Schleiermacher The Study Of Religion And The Future Of Theology

"This volume documents a significant meeting in the history of Schleiermacher studies at which leading scholars from Europe and North America gathered to probe key features of Schleiermacher's theological and philosophical program in light of its contested place in the study of religion. Offering fresh interpretations of Schleiermacher's theory of religion, revisionary dogmatics, and hermeneutics of culture, the book critically re-examines Schleiermacher's thought with an eye on the contemporary divide between theology and religious studies."--Publisher's website.

W. Royce Clark observes that humanity appears to be jeopardizing our own future in a chaos of mutual antagonism and hypocrisy. Religions have traditionally provided ethical guidance, but because their absolutized metaphysics are incompatible with each other, we cannot rely on any one of them in a religiously pluralistic culture. The ethics of various religions are also built on theocratic or authoritarian foundations which are incompatible with any democratic society. Finally, many of their premises are very ancient, so not relevant or appropriate in our modern scientific world. The Western Enlightenment brought challenges against religion’s singularity, exclusivity, heteronomy, and anti-scientific assumptions, all of which disrupted their ethics and the Absolute metaphysical grounds upon which those ethics rested, raising the question of whether a “freestanding” ethic was possible. Inasmuch as the primary claim of most religions was regarded as beyond challenge, but was a conflation of history and myth, modern historical method created more doubt than certainty about such allegedly certain doctrines as “Jesus is the Son of God.” By the end of the 20th century, the impossibility of validating suchprimary Christological claims from a historical approach became evident, despite the articulate attempts at credibility in the brilliant works of John Dominic Crossan and Wolfhart Pannenberg, which remained unconvincing in important ways. Between 1832 and 2014, innovative Christian theologians such as Schleiermacher, Hegel, Tillich, and Scharlemann took a detour from the futility of historical verification. This study examines their remarkable attempts at a form of “corroboration” of the basic Christological claim, even if their primary interests were more in Christology than ethics. The question Clark takes up here is whether or not these figures have thereby provided a base for a universal ethic, or the only answer is for principles “freestanding” from any religion?

Religious feeling lies at the heart of Schleiermacher's theology. In his earliest monograph, the Speeches, he famously writes that "religion's essence is neither thinking nor acting but intuition and feeling." He portrays religious feeling as an eternal and universal state of consciousness, which cannot be generated by individuals, the world or anything within it, but must have a transcendent "whence", namely God. Yet his critics have often missed this point, assuming that his emphasis on feeling makes religion transitory and individualistic. This misinterpretation is furthered by philosophical, psychological, anthropological and popular understandings of feeling, which characterise emotions as selfish and moods as inward looking.This book traces the development of Schleiermacher's concept of feeling, comparing the first edition of the Speeches with his later works, especially The Christian Faith. It points to a fundamental continuity in Schleiermacher's stance, despite the increasing orthodoxy of his language, and his growing interest in the collective feeling of the religious community. Taking account of recent developments in psychology and philosophy, this study sheds light on the elements of Schleiermacher's account that are tenable today, clearing the way for future reappraisals of his theological project.

A reassessment of the theology of the German Protestant theologian, Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923) and of his significance for contemporary theology. The six papers here presented were originally delivered at an international colloquium on Troeltsch held at the University of Lancaster. The contributors focus on the fundamental issues raised by Troeltsch which remain central to theology today and seek to engage him as a discussion partner in a continuing debate. Troeltsch has been unduly neglected as a theologian, a fact which is due partly to the dominance of the 'dialectical' theology of Barth and Bultmann in Germany after the First World War. This book seeks to remedy this state of affairs by dealing critically with Troeltsch's theology as well as constructively with the issues. The papers fall into three groups: in the first Troeltsch is considered as a Christian theologian; in the second are studied the possibilities of systematic and historical theology along Troeltschian lines; in the third the questions of what makes Christianity Christian and of Christian claims to exclusive truth are examined in the light of Troeltsch's work. Each of the contributors is a noted Troeltsch scholar and the book contains an extensive bibliography, which adds to its usefulness to students and scholars alike.

An introduction to the 'Father of Modern Theology'.

Schleiermacher is now regarded as an influential figure in the history of Christian thought, theories and methods in religious studies, and hermeneutics. The German-language critical edition of his work beginning in 1980, Schleiermacher Kritische Gesamtausgabe, and English translations of key portions of his corpus beginning in the late nineteenth century, have allowed scholars to investigate the richness of his thought. German scholars have often focused on Schleiermacher's ties to early modern philosophy, his aesthetics, hermeneutics, and theory of religion, while English-speaking scholars have often focused on the theological influences and implications of Schleiermacher's work. Over the last 30 years, both German and Anglophone scholars have been at work translating and analyzing key texts. This Handbook gathers authoritative interpretations of Schleiermacher's work from both German and English-speaking scholars, bringing together the best that Schleiermacher scholarship has to offer. The chapters are divided into three parts. The first part offers a clear and nuanced understanding of Schleiermacher's own historical and intellectual context. The second part presents a close analysis of the structure and content of Schleiermacher's thought, in relation both to questions of method and particular theological themes and to broader inquiries in philosophy and the humanities. The third part provides an examination of the reception of his thought and of its contemporary implications for theology and the study of religion.

Since its first appearance in 1821/22, The Christian Faith has had a fractious history of reception. It implements decisive departures for theology, founding the possibility to speak about God on human freedom. It recognises the role of historical consciousness, and the need to relate to advances in the natural sciences. The study investigates the early critiques of Schleiermacher’s analysis of the feeling of utter dependence, of his conception of Christ as the archetype of the God-consciousness, and of his doctrine of God in terms of absolute causality. It reconstructs the revisions carried out in the second edition of 1830/31 as a break-through to a transcendental argumentation. Does Schleiermacher’s elaboration of the anthropological turn in theology leave it defenseless against the dissolution of faith in a saving God in Feuerbach’s projection thesis? Does it offer a naturalising account of religion? And where does the interconnectedness of nature established by God leave what was prized by the Romantics, human individuality? Ongoing objections and new constellations of questions are examined in their relevance for a modern theology that spells out faith in God as a practical self-understanding. “Maureen Junker-Kenny’s book is an outstanding presentation of Schleiermacher’s theology. She attends not only to the development of his method from the first to the second edition of The Christian Faith, but also to his concrete interpretation of Creation, Christology, Redemption, Theological Anthropology, especially human freedom, and his understanding of God. The book has an exceptional value in the way she relates Schleiermacher not only to his contemporaries, but also contemporary concerns. Schleiermacher’s theology is shown in its relation to the modernity of his age, but also the ongoing modernity of today. The book has a depth and breath that make it indispensable not only for historical theology, but also contemporary constructive theology.” – Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Harvard Divinity School “In Self, Christ and God in Schleiermacher’s Dogmatics. A Theology Reconceived for Modernity, Maureen Junker-Kenny proves herself to be not only a distinguished interpreter of Schleiermacher’s work, but a creative practitioner in her own right of his dialogical method. Elegantly conceived and beautifully written, the book shows how Schleiermacher connected the different aspects of his thought—form/content, structure/doctrine, piety/critical rigor—into a coherent system. Self, Christ and God in Schleiermacher’s Dogmatics is now the only guide to Schleiermacher’s magnum opus, Christian Faith, anyone needs.” – Christine Helmer, Northwestern University, Chicago