Forming a Liberal Coalition of Reason: Political Theology in the Mendelssohn-Lavater Affair

Abstract

Thus far, scholars have discussed the Mendelssohn-Lavater affair from a liberal perspective: Mendelssohn’s reply to Lavater has been principally read as a defense of toleration. The broader context of conversion discourse in eighteenth-century Germany drew little attention. Taking issue with such apologetic-liberal readings, this paper interprets the Lavater affair as a polemical engagement with contemporary heterodox groups that regarded conversion as a necessary precondition for redemption. Mendelssohn’s reply, it argues, was a calculated political theology on the part of Enlighteners who sought to form a coalition of reason–including the Jewish and the Protestant orthodoxy, enlightened theologians, the state of Prussia and the Jewish financial elite. This coalition would fight Pietistic, Sabbatean, Frankist and other “enthusiastic” groups, for which the notion of redemption through conversion then became metonymic. Thus, the Lavater affair marks a turning point in the cultural, political and economical reconfiguration of eighteenth-century Germany.