My friend Renate recalls having to study “Nathan der Weise,” in her high school in Germany. Gotthold Lessing’s drama, set in 12th century Jerusalem, was considered part of the canon, what every well educated German in the late 20th century would know of their literary tradition.
When she heard that the People’s Light and Theater Company in suburban Philadelphia was mounting a production of the now infrequently performed play, “Nathan the Wise,” she was curious what Americans in the 21st century would make of it.
As was I. So off we went, along with about 15 other friends—a multifaith crowd–to see this unusual production that asked the question: what does it mean to live in a multifaith world?
Or, to put it another way, what was the Enlightenment idea of what it should mean to live in a world with three faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.(They did not know about the others yet.)
The crux of the play is Lessing’s reworking of a much older set of legends regarding a father who has three sons whom he loves, but only one precious ring to pass down.
The good Muslim ruler Saladin asks his friend the Jew Nathan to answer a question: which religion is the true one? In response, Nathan tells him the story of a father who, has three sons and one precious ring that he has (oops!) promised to all three. The father’s solution is to have identical copies made and, upon his deathbed, to give a ring to each son.
After the father’s death, the brothers quarreled over who has the original and thus can lord it over the others. A wise judge points out that the father deliberately made the rings indistinguishable.
Let each believe
His own to be the true and genuine ring.
Perhaps you father wished to terminate
The tyranny of that special ring
‘Mid his posterity. Of this be sure,
He loved you all, and loved you all alike,
Since he was loath to injure two of you
That he might favor one alone; well, then,
Let each now rival his unbiased love,
His love so free from every prejudice;
Vie with each other in the generous strife
To prove the virtues of the rings you wear.
This was a fascinating play to see performed today, a period piece of the 18th century, complete with Orientalism that would have Edward Said spinning in his grave and a rather quaint and, I think, no longer so relevant understanding of “tolerance.” How sobering to realize that this view, simplistic and obvious as it might seem, was radical in Lessing’s day. The play was never performed in his lifetime. It would also be interesting to consider how a post modernist would rework that parable today.
