HERDER, JOHANN GOTTFRIED. – Critic, philosopher, and theologian, born 25 Aug. 1744 at Mohrungen (East Prussia), died 18 Dec. 1803 at Weimar. He studied Protestant theology at Königsberg, and from 1764 to 1769 was a teacher and preacher at Riga. Between 1771 and 1776 he held the office of parish priest and member of the Consistory at Bückeburg. In 1775, on Goethe’s recommendation, he was called to Weimar as General Superintendent.
H. was a figure of primary importance for the intellectual and literary life of his time. By defining true poetry as «the voice of nature» and the lyrical expression of irrational and lived feeling, he established the programme and poetic canon of the *Sturm und Drang* and Romantic poetry. With his fine grasp of the individuality of peoples and cultures, he surpassed the historical vision of the Enlightenment and prepared the historicism of the 19th century. As a theologian, too, H. fought against Enlightenment ideas; yet he did not arrive at a theology based on Christian dogmas. Instead, through his interpretation of the Old Testament as a poetic creation of the popular genius of Israel and his conception of Christianity as the religion of pure and perfect humanity, he became one of the inspirers of the liberal and non-dogmatic theology of the 19th century.
The rich thought of H. draws its deep inspiration from a sense of union with the Divine, present in the life of the world and of humanity. Although he appealed to the name of Spinoza, his metaphysical ideas are in fact in line with a vitalistic Neoplatonism (see especially *Gott. Einige Gespräche*, 1787). Finite beings are conceived as manifestations of divine life: God is immanent in the universe as the animating force of its teleology. In this respect, H. is close to the philosophers of the Italian Renaissance; the principal innovation in comparison with them consists in an enlargement of the sphere in which the divine animating spirit can be felt and grasped. H. regards humanity and its history, together with nature, as a single series of divine manifestations; he seeks to understand the rise of different cultures and the ascent to higher concepts of humanity in connection with the life of the universe (*Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte zur Bildung der Menschheit*, 1774; *Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit*, 1784–91). The proper subjects of the historical process are peoples and their «profound souls»; the supreme criterion of evaluation is an ideal of humanity that is a sublimation of the image of ancient man in the classical age. H.’s historical conception proved especially fruitful for the understanding of the ethnic cultures of antiquity. In his *Die älteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlechts* (1774–76) and *Geist der hebräischen Poesie* (1782–83) he gave convincing proof of his faculty for interpreting historical documents as expressions of inner orientations and forces. With his new appreciation of historical individuality, which no longer takes into account common human nature, he became a precursor of historicism, though in him its relativism is counterbalanced by the thought of a universal evolution according to a divine plan or at least an immanent natural finality.
H. also interpreted religion and Christianity in light of his conception of divine immanence and his ideal of humanity (especially *Briefe, das Studium der Theologie betreffend*, 1780; *Christliche Schriften*, 1794–98). Religion is the highest realization of the divine image within us. Yet this concept cannot be found by abstract thought. The peaks of the human are revelations of God, enacted in persons and historical facts and transmitted through religious traditions. Only by placing oneself within history and its living traditions can man recognize and feel the voice of Revelation (cf. *Briefe d. St. d. Theol. b.*, ed. B. Suphan, X, pp. 257–269, 299 ff.). In these ideas H. in a certain measure goes beyond the theology of the Enlightenment, without, however, reaching the true Christian concept of Revelation and faith. By recognizing Revelation only insofar as it confirms and highlights the numinous perceived in nature and history, H. rejects the concept of the supernatural. The most divine, according to him, must prove to be the most natural; Christ is the highest model and the greatest teacher of pure humanity. Any attempt to express the mystery of his person through dogmatic formulae distances one from the living sense of the divine presence in Him (*Ideen z. Ph. d. G.*, ed. cit., XIV, pp. 290 ff., 500 ff.).
The growing rapprochement with Enlightenment ideas in H.’s later works shows that his conceptions had rather the significance of a modification of Enlightenment theology than of an overcoming of II.
**
HEREM (Septuagint *δνάθη* (ε)μα)
Among the Hebrews it designated: 1) a penalty by which individuals or peoples declared liable to execution were devoted to the honour of God (Lev. 27:29); or it referred to those so punished. Such were the Canaanites (Deut. 7:1–6 etc.), the cities that fell into idolatry (Ex. 22:19 etc.), violators of the *b.*, etc. Their goods were sometimes destroyed, sometimes in part reserved. Transgression of the *b.* constituted a very grave sin. 2) A vow by which men, fields, animals, etc., were consecrated to God, with renunciation of the right of redemption (Lev. 27:28). Since they became «most holy things», fields and objects belonged to the priests (Num. 18:14; Lev. 27:21; etc.). It does not appear to have been practised with regard to men (see *ANATHEMA*).
**