Friedrich Schleiermacher and the Reformed Tradition in the 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.

On the border between religion and superstition: Schleiermacher on religion

The ideas of Friedrich Schleiermacher contributes hugely to the understanding of the concept of religion. Many scholars have published on the significance of Schleiermacher for theology, philosophy and hermeneutics. In response to the Enlightenment thought, Schleiermacher constructed a reappraisal of what religion is. His emphasis on intuition and feeling, steered away from the rational interpretation of religion which placed human cognition at the centre of religion. For Schleiermacher religion should indicate a self-transcendence and a feeling of dependence. In the current era of technocracy, human knowledge and experience is reduced to that which is accessible via technology. Whether technology becomes the medium or object of veneration, surely vary from context to context. Schleiermacher provides direction under the current paradigm, to search for meaning where the human spirit connects with a meaningful other. In order to address this endeavour, this research makes use of a literature study. The goal of this article is to identify the border between superstition and religion by attempting to illuminate the boundaries of religion. It is, according to David Chidester, precisely at the boundaries where religion is best understood.Contribution: The article highlights the importance of the theories created by Schleiermacher and how it applies within a current context where a distinction between religion and superstition is necessary. The research addresses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, numbers 10 (reducing inequalities), 11 (sustainable communities) and 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions).

Music and Divine Revelation

Music has been perennially associated with divine revelation. This chapter asks why this might be the case, with special reference to the self-revelation of God in the Christian faith. It begins by outlining the theology of music offered by Augustine in his De musica, in which the numerical character of the cosmos, to which sounding music is attuned, is said to give access to God. This is set alongside Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), for whom music more than any other art shares in and awakens that dimension of human experience he regards as distinctively religious. Critical questions are asked of both theologians, in the light of which some four fundamental yet oft-neglected themes and trajectories of classical Christian theology are explored with respect to music’s revelatory potential: the priority of God’s revealing action, the social and embodied character of revelation, creation’s revelation of the divine, and revelation through language.

Den praktiska teologin som professionsteori

The purpose of this article is to remind Practical Theology in Sweden of its historically given identity and to show that this identity derives from a well-defined encyclopedic context. The point of departure is that theology is a positive science, in the sense used by Friedrich Schleiermacher: a science directed towards a specific goal, which in theology's case is the well-informed government of the Church. Within theology thus understood, Practical Theology provides professional training by developing pastoral theory. It forms a bridge between on the one hand philosophical and historical theology, and on the other the praxis that theology ultimately serves. Based on this understanding, the article treats four areas of responsibility of Practical Theology: students, churches, research, and theological faculties. Its task in relation to students is to teach them to combine various kinds of theological knowledge in theoretical reflection on ecclesial practices. Its task in relation to churches is to provide them with well-educated leaders and useful research. Its task in research is to further the well-being of churches without compromizing scholarly standards or curtailing academic freedom. Its task in relation to theological faculties, finally, is to contribute to cooperation between subjects by upholding the integrative character of Practical Theology. Methodologically, the article makes use of German Evangelical theology in order to refer Swedish Practical Theology back to its origin and counteract influences that have confused its identity, namely a positivist conception of theology as the scientific study of Christianity, prevalent in Sweden since the early 1970s, and, more recently, the appropriation of the name "Practical Theology" by theologians engaged in critical studies, practice theory, and social activism.

Religious Experience and the Theory of Signs

The foundation of the psychology of religion in the work of William James and others is a major methodological breakthrough in the empirical study of religion. This psychology of religion focuses on experience, offering an alternative to the emphasis on religious doctrines or institutions. This chapter first presents a reconstruction of William James’s relevant writings. It then compares them to the theological writings of Friedrich Schleiermacher, who is sometimes seen as a source of inspiration for James. Finally it demonstrates the epochal achievement of Josiah Royce’s combination of pragmatist semiotics and the psychology of religion.

Music, Freedom, and the Decisive Particular

This essay focuses on a major theological shift of outlook between the first rendition of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Leipzig in 1727 and the Berlin performances of 1829, seen in the emergence of a quest for a particular kind of freedom: ‘freedom from the decisive particular’. We chart some of the background to it in the eighteenth century in ‘natural religion’: in the search for a commonly shared religious sensibility, the suspicion of relying on the local and contingent in religious matters, and in the belief that the universal potential of religion should not be dependent on the historicity of concrete events. These are carried forward in the early nineteenth century, most clearly in the work of G.W.F. Hegel and Friedrich Schleiermacher. The latter, in particular, appropriates music in his account of religion. Music, more than any other art, can give voice to the dynamics of humanity’s primordial religious awareness precisely because of its relative freedom from historical contingencies. Something of this outlook seems to have characterized and informed the 1829 Bach performances. But it contrasts sharply with Leipzig in 1727: in eighteenth-century Lutheranism, it was taken as axiomatic that the events of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ were of decisive, ultimate significance for all other events. The essay concludes with some reflections on what can be learned from this contrast with respect to the conversation between music and theology today.

La actualidad del método hermenéutico de Friedrich Schleiermacher

Este artículo tiene como objetivo exponer la actualidad del método hermenéutico de Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) y mostrar su pertinencia para las investigaciones en el campo de las ciencias humanas. Uno de los supuestos advierte que la mayoría de los comentarios contemporáneos que se realizan a su programa hermenéutico parten de una “posición acrítica” y reproducen los supuestos trazados por la “lectura dominante” de Hans-Georg Gadamer. Esto fue posible por la falta de una “edición crítica” de la obra de Schleiermacher en relación con su hermenéutica, lo cual ha sido recientemente revertido con la publicación del volumen que aglutina sus Vorlesungen zur Hermeneutik und Kritik, que contiene un extenso número de notas y materiales adicionales. Se analizarán, a la luz de la edición crítica, algunos de sus conceptos fundamentales, como lenguaje, interpretación gramatical, interpretación técnico-psicológica, método adivinatorio, método comparativo, círculo del comprender, reconstrucción del discurso y comprensión como tarea infinita. En cuanto al modo concreto de proceder, se considera un análisis conceptual del conjunto de obras de Schleiermacher y una interpretación que, como se acaba de señalar, no se dejará determinar por los así llamados textos clásicos de la filosofía hermenéutica. Finalmente, el artículo concluye con algunas reflexiones sobre las novedosas posibilidades de la hermenéutica de Schleiermacher para el mundo contemporáneo.