The theological works of Schleiermacher are doctrinal, critical, and pastoral. The latter consist chiefly of the sermons which he delivered in Berlin. The critical works are mentioned in a footnote to p. [248]; but it may be useful to give a brief notice of his doctrinal works, of which some are referred to in the text.
The earliest was the Reden über die Religion an die Gebildeten unter ihren Verächtern, 1799, (Discourses on Religion addressed to the educated among its despisers,) which ought not to be read in earlier editions than the fourth (1829), the notes of which contain explanations. The object of these discourses was to direct attention away from the study of religion in its outward manifestations, to its inward essence; which he showed to lie neither in knowledge nor in action, but in feeling. See especially Discourse II. Uber das Wesen der Religion. For the effect which the discourses created, see Neanders testimony, quoted by Kahnis, Hist. of Prot. E. T. p. 208.
The works which succeeded the Reden were the following: in 1800, the Monologen (Soliloquies); in 1803, Grundlinien einer Kritik der bisherigen Sittenlehre (Critique on previous Ethical teaching); in 1806, Die Weinachtsfeier (Christmas Eve); in 1811, the Kurze Darstellung des Theologischen Studiums (Plan of Theological Study;—lately translated), which gave rise to the branch now common in German universities, called Theologische Encyclopädie;[1068] [pg 429] in 1821, Der Christliche Glaube nach den Grundsätzen der Evangelischen Kirche (the Christian Faith on the principles of the Evangelical Church), which was improved in the subsequent editions.
As the Reden breathed the spirit of Jacobi, the Monologen breathed that of Fichte. They study the ethical, as the former the religious side of man; the action of the personal will as distinct from the feelings of dependence. The dialogue of the Weihnachtsfeier showed Christ as the means of effecting that oneness with the absolute which the two former works had shown to be necessary.
In the Glaubens-lehre, Schleiermacher gives a general view of dogmatic theology, viewed from the psychological side, i.e. its appropriation by the Christian consciousness. He studies (1) man's consciousness of God, prior to experience of the opposition of sin and grace; next, after being aware of such an opposition, as (2) the subject of sin, and (3) the subject of grace; or, in theological language, the states of innocence, of sin, and of grace. Each of these is subdivided in spirit, even when not in form, in a threefold manner; describing respectively the condition of man, the attributes of God, and the constitution of the world, as they relate to the above three named states. The subjective and psychological character of the inquiry is seen in the fact, that when treating the second of these subdivisions,—the Divine attributes,—he does not study them as peculiarities of God's nature, but as modifications of the mode in which we refer to God our own feeling of dependence. This subjective tendency illustrates the influence of Fichte and Jacobi on Schleiemiacher.
The contrast is an interesting one between a dogmatic treatise of the schoolmen, of the reformers, and of Schleiermacher. The first commences with the Deity and his attributes, and passes to man: the second generally begins with the rule of faith, the Bible; and then, passing to the Deity, proceeds mainly after the scholastic fashion: the third begins and ends with the human consciousness, and its contents.
Note 32. p. [252]. On Some German Critical Theologians. (de Wette, Ewald, Etc.)
Some of the theologians of the critical school which is described in the text, deserve a more full notice than was possible in the foot-notes to the Lecture.
De Wette (1780-1849) was educated at Jena, under Griesbach. [pg 430] He was made Professor at Berlin in 1810, but was deprived in 1819, in consequence of the Prussian government having opened a letter of condolence written by him to the mother of Sand, the assassin of the dramatist Kotzebue. (For the history of the excited state of the German students at this time, see K. Raumer's Pädagogik, vol. iv. translated.) In 1826 he was made Professor at Basle. An interesting life of him is given in the Bibliotheca Sacra for 1850. His most important works are, his Einleitung ins Alt. und Neu. Test.; Lehrbuch der Dogmatik, 1819; his New Translation of the Bible (1839); and Commentaries on several parts of Scripture. On his doctrinal views see Kahnis, p. 231 seq. He is said to have been a man of sweet and amiable character; and indeed he appears to be so in his writings. It has been remarked, as a proof of his singular fairness, that he not only candidly states the opinions of an opponent, but even sometimes confesses his inability fully to refute them.