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| Gotthold Lessing |
Gotthold Lessing was truly a man of the Enlightenment. Lessing lived a well accomplished life. From working as a librarian to being a playwright of works that influenced German literature, being a literary critic, a diplomat, and much more, Lessing did many things during his life. On top of this, Lessing was a philosopher who made a great impact on theology during his day.
Much of Lessing's philosophy was a product of the Enlightenment. Lessing's epistemology began with man and man's ability to reason. From this, Lessing took an empiricist position on miracles and reports of miracles. In order for a miracle to be useful as truth, one must experience it. Accounts of miracles are not worth anything. With reason and experience at the forefront of the discovery of truth, Lessing believed that historical accounts are not really profitable for truth, because they only record what is probable. Alongside of this idea, Lessing argued that the Scriptural accounts are not useful for determining truth either. Therefore, Scripture cannot be used as a foundation for the truth of Christianity.
To Lessing it was not as important that Christianity is true, as it was that Christianity yields good fruits within people. This is very similar to the way liberal Christian theology promotes Christianity today. Lessing's writings on theology and truth made an impact in the Enlightenment which still affects today's view of truth and religion. Knowing where these philosophies of truth, and the importance of truth in religion, come from leads to a better understanding of modern theology, where it came from, and how to deal with it.
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