Enlightenment beyond Teleology: Religious Familiality and the Fundamental Gift in G.E. Lessing

Through readings of Nathan the Wise and The Education of the Human Race, I argue that Lessing does not, as is often supposed, contribute to the foundations of nineteenth century historicism, but—like some other advanced Enlighteners—criticizes it in advance. He rejects a teleological narrative of history and replaces it with a circular notion of history as infinite repetition. What repeats itself in history, without end, is the splitting apart of matter and spirit, and the task of reassembling their unity through radical generosity, whose most appropriate site Lessing understands to be the religious family or family of religions.