Reflections on Lessing's Fragments

to speak, immediately our conversation was broken off, and I could read the mockery in their eyes—that I too was such a simple fool original: "einfältiger Tropf" as to form my concepts from this book, when it could, after all, be done through the light of reason Vernunft: The human capacity for rational thought, which Enlightenment thinkers often prioritized over scriptural authority, without my having any need for this book written by such silly and simple-minded people.

I also know from my own experience and conviction that most teachers of religion Religionslehrer: Clergy or academic theologians responsible for instructing the public in doctrine would like to shove this book under the bench original: "unter die Bank stecken" – a German idiom meaning to cast aside, ignore, or hide something if they did not have to fear losing their livelihood Lebensunterhalt: The salary or financial support provided by their official positions in the church or state by doing so. And even if some still seek to defend it against the attacks of reason, they nonetheless rarely achieve the right purpose, and throw matters more into confusion than enlightenment Aufklärung: Refers here both to the act of clarifying a subject and to the broader Enlightenment movement's pursuit of knowledge, because the opposing party [counters] their hypotheses with the very same