Introductory Note |
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Introductory Note
Introductory Note
"The Education of the Human Race" is the culmination of a bitter
theological controversy which began with the publication by Lessing, in 1774 -
1778, of a series of fragments of a work on natural religion by the German
deist, Reimarus. This action brought upon Lessing the wrath of the orthodox
German Protestants, led by J. M. Goeze, and in the battle that followed
Lessing did his great work for the liberalizing of religious thought in
Germany. The present treatise is an extraordinarily condensed statement of the
author`s attitude towards the fundamental questions of religion, and gives his
view of the signification of the previous religious history of mankind, along
with his faith and hope for the future.
As originally issued, the essay purported to be merely edited by Lessing;
but there is no longer any doubt as to his having been its author. It is an
admirable and characteristic expression of the serious and elevated spirit in
which he dealt with matters that had then, as often, been degraded by the
virulence of controversy.
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