Self, Christ and God in Schleiermacher’s Dogmatics

A Theology Reconceived for Modernity

Maureen Junker-Kenny

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783111110899
• eBook ISBN: 9783110715989
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Modern Philosophy

Since its first appearance in 1821/22, The Christian Faith has had a fractious history of reception. It implements decisive departures for theology, founding the possibility to speak about God on human freedom. It recognises the role of historical consciousness, and the need to relate to advances in the natural sciences. The study investigates the early critiques of Schleiermacher's analysis of the feeling of utter dependence, of his conception of Christ as the archetype of the God-consciousness, and of his doctrine of God in terms of absolute causality. It reconstructs the revisions carried out in the second edition of 1830/31 as a break-through to a transcendental argumentation. Does Schleiermacher's elaboration of the anthropological turn in theology leave it defenseless against the dissolution of faith in a saving God in Feuerbach's projection thesis? Does it offer a naturalising account of religion? And where does the interconnectedness of nature established by God leave what was prized by the Romantics, human individuality? Ongoing objections and new constellations of questions are examined in their relevance for a modern theology that spells out faith in God as a practical self-understanding.

"Maureen Junker-Kenny's book is an outstanding presentation of Schleiermacher's theology. She attends not only to the development of his method from the first to the second edition of The Christian Faith, but also to his concrete interpretation of Creation, Christology, Redemption, Theological Anthropology, especially human freedom, and his understanding of God. The book has an exceptional value in the way she relates Schleiermacher not only to his contemporaries, but also contemporary concerns. Schleiermacher's theology is shown in its relation to the modernity of his age, but also the ongoing modernity of today. The book has a depth and breath that make it indispensable not only for historical theology, but also contemporary constructive theology."
– Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Harvard Divinity School

"In Self, Christ and God in Schleiermacher's Dogmatics. A Theology Reconceived for Modernity, Maureen Junker-Kenny proves herself to be not only a distinguished interpreter of Schleiermacher's work, but a creative practitioner in her own right of his dialogical method. Elegantly conceived and beautifully written, the book shows how Schleiermacher connected the different aspects of his thought—form/content, structure/doctrine, piety/critical rigor—into a coherent system. Self, Christ and God in Schleiermacher's Dogmatics is now the only guide to Schleiermacher's magnum opus, Christian Faith, anyone needs."
– Christine Helmer, Northwestern University, Chicago

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• I The Conception of an “Introduction” as Part of an Account of Christian Doctrine after the Anthropological Turn
• Introduction
• 1 The Tasks and the Layout of the “Introduction” in the First and the Second Editions of The Christian Faith
• 2 Determining the Essence of Piety by Two Distinct Methods in the First and the Second Editions
• 3 The Definition of the Essence of Christianity
• 4 Critiques of the First Edition and Evaluation of the Changes to the Introduction as a Framework for the Dogmatics
• II Schleiermacher’s Reworking of Christian Doctrine in his Material Dogmatics
• Introduction
• 5 The Theological Anthropology of the Glaubenslehre: Original Perfection, Sinfulness and Receptivity for Redemption
• 6 A Christology from Two Perspectives: the Consciousness of Redemption, and the Single Divine Decree
• 7 A Doctrine of God Developed from the Feeling of Absolute Dependence
• 8 Conclusion: Creation and Redemption in Categories of Freedom
• Bibliography
• Person Index
• Subject Index