Religious Experience in the Work of Richard Wagner by Marcel Hébert (review)

Although the Jesuit philosopher Abbé Marcel Hébert (1851-1916) left seminary "a convinced Thomist" (p. xxi), his philosophical outlook was to change considerably after studying Kant and Schopenhauer. This, together with the growing interest in Wagner in France (see especially the Revue wagneriénne) and the symbolist movement which looked to Wagner for its inspiration, meant that it was natural for this priest to turn to the composer for new inspiration in what was later to be termed "Modernism." Hébert taught at the École Fénelon in Paris, becoming its director in 1895. However, when his unorthodox views become known to the Church hierarchy, he resigned his position and in 1903 "quietly left the church" (p. xxiv n. 10). Although his book Le sentiment religieux dans l'œuvre Richard Wagner (1895) sparked interest, its impact being enhanced by the review of the Wagnerian Abbé Arthur Mugnier, "the confessor of all Paris," it has fallen into obscurity, unjustly in my view. Therefore I welcome this translation with its foreword by Stephen Schloesser and introduction by the translators C.J.T. Talar and Elizabeth Emery (who have also included a translation of Mugnier's review). Their rendition reads well and Hébert's original footnotes are supplemented by references to English translations of Wagner's prose work by William Ashton Ellis, to modern translations of the Ring, and to English translations of secondary literature.

The purpose of Hébert's book is to trace the evolution of Wagner's view of "religious experience" ("sentiment religieux") in key stage works and theoretical writings, starting with the sketches Jesus of Nazareth (1849) and finishing with Parsifal (1882). The book is full of insightful remarks showing, for example, a close study of Arthur Schopenhauer with nuanced comments on the relation of Wagner to the philosopher (pp. 52–56). I wonder though whether he does full justice to Christian theology in the Jesus of Nazareth sketches, where he claims that the composer had replaced the ancient beliefs of Christianity with "an entirely naturalistic and humanitarian faith" (p. 36) and that he "interpret[s] the doctrine of Jesus through his own anarchist doctrine" (p. 31). I may add that although Houston Stewart Chamberlain was impressed on meeting Hébert (letter to Cosima Wagner of December 16, 1893) he made a similar criticism of the Abbé in this book Richard Wagner.

Hébert closes his work by reflecting on the then current situation in France "in which the renewal of philosophical, scientific, and historical ideas has rendered Christian theology a dead letter for the intellectual elite" (p. 97). Wagner appears to come to the rescue in that he breaks us free from 'dogma' since, as he puts it in his essay Religion and Art (1880), music alone has the capacity to "reveal in incomparable accuracy the very essence of the Christian religion" (p. 95 n. 11). The composer certainly suited Hebert's Symbolist agenda.

Generally speaking, Hébert knows his Wagner although it is striking that the actual music is not discussed. Wagnerians may wonder why he dates Georg Herwegh's introduction of Wagner to the philosophy of Schopenhauer as early as 1852 (rather than 1854); but there is some justification for this view and the editors' Introduction (p. xxxii) refers to Edouard Sans' 1969 book on Wagner and Schopenhauer and qualify Hébert's claim. Note that Hébert quotes from "The Work and Mission of My Life" and "Letter on Music" to provide "an accurate summary" of his thought in the ten-volume selected works. However, the former was actually written by Hans von Wolzogen, and although Wagner did sign the original English manuscript he later distanced himself from it. The latter work is better known as "Music of the Future" and is a rough French equivalent...