Mendelssohn Discourse

This event has been cancelled.

The freedoms of religion and opinion and the separation between religion and state are a legacy of the European Enlighten­ment, of which Moses Mendelssohn was a representative. In 1783, he published his book Jerusalem, or on Religious Power and Judaism exploring the relation­ships between worldly power and religion, between sovereignty and the boundaries of religious communities. Even if Mendelssohn personally found a way to resolve the contra­dictions between secularity and individual faith, the Enlighten­ment did not automatically bring an end to existing conflicts between worldly and religious power, or between the state and resident religious communities – and this conflict endures today, as demonstrated by the recent circumcision debate in Germany or the current debate over abortion in the United States.

The final installment of the Mendelssohn Discourses examines questions of conscience, the state, and freedom of religion – as well as the topical impli­cations of Mendelssohn’s positions for our own time.