Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

Of the incapacity of reason in the ways of God.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 68 · Der achtundsechzigste Brief

Addressee — To Philipp Helfreich Hennemann (1703–1771), since 1730 Prorektor of the Lutheran Gymnasium at Essen. A first-letter formality governs the address: like Brief 64's, it is third-person throughout — the one pronoun aimed at the recipient is "ihm alles Vergnügen … zu zu wünschen" — with no du and no Sie anywhere. Salutation "In der Gnade unsers süssesten Heylandes vielgeliebter Bruder!" → "In the grace of our sweetest Saviour, much-beloved brother!" (vielgeliebt, not the Rule-B lexeme); no subscription — the letter ends with the place-date block.
Date — Mülheim, 13 August 1745 — the print dateline reads Mülheim, / den 13. Aug. 1745.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, p. 220), in normalized GS 1845 house orthography, collated against the 1798/99 second edition (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). All rendered words come from public-domain prints.

The Sixty-Eighth Letter.

Of the incapacity of reason in the ways of God.

In the grace of our sweetest Saviour, much-beloved brother!

I hereby send a brotherly greeting, and desire to do so in the power of the name of Jesus Christ, and to wish him all delight in His fellowship. We know — and may the Lord grant that we may daily know it more thoroughly from experience! — that in this blessed fellowship alone are delight, and whatever else we seek, to be found: but we are also to believe and know that it is all gladly granted and given us there as a gift. Given, I say — a price and process into which the reason, which studies law, can fit itself very ill. It is more the way of children, that they can give gifts and receive gifts. May Jesus make us such! Then we shall not want any good thing.

Mülheim, 13 August 1745.

❦

German

Der achtundsechzigste Brief.

Von der Unfähigkeit der Vernunft in den Wegen GOttes.

In der Gnade unsers süßesten Heilandes vielgeliebter Bruder!

Ich grüße hierdurch brüderlich, und begehre solches zu thun in der Kraft des Namens JEsu Christi, und ihm alles Vergnügen in dessen Gemeinschaft zu zu wünschen.

— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.

German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).

Translator’s notes

What this letter is. The shortest letter in this part: a single paragraph to a schoolman — the deputy head of the Latin school at Essen — written as a formal first greeting and turned, in five sentences, into a complete little doctrine of grace. Like the letter to the Swedish exile (Brief 64), it keeps the ceremonious third person throughout: Tersteegen greets "in the power of the name of Jesus Christ," and wishes him all delight in that fellowship.

The doctrine. Everything the soul seeks is found in the fellowship of Christ alone — and found there given. The one word the letter leans on is "given": granted and given as a gift, "given, I say," where the trained reason — personified as a jurist, "which studies law" — can fit itself very ill. Law knows price and process, claim and counter-claim; a gift can only be received. Hence the close: it is the way of children that they can give and receive gifts; may Jesus make us such children — then, in the words of the psalm, we shall not want any good thing.

A few words and echoes.

the incapacity of reason. The title's claim, enacted rather than argued: the letter never refutes reason, it simply describes a country — free gift — where reason's law-court skills have no purchase.
a price and process. Preis und Proceß — the lawsuit metaphor; reason would earn or litigate what can only be accepted.
the way of children. Not sentimentality but competence: giving and receiving gifts is a skill, and children have it.
not want any good thing. Psalm 34:10 — the seekers of the Lord "shall not want any good thing."

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 68 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-068.html.

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