Knowra Friedrich Schleiermacher Friedrich Schleiermacher Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) was a German theologian and philosopher who shaped modern Protestant theology, hermeneutics, and Romantic thought. He understood religion as an immediate awareness of dependence and emphasized interpretation as both grammatical and psychological.
Romanticism : An intellectual and artistic movement that emphasized feeling, imagination, individuality, and the power of nature. Its emphasis on feeling and individuality shaped his early intellectual setting.
Feeling of absolute dependence : Schleiermacher’s account of religious consciousness as immediate awareness of dependence on God. It expresses his claim that religion is rooted in consciousness rather than doctrine or moral action.
The Christian Faith : Schleiermacher’s systematic presentation of Christian doctrine, first published in 1821–22 and revised in 1830–31. This work organizes Christian doctrines around religious self-consciousness and dependence on God.
Immanuel Kant : An eighteenth-century German philosopher whose critical philosophy examined the limits and conditions of human knowledge. Schleiermacher responded to Kant’s limits on theoretical knowledge while defending religious consciousness.
Liberal Christianity : A modern Christian movement that interprets doctrine in dialogue with historical criticism, modern knowledge, and human experience. Schleiermacher became a foundational figure for theology that centers religious experience.
Pietism : A Protestant renewal movement that stressed personal faith, devotional practice, and Christian life. Its focus on inward religious experience informed his understanding of faith.
Grammatical interpretation : Interpretation that explains a text through its language, usage, and relation to its linguistic context. It is one half of his method for understanding a text.
On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers : Schleiermacher’s 1799 work defending religion as a distinctive dimension of human life. It first presents his influential account of religion as intuition and feeling.
Friedrich Schlegel : A German poet and critic who helped shape early Romanticism and worked closely with Schleiermacher in Berlin. Their friendship and collaboration connected his theology with early German Romanticism.
Dialectical theology : A twentieth-century Protestant movement emphasizing the difference between divine revelation and human culture or religion. Its theologians challenged the liberal tradition associated with his account of religion.
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