually, the first Words that occurr’d to me were these, Call on me in the Day of Trouble, and I will deliver, and thou shalt glorify me.*

The Words were very apt to my Case, and made some Impression upon my Thoughts at the Time of reading them, tho’ not so much as they did afterwards; for as for being deliver’d, the Word had no Sound, as I may say, to me; the Thing was so remote, so impossible in my Apprehension of Things, […] however, […] I mused upon them very often. […] but before I lay down, I did what I never had done in all my Life, I kneel’d down and pray’d to God to fulfil the Promise to me, that if I call’d upon him in the Day of Trouble, he would deliver me; …

http://www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1719-robinson-crusoe.html

• Die nicht-parodistische, heroische Variante der religionsäquivalenten Literatur: George Eliot, "O may I join the choir invisible!"

---2. Warum sollen wir über das Postsäkulare reden?

Zwei Eindrücke von der "Rückkehr der Religion", 1979 und 2005

1. Many here and some in Iran are waiting for and hoping for the moment when secularization will at last come back to the fore and reveal the good, old type of revolution we have always known.

(Michel Foucault, “The Spirit of a World without Spirit” [1979] in Politics, Philosophy, Culture. Interviews and other Writings 1977-1984, ed. Lawrence D. Kritzman. New York / London: Routledge, 1988, p. 224.)

1. There’ll come a moment when the phenomenon that we are trying to apprehend and which has so fascinated us – the revolutionary experience itself – will die out. There was literally a light that lit up in all of them and which bathed all of them at the same time. … what we witnessed was not the result of an alliance, for example, between various political groups. Nor was it the result of a compromise between social classes that, in the end, each giving into [sic] the other on this or that, came to an agreement to claim this or that thing. Not at all. Something quite different has happened. A phenomenon has traversed the people and will one day stop. … -- (Michel Foucault, “The Spirit of a World without Spirit” [1979] p. 219.)
2. In rising up, the Iranians said to themselves – and this perhaps is the soul of the uprising: “Of course, we have to change this regime and get rid of this man … . But, above all, we have to change ourselves. Our way of being, our relationship with others, with things, … .” I believe that it is here that Islam played a role. It may be that one or other of its obligations, one or other of its codes exerted a certain fascination. But above all, in relation to the way of life that was theirs, religion for them was like the promise and guarantee of finding something that would radically change their subjectivity. -- (Michel Foucault, “The Spirit of a World without Spirit” [1979], pp. 217-8.)
3. When Jacques Derrida died I was called by a reporter who wanted to know what would succeed high theory and the triumvirate of race, gender, and class as the center of intellectual energy in the academy. I answered like a shot: religion. -- (Stanley Fish, “One University, Under God?” The Chronicle of Higher Education 51:18 (2005), p. C4]
4. Announce a course with “religion” in the title, and you will have an overflow population. …
   And those who come will not only be seeking knowledge; they will be seeking guidance and inspiration, and many of them will believe that religion – one religion, many religions, religion in general – will provide them.
   Are we ready?
   We had better be, because that is now where the action is. … -- (Stanley Fish, “One University, Under God?” The Chronicle of Higher Education 51:18 (2005), p. C4]