Schleiermacher

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) stands as one of the most important religious thinkers of the modern era. He remains influential in the fields of Christian Theology and Religious Studies. Commonly referred to as the founder (“father”) of Modern Theology, he was the first to develop a full-scale Christian theology in the wakes of Kant’s critical philosophy, modern science, the new historical consciousness, the French and American revolutions, and emerging questions of religious pluralism. In all of this, we see not only a fundamental paradigm shift in theology but also the emergence of the study of religion. Two of his works especially, On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers and his lectures Hermeneutics (or, a theory of interpretation), are “classics” in the field of Religious Studies. All of his works contain ideas, methods, and theories relevant to contemporary debates concerning religious pluralism and comparative theology. This course examines the thought of Schleiermacher, focusing especially on his texts and ideas that have so shaped the course of theology, religious studies, and philosophy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—and that continue to occupy scholars in the 21st century. The class meets once a week: Wednesdays 9:30-12:00. The course will be divided into four main sections: (1) the young Schleiermacher and the formation of his intellectual commitments against the backdrop of the major historical and philosophical events of the late eighteenth century (the Enlightenment, political revolution); (2) Schleiermacher and early German Romanticism, its influence on him and his contribution to it; (3) Schleiermacher as philosopher, with special focus on his study of Plato and his Hermeneutics (his theory of interpretation); (4) Schleiermacher’s mature theology, as presented in The Christian Faith, and the task of theology in the modern world. (Texts read in translation, although those wishing to work in the German may do so.) Along the way, we shall also turn to specific topics such as the interpretation of Scripture, gender, epistemology, mysticism, etc. Emphasis will be on both primary texts, in order to understand him in context and understand his novel contributions, and secondary literature, in order to understand the history of reception and how he has influenced the field.