Christian Cyclopedia

(1768–1834).

1. Founded modern Prot. theol.; b. Breslau, Ger.; entered Moravian sem. at Barby 1785; dissatisfied. he left 1787 for Halle, where he studied I. Kant* and Gk. philos.; engaged in private study at Drossen. near Frankfurt an der Oder; private tutor Schlobitten, West Prussia; taught at Berlin 1793; asst. pastor Landsberg an der Warthe 1794; Ref. preacher Berlin 1796. Wrote Über die Religion, Reden an die Gebildeten unter ihren Verächtern 1799 against the Enlightenment*; in it he sets forth his concept of religion (“taste and feeling for the infinite”) and the ch. and lays the foundation for his view of subjectivism in religion; it shows traces of the influence of Kant, G. W. v. Leibniz,* F. W. J. v. Schelling,* and B. Spinoza.*

2. Schleiermacher became court preacher Stolpe 1802; prof. Halle 1804, Berlin 1807; also preacher Berlin 1809; dean of the theol. faculty U. of Berlin 1810. In 1811 he wrote Kurze Darstellung des theologischen Studiums, which presents theology as a positive science directed to the solution of a practical problem. His chief work is Der christliche Glaube nach den Grundsätzen der evangelischen Kirche im Zusammenhang dargestellt (1821–22), which defines piety as the feeling of gen. dependence, since man becomes aware that the whole world and his own freedom depend on God. The divine attributes of omnipotence, eternity, omnipresence, and omniscience are derived from application of the absolute feeling of dependence to God. To Schleiermacher, redemption is the transition from restricted to unrestricted consciousness of God realized in a new soc. life regarded by the community as divinely founded and based on the activity of Christ; redemption involves the communication of the power of His consciousness of God to man. The Holy Spirit is regarded as the spirit pervading the whole community founded by Christ.

3. Though Schleiermacher attacked rationalism, he based his own theol. on inner consciousness rather than revelation.

See also Agenda Controversy; Lutheran Theology After 1580, 9, 10; Modernism, 2; Prussian Union; Social Gospel; Switzerland, Contemporary Theology in, 1.