Beethoven and religion

[sid_galt]

Did Beethoven believe in God?

[Peter]

Oh dear, religion again!

Yes he most certainly believed in God, I'll say no more (yet!!)

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'Man know thyself'

[Rob]

Even if we had no evidence to the contrary, was he not speaking of and to god?

[Pastorali]

Anselm Hüttenbrenner knew Beethoven from 1816-†. He said:

"Beethoven (and Salieri) were very religious in the depth of the heart, they just showed their piety not to the public."

[kenneth]

Originally posted by sid_galt:
Did Beethoven believe in God?

Lisen to his Mass (op 123). Perhaps you will find an anser there?

[Opus131]

Originally posted by kenneth:
Lisen to his Mass (op 123). Perhaps you will find an anser there?

Mmmh, no, there's no answer there.

Beethoven did beleive in God, but not in the christian God.

Even for the times, his conception of God was more broad, encompassing all religions as under the same paragrim (he beleived they were all different forms to worship the same divinity).

When he wanted to feel God, he didn't go to a church, he went about the green fields of Bonn or Vienna, celebrating his spirituality throught nature.

If i remember correctly, he even had a interest in foreign religions, even buddism.

Obviously, he was an inquiring mind and looked constantly for the truth and repuded accepted beleif, quite extraordinary for man born in the 18th century...

[Tegan]

While Beethoven was not a practicing Catholic throughout his life, he had been raised Roman Catholic, and made a point of confessing and recieving Last Rites before he died. He certainly believed in God.

Opus 131, why do you say he didn't worship a Christian god? I'm just curious; I'm not sure I have ever heard that before.



[This message has been edited by Tegan (edited January 30, 2004).]

[Joy]

One of Beethoven's favourite books was Sturm's "Observations Concerning God's Works in Nature" ("Betrachtungen uber die Werke Gottes in der Natur"). "He saw the hand of God in even the most insignificant natural phenomenon".

"To me the highest thing, after God, is my honour."
July 26, 1822, to the publisher Peters, in Liepsic.

I would say he believed in God. He was a Roman Catholic albeit maybe not a practicing one.

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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Peter]

Originally posted by Opus131:
Obviously, he was an inquiring mind and looked constantly for the truth and repuded accepted beleif, quite extraordinary for man born in the 18th century...

Not really - this was typical of Enlightenment thinking (not that I wish to open that can of worms again!) and he would have been encouraged by such men as Neefe in his early Bonn years to think for himself, which he clearly did.

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'Man know thyself'

[Ahmad]

In a letter written to his friend Karl Ameda on 1 July 1801, Beethoven says :
"How often I wish you were here, for your Beethoven is having a miserable life, at odds with nature and its Creator, abusing the latter for leaving his creatures vulnerable to the slightest accident ... My greatest faculty, my hearing, is greatly deteriorated."


[This message has been edited by Ahmad (edited January 30, 2004).]

[spaceray]

"Resignation...the most profound resignation to your destiny...O God! Give me the strength
to overcome myself" wrote Beethoven in 1812.

[Chris]

It is rather odd to say a person believes in "God, but not the Christian God." God is God. There is no other God. People may have vastly different views of God (the Christians vs. the Muslims, etc.), but it's basically the same - an infinite being that is the cause of everything else.

To be really different from this, you'd have to believe in no God or many gods or some kind of "God is everything but nothing" idea. (There are plently of philosophies that hold one of these views, of course.)

[Ahmad]

Originally posted by Peter:
Oh dear, religion again!

Was this topic discussed before in our forum?

[Pastorali]

Originally posted by Peter:
Oh dear, religion again!

Yes he most certainly believed in God, I'll say no more (yet!!)

Seems to me, it could lead easely FAR away of Beethoven, same as political discussions...

[This message has been edited by Pastorali (edited January 30, 2004).]

[Chris]

There have been a couple discussions on this, yes.

Use the search feature if you want to locate the threads.