Gadamer notes that the concept of Bildung (culture) has its origins in medieval and baroque mysticism, and continues to carry a mystical connotation when it begins to be used of the cultivated humanness. Von Humboldt, for instance, says “when in our language we say Bildung, we mean something both higher and more inward” than Kultur, “namely the disposition of mind which, from the knowledge and the feeling of the total intellectual and moral endeavor, flows harmoniously into sensibility and character.”
Gadamer notes that the word here “evokes the ancient mystical tradition according to which man carries in his soul the image of God, after whom he is fashioned, and which man must cultivate in himself.”
Given the origins of the idea, and the continuing mystical connotations of the term, it’s not surprising that from the 18th century Bildung refers not to the cultivation of a natural talent that might be employed for various ends but to the product of a process of cultivation. Bildung is an end in itself, a substitute for the “Christ in you” or “God in you” of mystical cultivation.
The word’s history provides a particular example of MH Abrams’s claim that romanticism transplanted Christian concepts by grounding them in the human subject.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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