A Radically Orthodox Reformer: J. G. Hamann as a Metacritic of Enlightenment and Secularization

The purpose of this article is to shed light on the mysterious figure of J. G. Hamann and to distill his chief contributions to modern theology. To this end it begins with the puzzling question of his style, which, far from being incidental, leads directly into the core concerns of his authorship. Subsequent sections examine his theological aesthetics, which was appropriated by Hans Urs von Balthasar, and his metacritique of secular reason, which has been appropriated in the English-speaking world most notably by John Milbank and theologians associated with Radical Orthodoxy. It concludes with a brief portrait of Hamann as an ecumenical sign for the times.