EIN INTERVIEW MIT DEM LYRIKER UND THEOLOGEN CHRISTIAN LEHNERT: GESPRÄCH ÜBER DICHTUNG, RELIGION, NATURMYSTIK UND SEINEN LYRIKBAND OPUS 8. IM FLECHTWERK (2022). MIT ZWEI UNVERÖFFENTLICHTEN GEDICHTEN VON CHRISTIAN LEHNERT

Abstract

This article is an interview with the writer Christian Lehnert, who is both a theologian and a distinguished German poet. Linguistic precision, the artful use of semantics from the Christian and Jewish traditions, and an associative, surprising imagery are considered the hallmarks of Lehnert's poetics. The interview examines the relationship of his poetry to theology and religion, the tension between religious and non-religious interpretations of reality and the personal motivations for his writing. The interview focuses on the pronounced references to nature in his poetry and the influence of nature mysticism in his writing. As Lehnert explains, the recourse to pre-modern theologies of creation enables him to explore an approach to nature in which, in critical distance to a rational-functional access to nature, the mysteriousness and strangeness of the non-human other is understood anew, suggesting a deeper connection with other creatures.