Theology and Politics in the German Imagination, 1789-1848

This piece introduces a special issue of Global Intellectual History, on the theme of Theology and Politics in the German Imagination, 1789-1848. The essays in the issue proceed from a conference of the same name, held in Cambridge at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), in July 2017, which was supported by funds from the DAAD Cambridge Research Hub. The event was primed to consider the distinctive relationships between theology and politics, church and state, that emerged in early nineteenth-century Germany (and German-speaking central Europe). By focussing on figures, institutions, and events from this period—when a nascent ‘Germany’ was defining itself as a nation and a culture—we challenged the all too frequent reduction of religion in the modern world to an ideology which simply competes with politics. Instead, we sought to discuss the subtle and significant ways in which theology and politics interact and inform one another. During our opening roundtable discussion, panellists stressed the need to re-think the category of ‘nationalism’ as applied to late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Germany. In practice, we asked, was this category less about ruminating on the ‘idea’ of a nation or nation state, and more about the task of establishing community and cohesion between people