“Gott in Anmuth”. A Reading of Hölderlin’s Homburger Folioheft from an Aesthetic Point of View

Friedrich Hölderlin’s work has been an important point of reference in philosophical and cultural debates of the 20th and 21st century, referenced in diverse and even controversial ways.1 In these discussions, the question of how Hölderlin deals with the concept of God plays an important role, stretching far beyond any disciplinary borders.2 Indeed, the question of God (Gottesfrage) is a central motif in Hölderlin’s entire poetic and philosophical work.3 The research project, located in the realm of religion and aesthetics, takes up this question and relates it to the Homburger Folioheft [HF],4 a fragmentary text written between 1801–06 and highly debated in current research on Hölderlin.5 This project offers a new approach to the HF, as till now the concept of God, though crucial for understanding the text, has not been the objective of a single study.
The project starts from the observation that the concept of “God” can be found on almost every page of the volume. Remarkably often, it appears at the core of the author’s vast changes to the text – a process that Johann Kreuzer has called “Sprachfindung”.6 The project elaborates the thesis that this textual development is closely connected to dealing with the notion of God. Therefore, this particular perspective, focussing on the question of God (Gottesfrage) offers a valuable guideline for the interpretation of the HF, acknowledging its character of constant re-elaboration. The aim of the project is to interpret the HF as a rich but yet unexplored text for theology. Its benefit lies in providing a unique insight into a process in which “God” disappears and reappears. This process is mirrored in the shape of the text. The method pursued is a continuous interpretation of central passages of the HF (based on six basic assumptions explained below). It involves a close reading of the text, paying particular attention to its transitions, ruptures and gaps, as well as to the process of re-elaboration and the finding of new linguistic expressions. Rather than identifying the ultimate version of certain text segments and constituting a final text, the idea is to capture the text in its evolving dimension as an open artwork (Umberto Eco) – a work of art whose process-like character calls for the reader’s active cooperation (since no complete, finished text of the HF exists).7 This open reception relationship characterises what I call an aesthetic approach to the volume. This leads to the project’s research questions:
Can the fragile character of the text of the HF be made accessible by means of the question of God (Gottesfrage)? Is it possible to read the dynamic of loss and return that characterises the question of God in the HF as both an anticipation of the critique and renewal that has accompanied the concept of God since the 19th century and also as an approach to the unfolding and withdrawing nature of the name of God in the biblical tradition?
The proposal exemplifies how I would like to interpret the HF. In my project, I ask whether this reading can be extended to the entire volume and thus open it up for a theological reception. This requires a detailed interpretation of longer text passages for which the booklet in its entirety acts as the backdrop. I have already done extensive preliminary work, but in order to carry out the project, the requested funding is necessary (12 months, PI). If my contract at the University of Vienna (tenure-track position for “Religion and Aesthetics”) does not become permanent in August 2023, the project would give me the opportunity to bridge the gap and apply for other positions. In this case, I could nevertheless draw on the support of the network of the Research Centre for “Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society” (RaT; University of Vienna), where I currently work. In the case of the continuation of my contract, I could take a temporary leave of absence to carry out the project.