Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion
A New Introduction
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
282 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 x 0.56 in
- Paperback
- 9781606088371
- Published: June 2009
$36.00 / £32.00 / AU$49.00
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This work represents the first study in English in over twenty years on the theological thinking of Friedrich Schleiermacher. It invites the reader to try on the "thinking in motion" of a pivotal figure in Protestant theology.
The author believes that Schleiermacher has been misunderstood and misinterpreted first by Brunner and Barth, and consequently by other present-day theologians. Because so few of the "Barthian captives" have themselves troubled to undertake the eminently worthwhile study of the man's mind, Dr. Niebuhr, with meticulous attention to Schleiermacher's own words, documents and assesses anew his thinking on Christ, religion, and theology.
Schleiermacher's thought is described here through a series of "moments." The first is his little-known dialogue, The Christmas Eve, which discusses human religion. The second and the third are his lectures on hermeneutics, which develop his conception of speech and understanding, and his lectures on ethics, which reflect on human reason and history. Part II of the book concentrates on the fourth "moment," his magnum opus, The Christian Faith.
What emerges is a systematic theology which organizes and focuses, in and for its own age--using, as it must, its own age's words, symbols, and concepts--the content of the consciousness of the church. To acquaint oneself with Schleiermacher's "unending dialectic of nature and grace" is an intriguing and rewarding experience.
Richard R. Niebuhr is Hollis Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School.
"A spirit of bold attack rather than of timid apologetics and of messianic self-consciousness rather than of modern man's self-pity penetrate the Harvard professor's book. No longer the resurrection is treated as an unwanted child; no longer is it classified among more or less spurious miracles. This book is learned, important, stimulating, and constructive."
-- Markus Barth
"While [the book's] immediate concern is the Christian understanding of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it deals in general with the whole history and philosophy of modern biblical theology, and in particular with the problem of the philosophy of history. Throughout the author reveals an acute and orderly mind and a gift of deft and succinct analysis."
-- S. Maclean Gilmour
"[The book] is extremely readable, simple yet accurate in its language, and written with all the enthusiasm of a new discovery. . . . Anglo-Saxon theology owes a great debt to Dr. Niebuhr for this methodical and realistic analysis of the role of history in Christian faith."
-- Otto A. Piper