ABSTRACT
In his essayistic fragment Religion and Philosophy in Germany, the writer Heinrich Heine provocatively notes:
From the moment that a religion solicits the aid of philosophy, its downfall is inevitable. Trying to defend its elf, it merely prattles itself ever more deeply into destruction. Religion, like every absolutism, must not seek to justify itself. Prometheus is bound to the rock by a silent force, and Aeschylus does not allow personified power to utter a single word. It must remain silent. The moment the religious venture to print a catechism supported by argument, the moment political absolutism releases official state documents, both are near their end. But therein consists our triumph: we have managed to get our opponents to talk, and now we can hold them to account.1
