Assistant Professor of Political Science Hannes Kerber is editor of Leo Strauss, La dottrina essoterica: Saggi su Lessing, published by Edizioni ETS. The volume (translated to The Exoteric Doctorine: Essays on Lessing) is a collection of posthumous writings that shed new light on Leo Strauss’s thought by exploring the decisive moment when the German philosopher, who emigrated to the United States in the late 1930s, rediscovered exoteric writing and made it the cornerstone of his philosophical method. From the publisher: “At the heart of the volume is the figure of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, an Enlightenment thinker who proves to be a constant and subterranean presence in Strauss’s thought, despite his name rarely appearing in the works published during Strauss’s lifetime.” In a concluding essay, Kerber explores the hermeneutic experience of exotericism in Strauss, Lessing, and Schleiermacher, focusing on the practice of philosophically reading Plato’s dialogues. Kerber’s expertise is in 17th and 18th century political thought. He is author of the prize-winning book, Die Aufklärung der Aufklärung: Lessing und die Herausforderung des Christentums.