Religion and Cosmos

Schlaf, Johannes, 1862-1941Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5

Word count: 145K words
Chapters: 15

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Religion und Kosmos by Johannes SchlafAuthor: Schlaf, Johannes, 1862-1941,Language: German, Class: BL: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Religion: General, Miscellaneous and Atheism, Release Date: Nov 25, 2018

Editor's review

This book is a German-language work by Johannes Schlaf exploring the relationship between religion and the cosmos, falling within the scope of religious philosophy and general religious topics. Schlaf was active from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and his writing reflects the period's ongoing intellectual inquiry into religion, nature, and cosmic order. Though brief, the book examines religious questions through a cosmological lens and suits readers willing to follow the intersection of philosophy and religion. Readers should not expect the rigorous framework of a systematic theology textbook; it is better approached as a document of its era's thought: observing how the author uses religious language to respond to cosmological questions and how he sets matters of faith alongside natural knowledge. For those studying German religious philosophy or the tension between religion and modern science in the early twentieth century, this book offers a reference text. The electronic edition comes from the public domain, facilitating search and comparative reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Researchers interested in German religious philosophy and cosmological topics
Readers seeking intellectual documents from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century
Advanced readers willing to read a short German religious work alongside the original
General intellectual enthusiasts concerned with the tension between religion and modern natural knowledge

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a systematic theology textbook or catechism
Readers with limited German reading ability who want only a Chinese translation
Readers expecting rigorous scientific argumentation or cosmological data

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the author's central questions, then revisit how the keywords religion and cosmos intertwine.
Read alongside sources on late nineteenth-century German intellectual history to situate the book in its era.
Note the author's religious concepts and cosmological formulations as you read, for later comparative study.
If your German is weak, read paragraph by paragraph with a dictionary and take brief notes on key passages.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or German?

This is the original German text, a public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, with no Chinese translation included. Readers need some German reading ability or should use a dictionary and translation tools.

Is this book suitable as an introduction to religion?

Not really. It is not an introductory textbook systematically presenting religious knowledge but the author's personal discussion of the relationship between religion and the cosmos, better suited to readers with some background in philosophy or religion.

What background knowledge is needed to read this book?

Familiarity with late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century German-language discussions of religion and natural science is helpful. Basic concepts of religious philosophy and German reading ability will make the author's line of argument easier to follow.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Schlaf, Johannes, 1862-1941 Author

Johannes Schlaf (Schlaf, Johannes, 1862-1941) was a German writer whose work spans drama, prose, and speculative writing. Four of his works are held in this collection, covering a considerable range of subjects: the three-act play Die Familie Selicke takes family life as its point of departure, presenting the circumstances and conflicts of its characters; Stille Welten, subtitled "Neue Stimmungen aus Dingsda," has an emotional, impressionistic prose manner; Frühling and Religion und Kosmos deal respectively with feelings of nature and the seasons and with reflections on the relationship between religion and the cosmos. Overall, his writing combines dramatic concern with reality and a lyrical, philosophical temper. Public information on his life, education, and nationality is limited, and no conjecture is offered here; his influence is chiefly reflected in the subject matter and stylistic character of these works.