An important figure in German Free-Masonry is Gotthold Ephriam Lessing. Lessing was a dramatist whose works such as Minna von Barnhelm andEmilia Galotti are performed in Germany even today. Lessing also wrote a work called Ernst und Falk, a philosophical discussion between a Mason and a non-Mason. In the 1770’s, Lessing – like many figures of the German Enlightenment before and after — was initiated into Free-Masonry.
Lessing’s most popular work dealing with Enlightenment themes is his play Nathan der Weise. Although the work does not make reference to Free-Masonry or use Masonic symbolism, it represents a key issue of the German Masonic movement of eighteenth century: religious tolerance. The play is set in Jerusalem in 1191. It is the period of the Crusades — religious warfare between Christians and Muslims with Jews caught in-between.
Nathan, a Jewish merchant who also has a reputation for wisdom, has been called to the palace of the Sultan, for the Muslims at this point rule Jerusalem. Nathan assumes the Sultan, Saladin, has called him to his palace in order to borrow money from him for the wars — then, as now, wars cost money! As it turns out, this is not the reason Nathan has been called to an audience before Saldin. Saladin’s reason is instead to ask Nathan, a man known tfor his wisdom, a question: “What is the true faith?”
Nathan, perhaps fearing a trap, answers diplomatically with a parable involving three rings: There lived a man who possessed a an opal ring of magnificent beauty which made the owner loved of God and man. This ring was passed down in the family generation to generation. It was always willed to the son in the family who was deemed the “best” in terms of his ethics and love. The ring finally came down to a man who had three sons he loved equally. The father promised the ring to each son, convinced in his private audiences with the sons that each is the one truly deserving of the ring. To solve his dilemma, he ordered two rings made exactly like the first and which were such perfect imitations they could not be told from the original.
The father gave these rings to his three sons privately and then passed away.
When the three sons realised that each has “the ring,” they quarreled and, in a part of the story that sounds very modern, went to court to resolve their differences! The judge stated: “All of the rings are false and the true ring lost. Let each son believe he has the true ring and compete to display its virtuous qualities.” In this way, each son would show he has the real ring!
The three rings are, of course, the faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In telling the story, Nathan suggests that these religions are in a sense “brothers,” descending all from the moral tradition of Abraham. Instaead of killing one another, these faiths should treat one another with mutual respect and bring out the virtues of the ring – not vying for dominance in court in the parable or slaughtering one another in the battlefields of the historical Crusades. In this way, Lessing encouaregs the Englightenment and Masonic ideal of tolerance which today is a relevant message to a world weary from religious strife.
So möge es sein!