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WorkMoses Mendelssohn

Jerusalem, or On Religious Power and Judaism

No church or state may coerce belief, and Judaism is law rather than dogma: Mendelssohn's answer to a challenge to reconcile his faith with his liberalism.

by Moses Mendelssohn296 passages held

  • German, the original language
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Original title
Jerusalem oder über religiöse Macht und Judenthum
First published
(aged 54)
Original language
German

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Overview

An anonymous pamphlet cornered Mendelssohn in 1782. Its author — most likely the writer August Cranz — pressed a contradiction: here was a Jew who pleaded for freedom of conscience and denied any church the right to coerce belief, yet who stayed loyal to a religion that ran on divine law, bans and excommunication. Give up the one or the other, it said. Mendelssohn answered the next year with Jerusalem, and answered by conceding nothing. Its first part argues that neither state nor church may ever compel what a person believes, or hang civil reward and punishment on it; conscience lies beyond every institution's reach, because belief cannot be forced into existence in the first place. Its second part reframes Judaism to match: it is not a set of doctrines demanding assent, Mendelssohn argues, but revealed legislation — a way of acting, not a creed — which leaves reason entirely free and lets a Jew be a full citizen of a secular state without ceasing to be a Jew. Kant read it at once and wrote to him that it was an irrefutable book, the herald of a slow and coming reform that would reach beyond Mendelssohn's own people. The book became central to the debate over Jewish emancipation that followed.

Key concepts

Why does Mendelssohn say belief cannot be coerced?

Because conviction is produced by reasons and evidence, not by will or command. You can force a person to say words or perform acts, but you cannot make them believe on demand; belief simply does not answer to threats. From this Mendelssohn concludes that coercing faith is not merely wrong but impossible, which is why conscience lies permanently outside the reach of both church and state.

What does 'revealed legislation' mean?

It is Mendelssohn's reframing of Judaism. Judaism, he argues, is not a body of doctrines demanding intellectual assent but a system of divinely given law — commandments about how to act, not propositions one must believe. Its truths of reason are open to everyone through reason itself; what revelation adds is legislation, a way of life. This is what lets Judaism bind conduct while leaving belief and reason entirely free.

How does Mendelssohn separate church and state?

He assigns them different objects. The state governs outward actions for the common good and may use coercion; the church addresses inner conviction, which no one may compel. Neither may tie civil rights or punishments to belief. This division protects citizens of any faith, since standing in the state depends on conduct and law rather than creed, and it forbids the state from becoming an instrument of religious enforcement.

What challenge was the book answering?

An anonymous 1782 pamphlet, likely by August Cranz, pressed a contradiction on Mendelssohn: he pleaded for freedom of conscience and denied churches the right to coerce, yet stayed loyal to a religion that ran on divine law, bans and excommunication. Give up one or the other, it demanded. Jerusalem is his answer, and it concedes nothing — defending liberty of conscience and reinterpreting Judaism so the two hold together.

Why did Kant call the book irrefutable?

Kant read Jerusalem at once and wrote to Mendelssohn that it was an irrefutable book, the herald of a slow and coming reform that would reach beyond his own people. He recognized in its separation of conscience from coercive power a principle he could not fault. The book went on to become a founding text of Jewish emancipation and of liberal Judaism, its wall between conscience and state still cited today.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

Conscience beyond every institution's reach

Can any power rightly compel what a person believes? Mendelssohn answers no, and grounds the answer in something deeper than rights: belief cannot be forced into being at all.

The first part of Jerusalem argues that neither state nor church may ever compel what a person believes, or hang civil reward and punishment on it. The reason is not merely that coercion is unjust but that it is impossible: conviction follows evidence and reason, not command, so belief cannot be forced into existence in the first place. Conscience therefore lies beyond the reach of every institution by its very nature. This turns freedom of conscience from a concession a tolerant ruler grants into a limit built into what belief is — a limit no authority can cross even if it tries.

  • conscience
  • coercion
  • authority
  • rights
  • reason
  • epistemology
  • natural law
  • duty
  • religious authority

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A wall between conscience and state power

Should a person's standing as a citizen ever hinge on what they believe? Mendelssohn draws a firm line: the state governs actions, never inner conviction, and no faith may be a condition of belonging.

Mendelssohn separates the domains of state and church so that neither may enforce belief or tie civil status to it. The state's business is outward action and the common good; conviction is nobody's to command. This lets a person of any faith be a full citizen without pretending to share the majority's creed. His wall between conscience and state power became a founding text of religious liberty, still quoted in arguments it preceded by a lifetime. It answers the fear that a state indifferent to belief loses its cohesion by locating unity in shared action and law, not in enforced agreement.

  • political philosophy
  • authority
  • coercion
  • theocracy
  • social contract
  • rights
  • natural law
  • freedom of conscience
  • church and state

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Judaism as revealed law, not creed

How can a religion of divine law leave reason free? Mendelssohn reframes Judaism as legislation rather than doctrine — a way of acting that demands no assent to propositions.

An anonymous pamphlet had pressed a contradiction: a Jew who denied any church the right to coerce belief yet stayed loyal to a religion of divine law, bans and excommunication. Mendelssohn answered by reframing Judaism itself. It is not a set of doctrines demanding assent, he argues, but revealed legislation — a way of acting, not a creed — which leaves reason entirely free to reach truth on its own. A Jew can therefore be a full citizen of a secular state without ceasing to be a Jew. The move made the book a cornerstone of Jewish emancipation and liberal Judaism.

  • revelation
  • theology
  • religion
  • law
  • hermeneutics
  • semiotics
  • symbolism
  • idolatry
  • ethics

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Within this work

passages held
296
distinct concepts
475
by passages held, corpus-wide
#104

What this book thinks together

Every arc around the wheel is one concept in this book. A ribbon joins two the text reaches for together, and its width is how many of its passages hold both. Strongest: authority with epistemology.
Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 13 pairings. 38 shared passages in all. 87 weaker pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
ConceptPaired conceptShared passages
authorityepistemology5
epistemologysemiotics5
coercionpolitical philosophy4
authorityreason3
conscienceethics3
consciencepolitical philosophy3
ethicspolitical philosophy3
authoritycoercion2
coercionconscience2
coercionreason2
conscienceepistemology2
epistemologyethics2
epistemologyreason2

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

  1. 1767 Phadon, or On the Immortality of the Soul (Phaedon oder über die Unsterblichkeit der Seele)

    The bestseller that made Mendelssohn "the German Socrates" — a rational defence of the soul's immortality, modelled on Plato, that Kant would later single out to refute.

     DE
  2. 1783 Jerusalem, or On Religious Power and Judaism (Jerusalem oder über religiöse Macht und Judenthum) you are here DE
  3. 1784 On the Question: What Is Enlightenment? (Über die Frage: was heißt aufklären?)

    A short occasional essay for a Berlin discussion society — the twin and forerunner of Kant's more famous answer to the same question, and the one that reached print first.

     DE
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