scholarly journals Friedrich Schleiermacher and Rudolf Otto

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Mariña
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Friedrich Schleiermacher ◽  
Religious Feeling ◽  
Absolute Dependence ◽  
The Common ◽  
Rudolf Otto

Two names often grouped together in the study of religion are Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1884) and Rudolf Otto (1869–1937). Central to their understanding of religion is the idea that religious experience, characterized in terms of feeling, lies at the heart of all genuine religion. In his book On Religion, Schleiermacher speaks of religion as a “sense and taste for the Infinite.” In The Christian Faith, Schleiermacher grounds religion in the immediate self-consciousness and the “feeling of absolute dependence.” Influenced by Schleiermacher, Otto also grounds religion in an original experience of what he calls “the numinous,” which can only be grasped through states of feeling. This article discusses the views of Otto and Schleiermacher on religion as feeling. It examines how both men conceived of feeling, the reasons they believed religion had to be understood in its terms, and the common threads linking their perspectives. It also considers Schleiermacher's interpretation of religious feeling as transcendental experience.

The Early Philosophical Roots of Schleiermacher's Notion ofGefühl, 1788–1794

1994 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia A. Lamm
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
Single Term ◽  
Religious Feeling ◽  
Absolute Dependence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Magnum Opus

No single term has been so misunderstood or so debated in the history of Schleiermacher interpretation asGefühl(“feeling”). The intensity of the controversy surrounding this term is testimony to the critical role it plays in Schleiermacher's entire theological program. Indeed, as evident in his magnum opusThe Christian Faith(1830/1831), whereGefühlattains its final formulation as “the feeling of absolute dependence” (das schlechthinnige Abhängigkeitsgefühl), few other terms play as important a role in his account of religious experience and his doctrine of God. Not only is Schleiermacher's theological system at stake, but also the foundations of modern theology itself. Ludwig Feuerbach's assessment of the consequences of emphasizingGefühlwas unequivocal; most critics of Schleiermacher, Karl Barth foremost among them, have followed Feuerbach's pattern of interpretation:If, for example, feeling is the essential organ of religion, the nature of God is nothing else than an expression of the nature of feeling.…But the object of religious feeling is become a matter of indifference, only because when once feeling has been pronounced to be the subjective essence of religion, it in fact is also the objective essence of religion,…feeling is pronounced to be religious, simply because it is feeling.

scholarly journals To feel with and for Friedrich Schleiermacher: On religious experience

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniël P. Veldsman
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Friedrich Schleiermacher ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Absolute Dependence ◽  
Theological Thinking

The German systematic theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher has shaped Western Christian theological thinking in many ways. One such influential way has been his formulation and exposition of religious experience, and specifically the concept of the ‘feeling of absolute dependence’ (Gefühl der schlechthinnigen Abhängigkeit). From a brief account of his understanding of the ‘feeling of absolute independence’, a few critical remarks are made from the broader context of contemporary hermeneutical discourses, focusing on the constitutive role of affectivity and narrative identity in religious experiences of embodied personhood. It is argued that these two themes in revisiting Schleiermacher’s understanding of the ‘feeling of absolute dependence’ can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of religious experience.

Schleiermacher on the outpourings of the inner fire: experiential expressivism and religious pluralism

2004 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
JACQUELINE MARINA
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Unity Of Consciousness ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Absolute Dependence ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Absolute

Both in the Speeches and in The Christian Faith Schleiermacher offers a comprehensive theory of the nature of religion, grounding it in experience. In the Speeches Schleiermacher grounds religion in an original unity of consciousness that precedes the subject–object dichotomy; in The Christian Faith the feeling of absolute dependence is grounded in the immediate self-consciousness. I argue that Schleiermacher's theory offers a generally coherent account of how it is possible that differing religious traditions are all based on the same experience of the Absolute. I show how Schleiermacher's programme can respond successfully to three related contemporary objections to religious pluralism: (1) different religions make competing truth-claims about the nature of reality and they cannot all be right; (2) differing traditions cannot all be based on a similar religious experience because all experience is interpreted; and (3) the pluralist needs to have criteria in place distinguishing real and illusory religious experience, but such criteria are elusive.

