Goethe’s Piety

The term ’piety, may not immediately suggest itself as the most appropriate to describe Gorthe’s religious outlook. However, the notion of piety reflected in Goethe’s use of words like ’Frömmigkeit’ and ’fromm’, whether with reference to others or himself, is frequently perceived in a positive light as a potent ethical force, based on reverence for the numinous. The aim of this article is to identify the nature of that piety, which Goethe both recognises in a wide variety of paradigms and embraces in his own thinking. Through examination of the ’Elegie’, poems of the Divan and other works, it is shown that one of the key elements is a recognition of the nature of the relationship between the human and the divine, the perception of the heavenly and eternal in earthly and transient phenomena. This pattern of thinking is shown to be reflected not only in Goethe’s poetry, But in contexts that unite the scientific, aesthetic and religious dimensions of his outlook. Similar paradigms of piety are recognised and evaluated positively by Goethe in a variety of contexts: in Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, as well as in pagan religion and pantheistic, atheistec or materialistic thinking. In this way piety is seen as a means whereby man can approach, if not fathom, ’das Unerforschliche’, the mysteries of nature and existence itself.