On Mendelssohn's Judaism And Toleration

Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) is known as a German philosopher, an enlightener and a maskil. He is also considered the founder and propellant of Haskhalah. His thoughts are the synthesis of both Judaic tradition and German Enlightenment, and have cast great influence upon German philosophy and Jewish history. So it is of great importance to research into his thoughts.This thesis aims at his ideas on Judaism and toleration.For his ideas of Judaism, he introduces "ration" in Leibniz-Wollfian philosophy and English Deism to reinterpret traditional Judaism as "rational religion". Rational Judaism is composed of 3 parts. First part is religious doctrines and propositions or eternal truths about God and his government and providence. Second part is historical truths, or records of the vicissitudes of former ages. Third part is laws, precepts, commandments and rules of life, peculiar to this nation and through the observance of which it should arrive at national and individual felicity. The first two parts are rational truths, the third part is divine and has feature of oral tradition.His ideas on toleration are: state and church have but one goal: to achieve man's welfare of this life and afterlife. State should secure man's secular welfare, while church should help man achieve his eternal felicity. A man can believe what his freedom of consciences tells him, and at the same time be a citizen of a state. Coercion, punishment or temptation should not be the driving forces of one's faith.His above ideas are in accord with his ideas on salvation, expressed as follows: salvation is universal, is the harmonious coexistence of religious and secular life. As for Jew then, is the joint of Judaism and citizenship.