Prawda historyczna, prawda religijna – Lessing i jego kontynuatorzy

In the work The Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power (1777) G. E. Lessing made the distinction between necessary truths of reason and historical (factual) truths. The latter include religious truths of revelation (as based on the Bible). He claimed in this way that the religious truth (which is the essence of religion) can not be identified with the historical truth. Thus established by Lessing the critique of revelation and of institutional religion was continued by S. Kierkegaard and F. Nietzsche among others and in the works of both thinkers explicit references to Lessing’s Demonstration can be found.