Editing Friedrich Schleiermacher (section)

=== Professorship ===
In 1804, Schleiermacher moved to become university preacher and professor of [[theology]] to the [[University of Halle]], where he remained until 1807. He quickly obtained a reputation as professor and preacher and exercised a powerful influence in spite of charges of atheism, Spinozism and pietism. In this period, he began his lectures on hermeneutics (1805–1833) and he also wrote his dialogue the ''Weihnachtsfeier'' (''Christmas Eve: Dialogue on the Incarnation'', 1806), which represents a midway point between his ''Speeches'' and his great dogmatic work, ''Der christliche Glaube'' (''The Christian Faith''); the speeches represent phases of his growing appreciation of Christianity as well as the conflicting elements of the theology of the period. After the [[Battle of Jena]], he returned to Berlin (1807), was soon appointed pastor of the [[Holy Trinity Church (Berlin)|Trinity Church]] and, on 18 May 1809, married Henriette von Willich (née von Mühlenfels; 1788–1840), the widow of his friend [[Ehrenfried von Willich|Johann Ehrenfried Theodor von Willich]] (1777–1807).<ref name= EB1911/>

At the foundation of the [[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]] (1810), in which he took a prominent part, Schleiermacher obtained a theological chair and soon became secretary to the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences]]. He took a prominent part in the reorganization of the Prussian church and became the most powerful advocate of the union of the [[Lutheran]] and Reformed divisions of German Protestantism, paving the way for the [[Prussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church)|Prussian Union]] of Churches (1817). The 24 years of his professional career in Berlin began with his short outline of theological study (''Kurze Darstellung des theologischen Studiums'', 1811) in which he sought to do for theology what he had done for religion in his ''Speeches''.<ref name=EB1911/>

While he preached every Sunday, Schleiermacher also gradually took up in his lectures in the university almost every branch of theology and philosophy: [[New Testament]] exegesis, introduction to and interpretation of the New Testament, [[ethics]] (both philosophic and Christian), [[dogma]]tic and practical theology, church history, history of philosophy, [[psychology]], [[dialectics]] ([[logic]] and [[metaphysics]]), [[politics]], [[pedagogy]], [[aesthetics]]<ref name=EB1911/> and [[translation]].

In politics, Schleiermacher supported liberty and progress, and in the period of reaction that followed the overthrow of [[Napoleon]], he was charged by the Prussian government with "demagogic agitation" in conjunction with the patriot [[Ernst Moritz Arndt]].<ref name=EB1911/>

At the same time, Schleiermacher prepared his chief theological work, ''Der christliche Glaube nach den Grundsätzen der evangelischen Kirche'' (1821–1822; 2nd ed., greatly altered, 1830–1831; 6th ed., 1884; ''The Christian faith according to the principles of the evangelical church''). Its fundamental principle is that the source and the basis of dogmatic theology are the religious feeling, the sense of absolute dependence on God as communicated by [[Jesus]] through the church, not the creeds or the letter of Scripture or the rationalistic understanding. The work is therefore simply a description of the facts of religious feeling, or of the inner life of the soul in its relations to God, and the inward facts are looked at in the various stages of their development and presented in their systematic connection. The aim of the work was to reform Protestant theology, to put an end to the unreason and superficiality of both supernaturalism and rationalism, and to deliver [[religion]] and [[theology]] from dependence on perpetually changing systems of [[philosophy]].<ref name=EB1911/>

Though the work added to the reputation of its author, it aroused the increased opposition of the theological schools it was intended to overthrow, and at the same time, Schleiermacher's defence of the right of the church to frame its own liturgy in opposition to the arbitrary dictation of the monarch or his ministers brought him fresh troubles. He felt isolated although his church and his lecture-room continued to be crowded.<ref name=EB1911/>

Schleiermacher continued with his translation of Plato and prepared a new and greatly-altered edition of his ''Christlicher Glaube'', anticipating the latter in two letters to his friend [[Gottfried Christian Friedrich Lücke|Gottfried Lücke]] (in the ''Studien und Kritiken'', 1829) in which he defended his theological position generally and his book in particular against opponents on both the right and the left.<ref name= EB1911/>

The same year, Schleiermacher lost his only son, Nathaniel (1820–1829), a blow that he said "drove the nails into his own coffin", but he continued to defend his theological position against [[Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg|Hengstenberg]]'s party and the rationalists Daniel Georg Konrad von Cölln (1788–1833) and David Schulz (1779–1854), protesting against both subscription to the ancient creeds and the imposition of a new rationalistic formulary.<ref name=EB1911/>