Literature and Religion: Pascal, Gryphius, Lessing, Holderlin, Novalis

Two distinguished German intellectuals--Jens, a rhetorician at the University of Tubingen, and Kung, a Catholic theologian and author of On Being a Christian --here show an enthusiastic dedication to their subject that readers, however, will find hard to share. These joint lectures on eight European writers are burdened by two difficulties. First, academic jargon and what may be a problem of translation yield prose that is often dense and occasionally incomprehensible (18th-century playwright and critic G. E. Lessing is described as an ``externally discontinuous person''). Second, the questions addressed are frequently arcane: ``Was Lessing following in art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann's footsteps?'' There are, indisputably, nuggets of wisdom in these pages, but only readers who can stay awake will find them. (Dec.)