Thread by @SaxonGurth

Wagner's Christianity and Parsifal:

Wagner is one of the most recondite men our society has produced.

This thread is dedicated to exploring his final opera - Wagner's magnum opus - Parsifal, and his exegesis of Christianity imbued within.

First a disclaimer and a suggestion:

1) The thread will not include music theory. Perhaps I will cover that in another post, but it is not my strength.

2) Before continuing, take a second and pull up the overture to Parsifal.

Solti's rendition is great.

For the folks at home:

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was truly a polymath. A brilliant polemicist, philosopher, and composer, Wagner contributed heavily to the cultural development of 19th c. Europe. He is primarily known for his 13 completed operas - the final of which being Parsifal.

The first hint of Parsifal can be traced to 1848. The inaugural performance was in July of 1882.

During these 30+ years his opinions on almost everything would fluctuate.

The staunch mensch of Deutschland would remain.
i.e.
“I am the most German being. I am the German spirit.”

For a time, Wagner undoubtedly was an adherent to Schopenhauer's 'neo-Buddhism'.
Later, however, in his letters and the theme of Parsifal, a renewed veneration of Christ is apparent.
Did this signal a true turning for Wagner, or was he merely a Buddhist in a Christian's gown?

Some claim Parsifal is simply a neo-Pagan opera with Christian overtones.

This explanation ignores too much of Wagner's later writings. As we will see, Wagner's Christianity is clearly heterodox, yet he makes a noticeable philosophical shift with his final work.

Far from being an opera centralized around Christ, Parsifal has clear pagan undertones.

In fact, Christ is never mentioned by name in the entire opera, yet, in his journal, Wagner would write, "The founder of the Christian religion was not wise: He was divine."

A level of abstraction and distance is present throughout Wagner's exegesis of Christ's teaching.
Yet, he still sought in Parsifal to, "bring deliverance to the deliverer."
Wagner considered the modern church to be critically flawed.

Wagner viewed the church as inundated with degenerate dogma and corrupt machinations. Attributing this to the influence of "the spirit of Judaism" on the gospel, Wagner sought to reorient Christianity upon the central figure of Christ with his final opera.

Wagner's claim, "Genuine music has the power of deliverance from the fault of mere appearance," must be understood in his goal with creating Parsifal. He was attempting to remove the veneer of 19th c, Christianity, and become a true reformer.

This was Richard Wagner.

Wagner did not see himself as merely some luminary of the age, but rather a man who could, and would, reinvent human culture. Parsifal would be his final statement, and it undoubtedly shows a shift toward Christ.

I'll not wager whether Wagner was saved or not, but his Christianity is often at odds with Christ's teachings and broadly understood Christian doctrine.
For instance, Wagner claimed Jesus was likely not a Semite, but instead a gentile (Greek).

Wagner heavily attached himself to Christ's ascetic lifestyle and teachings of love. Vehemently against the egotist, Wagner saw neighborly love as Christ's paramount lesson. Self-denial and the rigorous pursuit of one's calling guided Wagner's late-stage philosophy.

Perhaps surprisingly, Wagner espouses a vague universalism in Parsifal.

Congruently, he intended Parsifal to be a work solely for the German people.

Only later did he included the wider faith as his audience.

In the weeks prior to the first show, Wagner selected the Jewish conductor, Hermann Levi, to direct Parsifal. Wagner attempted to convert him to Christianity and claimed his antisemitism was a bygone facet of his youth.

His letters show this 'bygoneness' was likely untrue.

The character of Parsifal may be Wagner's most obvious break from Schopenhauer and Buddhism.

The archetype of the knight defies the austere and flagellant-esque nature of the monk. The knight is manly and leads others to bliss.

@ChivalryGuild can tell you more about knights.

In a sense, Wagner never fully departed from his youthful rejection of Jesus Christ as the son of God. Yet, after Parsifal, to claim he was a follower of eastern religions or a temporal volkish creed would seem incorrect.
Wagner tasted a morsel of Christ's love and he knew it.

Parsifal is the chef-d'oeuvre of one of the world's foremost geniuses.

The opera is both explicitly Christian and pagan.

It's as if the Wagner of the 1850s and the 1880s merged to allow their respective best parts to triumph.

Now, sit back and enjoy the Holy Grail of operas.