The Christian Faith by Schleiermacher - Literature review Example

? Book Review The Christian Faith Schleiermacher recaps the preamble to The Christian Faith concisely by saying that the intentionof the Introduction is primarily to bring the perception of Dogmatic that inspires the work itself forward, along with the reader's preparation for the approach and displays that follow in his book. Schleiermacher asserts that one must needs to appreciate what the Christian Church entails, before he or she can comprehend Dogmatics; this is a theological field dealing with suggestions scrounge from Apologetics, Ethics, as well as Philosophy of Religion (Schleiermacher 1928, p.5). Schleiermacher asserts that the Church is nothing rather than a spiritual union in association to piety. It is not a knowing and not even a doing; rather, it is an alteration of feeling, or of instantaneous self-consciousness. In this case, feeling is employed in a scientific manner in order to portray a clear mental state within self-consciousness without including the unconscious phases. According to Schleiermacher, a feeling that comprises of not knowing or Doing tends to be the real meaning of piety (Schleiermacher 1928, p.10). On the other hand, knowing, and doing are relevant to piety, and this is a phase that merges them with a feeling. However, piety continues being a distinctive feeling, exclusive amongst all the other feelings since it is the conscious that is wholly dependent. The feeling of dependence tends to expresses an interest that is affected by some exterior forces, yet merely the feeling of dependence tends to be complete. Schleiermacher articulates that feelings of complete dependence on God are the greatest level of instantaneous self-consciousness, which turns out to be a significant factor human nature. The Christian Faith illustrates that, amongst all types of spiritual piety, the monotheistic types tend to be the highest stage, while the rest, which comprise of polytheism, as well as Fetishism, i.e. Idol-worship, are types which are of lower level stages. History shows that there are only three types of monotheistic cultures, which include Christianity, Judaism and Islam; and, therefore, only these traditions form of factual piety; and, therefore, all the other religions tend to be superstitious (Schleiermacher 1928, p.38). Each communal piety contains an outward unity, as well as an inward unity. According to Schleiermacher, outward unity defines the characteristic origin of every religion, while, on the other hand, inward unity is the weird type that the religious emotions, as well as their utterances undertake in every. Therefore, any declaration of God that is to be operational within a person expresses the relationship between God and people, as well as human incompleteness in relation to God. Christianity tends to be a monotheistic faith differentiated by the fact that everything contained in it connects to the salvation brought about by Jesus of Nazareth (Schleiermacher 1928, p.52). The only way of gaining involvement in the Christian communion is through having faith in Jesus since he is the Redeemer. In The Christian Faith, Schleiermacher asserts that there is no midway between faith and the partaking in the Christian communion; faith in this case being dependant not just on the impulsive activity of human beings changing into believers, but also on the impulsive action of the communion, as the root under which the testimony goes ahead in the initiation of faith. The Christian Faith brings out the issue of Christian doctrines, which are descriptions of Christian religious love, which is illustrated in speech (Schleiermacher 1928, p. 76). Schleiermacher makes a distinction between the dogmatic suggestions and Christian sermonizing, by describing the former as beliefs of moralistic kind, and the latter as primarily the speech and appearance that contain a directly inspiring effect. Therefore, a person turn into a pro of Dogmatic suggestions, as well as a non-believer, rather ownership of the pertinent piety is a prerequisite in the mastery of Christian sermonizing. Dogmatic approach comprises of choosing the assertive material that tends to purge from the full mass of assertive material, everything that happens to be heretical, while at the same time maintaining what is religiously perceived (Schleiermacher 1928, p.105). Schleiermacher argues that all suggestions in the Christian belief’s system are portrayals of human situations or as origins of divine characteristics and forms of action, or as speeches in relation to the world’s constitution; these three forms have managed to accommodate each other; since they have their basis on the direct portrayal of the religious love. The Christian Faith brings out the characteristics of the Church and its connection to Christ and the world. According to Schleiermacher’s idea of redemption, the world is contained in the institution