Schleiermacher, Friedrich Daniel Ernst

(1768–1834)

   Theologian.

   Schleiermacher was born in Breslau, Germany. His parents were members of a Pietist sect and he was educated at Halle. After ordination, he served as minister of the Charité Hospital in Berlin. Subsequently he became involved in the founding of the new university in Berlin. He became the first Dean of the theological faculty and he was for a time Rector of the university.

   He is remembered for his important books, Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers and The Christian Faith. He located human knowledge of God in a ‘sense of absolute dependence’ and he defined religion as a ‘sense and taste for the infinite’. On this understanding, sin is explained as an inappropriate desire for independence and Jesus is described as a man whose sense of dependence on God is complete. Schleiermacher’s work has been described as the ‘theological expression of Romanticism’. It was highly influential throughout the nineteenth century but it was roundly condemned by Karl barth after the First World War as being about man rather than about God.

   K.W. Clements, Friedrich Schleiermacher: Pioneer of Modern Theology (1987);

   R.R. Niebuhr, Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion (1965);

   S. Sykes, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1971).