Schleiermacher in Plain English

by Stephen D. Morrison

"It may be an overstatement, but I can think of no figure in recent theological memory misunderstood more severely than Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher... But I am here to say he is not who you think he is. Schleiermacher is not the 'villain' of modern theology. That old, marred image is in dire need of revision."

The fourth book in Stephen D. Morrison's "Plain English Series" aims to reassess Schleiermacher's complicated legacy. He argues that Schleiermacher is far too significant to ignore and it will only be to our detriment if we allow poor caricatures of his work to persist. Morrison also adds his voice to the growing consensus among scholars that an essential harmony can exist between Barth and Schleiermacher.

Drawing from a multitude of primary and secondary sources, Morrison focuses on coming to a new understanding of Schleiermacher's theological masterpiece, Christian Faith. With clarity and accessibility, Morrison draws you in to reconsider Schleiermacher's legacy. Perhaps Schleiermacher is not the "villain" of modern theology after all.

228 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 1, 2019

About the author

Stephen D. Morrison (MA, Luther Seminary) is a prolific author and theologian whose work online and in print focuses on making modern theology accessible. He is known for the Plain English Series, which includes his latest work, "Paul Tillich in Plain English."

Stephen is currently a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen studying Karl Barth’s theology of resistance. He is the author of fifteen books, as well as several academic articles and book reviews. He is also a video essayist on YouTube with over 5k subscribers and 320k lifetime views. For a full CV and to learn more about Stephen, visit his website: SDMorrison.org.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fine introduction.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent intro to Schleiermacher’s thought

[Squire Whitney: Hufflepuff Book Reviwer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schleiermacher in plain English makes for a cogent, thoughtful, nuanced, balanced, and enlightening piece that sets out to summarize in one brief book all the views and all the works of Friedrich Schleiermacher, a brilliant Christian thinker whom I previously had known almost nothing about. Over the course of the few short weeks that it took me to read this book, though, I now have almost come to feel that I know Schleiermacher personally. I doubt that I could have ever gotten through a fraction of one of his works on my own, seeing that I sometimes struggled even to make sense of what exactly he was endeavoring to communicate in the quotes of his that are listed in this book—but, luckily for us, Morrison proves himself a master in the art of paraphrasing; he excels in presenting Schleiermacher's lofty teleological concepts in a manner that even a layperson with moderate to minimal theological familiarity might grasp. Essentially, this book thus provides us with Schleiermacher . . . in plain English.

Ultimately, much like Morrison, I cannot say that I concur with all of the views that Schleiermacher maintained. Some of his stances, I would even go so far as to deem problematic or incongruent with an entirely Christian worldview—for instance, his disbelief in any miracles except for Jesus's resurrection, and the lack of almost emphasis on Christ’s death in Schleiermacher's view of the way that Jesus redeemed humanity (especially considering how much emphasis the scriptures put on His death when discussing our redemption). While Karl Barth certainly misunderstood many other things about Schleiermacher, I think that Barth might have thus been onto something in implying that the man was a philosopher foremost and a theologian only secondly. But there exists nonetheless something so stirring and so palpable regarding the manner in which Schleiermacher processed God and grappled with reality and sought to understand humankind’s place in the Cosmos. His view of election is the most hopeful and satisfying one that I have ever encountered. And this doctrine of election really does seem, in this case, to correlate perfectly with the Biblical texts. We Christians are elected to be "the first to hope in Christ;" God "has bound all in disobedience in order to have mercy on all." Furthermore, I am intrigued by Schleiermacher's nonspeculative approach, juxtaposed with his constant endeavors to broaden his understanding. Moreover, I so resonate with his resolve to ground his theology in God’s claim to be love incarnate; not nearly enough Christians pay this startling claim the attention and consideration that it warrants in my opinion. And Schleiermacher’s stance on the perfect coincidence between the infinite hidden God that we will never fully grasp, alongside God's Self-revelation in the Person of Jesus particularly blew me away. We can never even come close to grasping God entirely, and we finite creatures ought to be leery of vain speculation regarding the incomprehensibly infinite God—but what we can gather about God through His Self-revelation in the Person of Jesus and His claim to be love incarnate, (and perhaps through our experiences with Him via our “God-consciousness,” as well, to reiterate Schleiermacher’s phrase), altogether will certainly prove more than sufficient in order to understand God as best as we can in this human life. Such revelation certainly cannot and will not reveal all of God’s infinite being to us, but it will be enough. While I had never before considered the matter in precisely this way (or even close to thinking along such lines before), I am now quite inclined to concur with Schleiermacher on this note; it stands as perhaps a stunning paradox of Christianity that God is infinitely more than we can ever know or imagine on this side of Heaven, and yet we can—and perhaps must—in some sense, know Him.

So, thank you, Stephen Morrison, for allowing me to become at least somewhat acquainted with the ideas of this profound man.