of the Church (Schleiermacher 1928, p.113). This is because the Church is, in itself, set up on three beliefs i.e. its origin, its dissimilarity from the rest of the world, along with the church’s consummation with Christ. Dissimilarity concerning sanctification is eventually an inward desire amongst those who believe. Considering that people are avowed in a common spirit, which in this case, is the Holy Spirit; they tend to be motivated inwardly towards one another, thereby creating an interior fellowship. On the other hand, the exterior fellowship consists of concerned persons who have not yet recovered this transformative occasion of regeneration, which happens to the initiation of a new life in Christ. Although Schleiermacher writes off this nutshell adaptation of Church as being novel and simply confusing, however, he confesses that the inward character of sanctification happens to be a constituent of the Church. According to Schleiermacher, the Holy Spirit tends to be an uniting force for the Church, although there are a number of churches that are led spiritually. Apart from that, Schleiermacher’s evaluation of Sanctification as being an inward desire of the Spirit seem to be unconvincing; considering that the inward desire is continually spurring on a person to be one with Christ, is it possible that this desire does not drive a person’s inward, rather, it drives forward and outward the acts of Christ from inside the person? Although sanctification is not an inward desire, it is obviously the main force that drives a person in faith towards another person (Schleiermacher 1928, p.119). Schleiermacher’s outset of the Lord’s Supper is quite illusional; initially, he asserts the inward desire in sanctification as being comparable to the Eucharist, since the taking of the constituents tends to be a corroboration of the already existing fellowship. Schleiermacher observes that the complementary action of the Church’s involvement in the Eucharist is combined with the primary deed of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, which is in line with redemption. Therefore, the Church, in its participation of the Eucharist, takes part in a comparable sacrifice. In this case, the purely symbolical characteristic of the Eucharist is confusing, similar with sanctification; the participation in the Eucharist is eventually an outward deed towards another person (Spiegler 1967, p.79). The Christian Faith is sealed with a confirmation of the Divine Trinity as significant to belief. The basis of Trinitarian theology is on the being of God imagined in the being, as well as tasks of Christ; if it fails to stand; then Christianity in its entirety falls with it. The outward character of sanctification is portrayed in the affirmation of the Trinity; considering that the existence of God is in the existence of Christ, it is significant to belief and belief is significant to the Church; therefore, the kenotic movement of holiness to humanity is in the Church’s kenotic association from itself to the entire world (Spiegler 1967, p.99). The Christian Faith tends to be an apologetic book, while at the same time, a rejoinder to either pantheism or probably deism of the Enlightenment; instead of denying deism or pantheism, this book goes ahead to create an understanding by overconfidently describing Christianity as a religion which perceives God as being inaccessible to human beings, while at the same time illustrating that human beings have this hazy feeling of complete dependence to recognize God. According to Schleiermacher, if a person is incapable of saying what is relevant pertaining God, then there is a possibility of him or her turning religion into anthropology; therefore, this will lead them into saying something which is positive about God; something, which is neither an analysis, nor scrutinization of God; something, which identifies both the inadequacies, as well as the failures of human beings, particularly when everyone is contained by this feeling of complete dependence even though there is the lack of understanding about what they are dependent upon (Neibuhr 1996, p.68). Therefore, putting this prolegomena into consideration, Schleiermacher brings out the issue of Trinity as he tries to explain that Jesus is not the God-man; instead, he is the man who demonstrates flawlessness, and this tends to be the feeling of complete dependence. This leads the Church into becoming that which is trusted with this feeling entrusted with this feeling of complete dependence from Jesus, which cannot be received in its entirety unless Jesus abandons his people. Although this entire situation sounds like deep and thick, deep heretical doctrine, this book by Schleiermacher turns out to be a piece of a genius work that brings out a clear understanding about Piety, considering that it is a defenseless stand of praise, that tends to contradict theology. There are several questions, which