Philhellenism and antisemitism: Matthew Arnold and his German models

Comparative Literature, Winter 1994 by Gossman, Lionel

FOOTNOTES

1 "Religion and Philosophy in Germany" (1834) 181, 223.

2 See Elisabeth de Fontenany 55 (where the claim is made that "anti-judaisme," in the sense of a critique of Judaism as a religion, may go hand in hand with 'philosemitisme," in the sense of support for Jewish emancipation), and 104 (where the distinction between Juifs philosophiques" and "Juifs sociologiques." between "antijudaisme" and "anti-semitisme" is hedged round with the caveat that "ces deux perspectives, l'une plus metaphysique, l'autre plus sociologique, se recoupent toujours en meme temps qu'elles divergent." Fontenay evokes the example of Hegel, who "parlant pejorativement du judaisme, en vient insidieusement a mentionner le malheur herite des Juifs actuels, lui qui d'ailleurs defend leur droit l'emancipation." The reference is no doubt to the passage in "The Spirit of Christianity" (written 1798-99, unpublished in Hegel's lifetime) where Hegel writes that "the subsequent circumstances of the Jewish people up to the mean, abject, wretched circumstances in which they still are today, have all of them been simply consequences and elaborations of their original fate" (On Christianity 199). Fontenay's attempt to spirit away Marx's antisemitism by presenting "Jews" in Marx as a "metonymy of bourgeois society" is criticized by Francis Kaplan (61-62), who also emphasizes the ease with which the "philosophical" critique of Judaism as a religion can shade off into plain antisemitism. When Marx asks rhetorically 'Quel est le fonds profane du judaisme" and answers "Le besoin pratique, l'utilitt personnelle...l'abaissement effectif de la nature, le mepris de la theorie, de l'art, de l'histoire, de l'homme considere comme son propre but," at least part of that reply, according to Kaplan, can feed into the popular stereotype of the Jew as selfish, greedy, and indifferent to others (45).

3 For a brief general account of ancient Greek and Roman hostility to Judaism and Jews, see Carlos Levy.

4 For a short overview of the essentials of neohumanism, see my article, "The 'two cultures' in nineteenth century Basle" (99-105).

5 See the invaluable study of Bengt Sorensen.

6 "We are fighting not for the human rights of the people but for the divine rights of mankind," Heine was to write in the early thirties; "we do not want to be sansculottes, nor simple citizens, nor venal presidents; we want to found a democracy of gods, equal in majesty, in sanctity, and in bliss" ("Religion and Philosophy in Germany" 180).

7 Robert P. Ericksen; see also Tal 191-92, 200-201, 217-18. According to Jenkyns (72), Newman in England held a somewhat similar position at one point in his career: "Newman's perversely systematic mind had not only divided Hellenism sharply from Hebraism, but had separated Christianity no less sharply from both. Christ was neither Greek nor Jew... "Jenkyns also quotes a comment by George Eliot about her contemporaries: "They hardly know that Christ was a Jew."

8 Both passages, the second from a text of 1882, are quoted by Tal (264-65). In the early decades of the twentieth century in France, the views of Charles Maurras, chief ideologist of the radical right-wing and antisemitic Action francaise, were similar, though Maurras's emphasis falls more on restraint and order (which he associated with classical antiquity) than on energy and life: "Admirateur de l'antiquite classique, Maurras ne se sent a l'aise que dans le paganisme. Il connait Lucrece par coeur. Le polytheisme grec lui a toujours paru un chef d'oeuvre de mesure, d'ordre et d'harmonie puisqu'il assigne a chaque desir humain une divinite precise. Ainsi l'orientation du desir, dument canalisee ne risque-t-elle pas de prendre le chemin de l'Infini. Dans le paysage mediterraneen, la lumiere du soleil dessine nettement les contours et les ombres: a l'homme d'y prendre sa place, sans reves ni chimeres insensees, en acceptant de se soumettre a cet ordre preetabli. C'est la condition du bonheur. L'esprit biblique, les Evangiles de 'quatre juifs obscurs,' Jerusalem et la synagogue sont venus rompre ce bel iquilibre. Le christianisme est aussi dangereux que le judaisme pour le maintien de la civilisation...L'aire de l'humanite civilisee ne deborde guere les rivages de la Mediterranee (encore faut-il preciser Mediterranee occidentale jusqu'a la Grece incluse, mais pas au-dela)" (Jacques Prevotat 250-52).