Feeling of absolute dependence or absolute feeling of dependence? (What Schleiermacher really said and why it matters)

1998 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Behrens
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
Friedrich Schleiermacher ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Absolute Dependence

Friedrich Schleiermacher is known as the theologian who said that the essence of Christian faith is a state of mind called ‘the feeling of absolute dependence’. In this respect, Schleiermacher's reputation owes much to the influential translation of his dogmatics prepared by Mackintosh, Stewart and others. I argue that the translation is misleading precisely as to the terms which Schleiermacher uses in order to refer to the religious state of mind. I also show that the translation obscures a problem of some substantive depth regarding what Schleiermacher thought to be the nature of pious feeling.

Why Teach Theology to a Catholic College Student Today?

Horizons ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin R. Tripole
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
College Student ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Catholic College ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Student Today

AbstractTheology has a problem Justifying itself to its students as well as to itself. Its proper role is to bring the student to a deeper Christian faith experience. Two methods for doing this are the “general religious experience” approach and the method which concentrates on the uniqueness of Christ and his message and an interpersonal encounter with him. The latter method is preferred, and has proven most useful in rekindling the faith among college students.

Friedrich Schleiermacher and the Reformed Tradition in the Modern Era

2021 ◽  
pp. 441-456
Author(s):  
Randall C. Zachman
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Friedrich Schleiermacher ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Historical Criticism ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Modern Era

Friedrich Schleiermacher reformulated the doctrines he inherited from the Reformed and Lutheran dogmatic traditions, in order to demonstrate that the certainty of faith in God, as well as faith in the redeeming power of Christ, could be maintained in an age of scientific and historical criticism of the Christian faith. He located faith in God in the immediate consciousness of being absolutely dependent, which he claimed emerged in the development of every human consciousness. And he located faith in Christ in the way the influence of the sinless perfection of Christ, mediated through the testimony of the Christian community and supported by the picture of Christ, strengthened the consciousness of God so that the inhibition of the God-consciousness by sin could be overcome. His hope was that such a reformulation of doctrine would not only clarify the meaning of faith in the modern world, but would also reunify the Christian traditions that had been divided since the Reformation.

Before the Standing Stones: From Land Forms to Religious Attitudes and Monumentality

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce E. Salisbury
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Complex Phenomenon ◽  
Spiritual Beliefs ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
Religious Attitudes ◽  
Religious Feeling ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Over Time

Any study of great prehistoric monuments from standing stones to pyramids involves exploring people’s spiritual beliefs. There had to be some strong sense of awe to motivate people to do the kind of extraordinary work to erect such monuments, and in the ancient world, religion served as the greatest motivator. There are many ways to study religion, and each academic discipline uses its own methods, which in turn shape its conclusions. Anthropologists compare different religions to see how different cultures express their beliefs; sociologists look at the functions religions serve to maintain a social cohesiveness. Psychologists of religion might look at the way religious feelings are manifest in individuals, and theologians try to explore deep truths about the nature of God. All these approaches reveal some truths about this complex phenomenon we call religion and the results often seem like those of the proverbial blind men describing parts of an elephant while missing the glory of the whole. I, too, will focus on one small part of the religious experience—the feeling that lies at the heart of those who have felt the spiritual, and while there have been many disciplines that have studied this religious experience, from psychology to philosophy to sociology, my approach is historical. I will try to explore the nature of people’s religious expression over time, as they change and as they stay the same. What is this religious feeling? As we might expect, there are many different interpretations and analyses of the nature of the religious experience. It may mean the capacity of feeling at one with something larger than oneself, which is the definition of ‘mysticism’. It maymean a belief in—a faith in—a supernatural being. For the purposes of this chapter, however, I will simply accept the experience as a capacity humans have to feel awe and reverence (Bellah 2011). This enduring sense of awe—what has been famously called the idea of the holy (Otto 1950)—lies somewhere at the heart of all subsequent religious impulses.

Living Religion

2019 ◽  
pp. 123-143
Author(s):  
James W. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Relational Model ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Ordinary Sense ◽  
Religious Knowledge ◽  
Cloud Of Unknowing ◽  
Human Understanding

An embodied approach to human understanding can ground the case for a “spiritual sense” and for understanding religious knowledge as a form of perception, especially if proprioception (and not just ordinary sense perception) is used as an analogue. The long-standing tradition of the existence of a spiritual sense is brought up to date by linking it to various contemporary neuroscientific theories. An embodied-relational model offers several avenues for understanding our capacity to transform and transcend our ordinary awareness. Two classical Christian theological texts on religious experience—the Cloud of Unknowing and Scheiermacher’s The Christian Faith—are also discussed.

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