arise from this notion, and according to Barth, the answers to these questions brought about by Schleiermacher are found by going through Schleiermacher. Although this highly explains Barth by showing why he is a significant advancement over Schleiermacher, it also reveals that there are some shortcomings in Barth that are absent in Schleiermacher, particularly when it comes the superiority in the manner in which Schleiermacher deals with Pelagianism and Manichaeism, as well as Schleiermuacher's belief of Predestination. Barth argues that theology is essentially anthropology, and, therefore, to engage in true theology signifies the understanding of theology as essentially the theological anthropology of the person Jesus Christ alone; thus, Barthian Christocentrism elaborates that a person is only capable of knowing God through man, and the man in this case is Jesus Christ, and this explains Barth's denial of Natural Revelation (Barth 2001, p.102). According to Barth, God is only recognizable through the man of Jesus Christ alone. Although what has been said by Barth is incomplete, it happens to be pretty exciting, and, therefore, prompts more questions than the answers provided. We are hopeful that a connection between Barthianism and Reformed Theology will be found, which will coalesce the church in the coming days. Schleiermacher argues about the existence of two principal dangers brought about by falling into either Pelagianism or Manichaeism. Pelagianism transpires as a result of a person denying he has an evil personality saying that there is no existence of evil. On the other hand, Manichaeism is when Satan is exalted by human beings so as to be in the same level as God. According to Manichaeism, there is the existence of two ultimate deities, one of them is an is a gracious God, while, the other tends to be a terrible God where; a good God in this case, brings good to the people, while, on the other hand, all hurtful things come from a bad God. Therefore, the only elucidation is to have an understanding that God is the supreme ruler over all, including the evil intermediaries. This assertion makes Schleiermacher’s doctrine of Predestination superior than Barth's. Schleiermacher argues that human beings’ eagerness of disposing, as well as prohibiting sin from their own level of complete dependence on God, leads to predictability in verging upon Manichaeism; while, on the other hand, if they seek out to reunite it with the primary perfection of man, then they will be incapable of avoiding Pelagianism. As a matter of fact, this might be articulated that, in the establishment of the Church's belief, there has been indecisiveness over these two antagonistic states (Barth 2001, p.132). Although Schleiermacher rejects the notion that Satan is a non-entity, in his argument, he illustrates the necessity of Satan in the Christian Faith by commenting that Calvin’s argument on the existence of Satan as being the best. The general picture of Calvin's argument tends to be that since God is totally sovereign, as well as convenient, he should, therefore, have a representative or a being, which are intermediaries in reconciling the fact that although God is gracious, there is also the existence (Neibuhr 1996, 107) of evil. As a result, that being must aspire to perform evil for evil ends, while, on the other hand, must be decreed by god for a key and ultimate beneficial conclusions; this leads to the only alternate, which is to fall into either Pelagianism or Manichaeism. In The Christian Faith, Schleiermacher has a tendency of declaring a clear passage of the Bible to have a contradicting meaning when plainly read. According to Schleiermacher, angels are not real units in the Christian Faith; this is in Zechariah 1:12, which tends to be an extremely trinitarian passage, especially considering that Schleiermacher is not an antitrinitarian; whereby the angel of God question His mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, considering that God has been angry with them for the last seventy years. Although Schleiermacher has extremely high regards for Calvin, as well as his Institutes, he views Calvin’s works as insufficient and hence the need to improve upon them. He summarizes his perception of the Reformed Tradition by arguing that according to the two elements, it obvious that Calvin’s mind made up of formulas which do not harmonize in an unfailing view. The concept of God as being the redeemer is clearly brought out in Schleiermacher’s The Christian Faith. In this argument about predestination, Schleiermacher asserts that if God is attributed as being the redeemer, then this means that He created a world, which is in dire need of His redemption. In this case, God purposely created a world that is full of inequities so that people can turn to Him for redemption (Neibuhr 1996, p.168). Schleiermacher clearly brings out the essence of religion as being piety, which is a feeling