Rainer Maria Rilke

VirginiaHuguenot · #1 (**permalink**) 07-07-2008, 08:18 PM

Is anyone here knowledgeable about the religious views of Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet?

I know that he thought highly of the Bible (and the works of J.P. Jacobsen) as noted in Letters to a Young Poet (letter number 2). Wim Wenders thought that angels was a prevalent enough theme in his writings to inspire Wings of Desire, Faraway, So Close! and City of Angels. But what church did he attend or adhere to, if any? And are there any studies of his religious views or analysis of such as expressed in poems like "You, Neighbor God"? Thanks.

VirginiaHuguenot · #2 (**permalink**) 07-08-2008, 11:43 AM

Susan Haskins, Mary Magdalene - Myth and Metaphor, p. 361:

Quote:

It was Rilke's explicit belief that Christ was not divine, was entirely human, and deified only on Calvary, expressed in an unpublished poem of 1893, and referred to in other poems of the same period, which allowed him to portray Christ's love for Mary Magdalene, though remarkable, as entirely human.