Heidegger as a Colonial Thinker

Puritanism and Germany's Errand into the Wilderness

Bibliographic Data

ID4751256
AuthorsMarkus Weidler (0000-0002-6030-0553, Columbus State University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume11
Issue2
Pages150-170
Publication date2023-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Research on Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2050-3032 • E-ISSN: 2050-3040
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/20503032231174206
OpenAlexW4376107920
LanguageEN
References cited38

In the turbulent 1930s, Martin Heidegger gave a lecture on "Logic as the Question Concerning the Essence of Language." Upon close inspection, this text expounds a form of covenantal thinking guided by the Puritan theme of an errand into the wilderness. The proffered analysis shows how Heidegger invokes a poetic conception of colony to reconfigure Germany's self-image as a culture nation in search of a "new past." What can be gleaned from this account is a central but neglected link between Heidegger's thought and colonial discourse, in uneasy proximity to a special form of eschatological racism which divides humanity into spiritual classes marked by varying degrees of fitness for salvation

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Epistemology · Humanity · Linguistics · Literature · Poetry · Sociology · Theology · Wilderness · German Colonialism and Identity Studies · History · Philosophy

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