of instantaneous self-consciousness of complete dependence up on an entity that is divine. As a result, the Christian Church turns out to be the devout communion amongst all the believers. This leads to the issue of dogmatics, which is the verbal representation of piety surrounded by a number of things, which include conceptions, descriptions, as well as utterances. When criticizing Schleiermacher’s anthropological approach, a person’s criticism move away from the traditional epistemology of Christianity, whereby faith originates from Knowing, while at the same time, accepting a purposeful divine revelation, as well as a historical divine-human experience driven in the line of transcendence. On the other hand, he concentrates on an immanence-driven, inward-directed human being partisanship along with self-consciousness. Furthermore, he still considered human beings subjectively act in response to something, to a divine realism, which is in existence (Spiegler 1967, p.109). From this perspective of neurophysiology, piety can be defined as simply the mental state that is assumed especially when in confrontation with the unknown, this is something which Schleiermacher will most certainly disagree. Conclusion In his book The Christian Faith, Schleiermacher raises a number of issues, especially in his attempt of understanding God. The Christian Faith brings out the characteristics of the Church and its connection to Christ and the world. According to Schleiermacher’s idea of redemption, the world is contained in the institution of the Church. Schleiermacher argues that the Holy Spirit tends to be an uniting force for the Church, although there are a number of churches that are led spiritually. The Christian Faith tends to be an apologetic book, which is a rejoinder to either pantheism or probably deism of the Enlightenment; instead of denying deism or pantheism, this book goes ahead to create an understanding by overconfidently describing Christianity as a religion which perceives God as being inaccessible to human beings, while at the same time illustrating that human beings have this hazy feeling of complete dependence to recognize God. Although Schleiermacher rejects the notion that Satan is a non-entity, in his arguments, he illustrates the necessity of Satan in the Christian Faith by commenting that Calvin’s argument on the existence of Satan as being the best. The Christian Faith is sealed with a confirmation of the Divine Trinity as significant to belief. The basis of Trinitarian theology is on the being of God imagined in the being, as well as tasks of Christ; if it fails to stand; then Christianity in its entirety falls with it. Schleiermacher’s outset of the Lord’s Supper is quite illusional; initially, he asserts the inward desire in sanctification as being comparable to the Eucharist, since the taking of the constituents tends to be a corroboration of the already existing fellowship (Neibuhr 1996, p.68). Christianity is a religion which is extremely complicated especially with the aspect of the Trinity, since this raises more questions than answers; for a person looking for answers in relation to this subject, reading The Christian Faith will be extremely useful. References: Barth, K. 2001. Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century. London: SCM. Buckley, M. J. 1987. At the Origins of Modern Atheism. London; New Haven: Yale University Press. Cottingham, J. 1996. Western Philosophy: an Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell. Gunton, C. 1993. The one, the three, and the many: God, creation, and the culture of modernity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hampson, D. 1996. After Christianity. London: SCM [see her feminist critique of the Enlightenment Project pp. 1-11 ] Harnack, A. 1957. What is Christianity? New York: Harper Torchbooks [especially lectures III & IV] Jones, G. 1995. Critical Theology. Cambridge: Polity [especially chp 1] Mackintosh, H. R. 1964. Types of Modern Theology. London: Collins [especially chp II & III] Macquarrie, J. 1975. Thinking About God. London: SCM [especially chp. 14 “Schleiermacher Reconsidered”] Niebuhr, R. 1965. Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion: A New Introduction. London: SCM Redeker, M. 1973. Schleiermacher: Life and Thought. Trans Wallhausser, J. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. Smart, N., Clayton, J., Sherry, P., & Katz, S.T. (eds) 1996. Nineteenth Century Religious Thought in the West. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press [especially vol 1, chp 4] Spiegler, G. 1967. The Eternal Covenant: Schleiermacher’s Experiment in Cultural Theology. New York: Harper and Row. Schleiermacher, F. 1928. The Christian Faith. Trans. Mackintosh, H.R. and Stewart, J.S. Sykes, S. 1984. The Identity of Christianity: theologians and the essence of Christianity from Sccleiermacher to Barth. London: SPCK [especially chps 4 & 6] Read More