The Philosophical Theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher

The authors examine two stages in the philosophical-theological thought of Schleiermacher. The first is the product of his Sentences about Religion (1799); the second is based on his Introduction to Dogmatics (1822). They are placed in the context of the evolution of European philosophical and theological thought of the Modern Epoch and of the twentieth century. The authors first delineate the sources of Schleiermacher’s thought and proceed to analyze its influence on successive theological thought. In his first period, Schleiermacher understands religion as the feeling and taste for the infi nite . The authors of this article immediately exclude all subjective and psychological, as well as pantheistic and determinative interpretations of this experience of the inexpressible. In their opinion, Schleiermacher like Karl Barth, wished to keep religion and revelation in its own, unique domain. Schleiermacher’s Sentences about Religion contains all the fundamental elements, both implicit and explicit, which constitute a philosophical discourse about the sacred. In his second period, Schleiermacher uses a more exact concept than of feeling which he calls direct self-realization . The authors analyze Schleiermacher’s understanding of the structure and evolution of man’s self-realization. The highest degree of self-realization is piety or religiosity. Religious realization itself becomes the material for the formation of dogma. The authors analyze how concretely Schleiermacher wishes to say Lutheran dogma is formed. They conclude that Schleiermacher is successful in expressing the Christian kerygma, conserving its irreducibility. While assimilating current philosophical trends, Schleiermacher is careful to conserve the essence of Christian dogma

Epistemology · Philosophical theology · Theology · Philosophy · Philosophy and Historical Thought