Editing Friedrich Schleiermacher

{{Short description|German theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar (1768–1834)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{redirect|Schleiermacher|the surname|Schleiermacher (surname)}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region           = [[Western philosophy]]
| era              = [[18th-century philosophy|18th-]]/[[19th-century philosophy]]
| image            = Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher.jpg
| caption          =
| name             = Friedrich Schleiermacher
| birth_name       = Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1768|11|21|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Breslau]], [[Prussian Silesia]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1834|2|12|1768|11|21|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Berlin]], [[Province of Brandenburg]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]]
| alma_mater       = [[University of Halle]] (1787–90)<ref>[http://www.sammlungen.hu-berlin.de/dokumente/232/ Biografie, Friedrich Schleiermacher]</ref>
| institutions     = [[University of Halle]] (1804–07)<br />[[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]] (1810–34)
| school_tradition = [[German Idealism]]<ref>Kristin Gjesdal, ''Gadamer and the Legacy of German Idealism'', Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 156.</ref><br />[[Jena Romanticism]]<ref>Paola Mayer, ''Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Böhme'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999, p. 101.</ref><br />[[Berlin Romanticism]]<ref>Helmut Thielicke, ''Modern Faith and Thought'', William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1990, p. 174.</ref><br />[[Romantic hermeneutics]]<ref>[[Kurt Mueller-Vollmer]] (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=CXY_h9rkUSUC&dq= ''The Hermeneutics Reader''], Continuum, 1988, p. 72.</ref><br />[[Methodological hermeneutics]]<ref>Edward Joseph Echeverria, ''Criticism and Commitment: Major Themes in Contemporary "Post-Critical" Philosophy'', Rodopi, 1981, p. 221.</ref>
| main_interests   = [[Theology]], [[psychology]], [[New Testament]] [[exegesis]], [[ethics]] (both philosophic and [[Christian ethics|Christian]]), [[dogmatic theology|dogmatic]] and [[practical theology]], [[dialectics]] ([[logic]] and [[metaphysics]]), [[politics]]<ref name=EB1911/>
| notable_ideas     = [[Hermeneutics]] as a [[Hermeneutic circle|cyclical process]]<ref>Friedrich Schleiermacher, ''Hermeneutics: The Handwritten Manuscripts'', ed. by Heinz Kimmerle, trans. by James Duke and Jack Forstman (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1977), p. 196: "just as the whole is understood from the parts, so the parts can be understood from the whole. This principle is of such consequence for hermeneutics and so incontestable that one cannot even begin to interpret without using it."</ref><br />[[Socratic problem]]
| academic_advisors =
| notable_students = [[August Böckh]]<br />[[Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg]]
}}
{{Calvinism}}
'''Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʃ|l|aɪ|ər|m|ɑː|x|ər}};<ref>{{Cite Dictionary.com|Schleiermacher}}</ref> {{IPA|de|ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈʃlaɪɐˌmaxɐ|lang}}; 21 November 1768&nbsp;– 12 February 1834) was a German [[Reformed Church|Reformed]] [[theology|theologian]], [[philosopher]], and [[biblical scholar]] known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] with traditional [[Protestantism|Protestant Christianity]]. He also became influential in the evolution of [[higher criticism]], and his work forms part of the foundation of the modern field of [[hermeneutics]].  Because of his profound effect on subsequent Christian thought, he is often called the "Father of Modern [[Liberal Christianity|Liberal Theology]]" and is considered an early leader in [[liberal Christianity]]. The [[neo-orthodoxy]] movement of the twentieth century, typically (though not without challenge) seen to be spearheaded by [[Karl Barth]], was in many ways an attempt to challenge his influence. As a philosopher he was a leader of [[German Romanticism]]. 

== Biography ==

=== Early life and development ===
Born in [[Wrocław|Breslau]] in [[Prussian Silesia]] as the grandson of Daniel Schleiermacher, a pastor at one time associated with the [[Zionites (Germany) |Zionites]],<ref>[http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/bce/mwt_themes_470_schleiermacher.htm Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Western Theology: Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834)]</ref><ref>{{Cite CE1913| url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15761a.htm | title = Zionites | access-date = June 18, 2014}}</ref> and the son of Gottlieb Schleiermacher, a [[Reformed Church]] chaplain in the Prussian army, Schleiermacher started his formal education in a [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] school at [[Niesky]] in [[Upper Lusatia]], and at [[Barby, Germany|Barby]] near [[Magdeburg]]. However, [[Pietism|pietistic]] Moravian theology failed to satisfy his increasing doubts, and his father reluctantly gave him permission to enter the [[University of Halle]], which had already abandoned pietism and adopted the [[rationalism|rationalist]] spirit of [[Christian Wolff (philosopher)|Christian Wolff]] and [[Johann Salomo Semler]]. As a [[theology]] student, Schleiermacher pursued an independent course of reading and neglected the study of the [[Old Testament]] and of [[Oriental languages]]. However, he attended the lectures of Semler and became acquainted with the techniques of [[historical criticism]] of the [[New Testament]], and of [[Johann Augustus Eberhard]] from whom he acquired a love of the [[philosophies|philosophy]] of [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]]. At the same time, he studied the writings of [[Immanuel Kant]] and [[Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi]] and began to apply ideas from the Greek philosophers to a reconstruction of Kant's system.<ref name=EB1911/>

Schleiermacher developed a deep-rooted skepticism as a student and soon rejected orthodox Christianity.<ref>Michael A. G. Haykin, Liberal Protestantism, p. 3</ref>

Brian Gerrish, a scholar of the works of Schleiermacher, wrote:

{{blockquote|In a letter to his father, Schleiermacher drops the mild hint that his teachers fail to deal with those widespread doubts that trouble so many young people of the present day. His father misses the hint. He has himself read some of the skeptical literature, he says, and can assure Schleiermacher that it is not worth wasting time on. For six whole months there is no further word from his son. Then comes the bombshell. In a moving letter of 21 January 1787, Schleiermacher admits that the doubts alluded to are his own. His father has said that faith is the "regalia of the Godhead," that is, God's royal due.<ref name="A. Gerrish 1984">
B. A. Gerrish, ''A Prince of the Church: Schleiermacher and the Beginnings of Modern Theology'' (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1984), p. 25.</ref>}}

Schleiermacher confessed:  "Faith is the regalia of the Godhead, you say. Alas! dearest father, if you believe that without this faith no one can attain to salvation in the next world, nor to tranquility in this—and such, I know, is your belief—oh! then pray to God to grant it to me, for to me it is now lost. I cannot believe that he who called himself the Son of Man was the true, eternal God; I cannot believe that his death was a vicarious atonement."<ref name="A. Gerrish 1984"/>

=== Tutoring, chaplaincy and first works ===
[[File:Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher 2.jpg|alt=|thumb|An engraving of Schleiermacher from his early adulthood]]
At the completion of his course at Halle, Schleiermacher became the private tutor to the family of Friedrich Alexander Burggraf und Graf zu [[Dohna-Schlobitten]] (1741–1810), developing in a cultivated and aristocratic household his deep love of family and social life. Two years later, in 1796, he became chaplain to the [[Charité]] Hospital in Berlin. Lacking scope for the development of his preaching skills, he sought mental and spiritual satisfaction in the city's cultivated society and in intensive philosophical studies, beginning to construct the framework of his philosophical and religious system. Here  Schleiermacher became acquainted with art, literature, science and general culture. He was strongly influenced by [[German Romanticism]], as represented by his friend [[Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel]]. That interest is borne out by his ''Confidential Letters on Schlegel's Lucinde'' as well as by his seven-year relationship (1798–1805) with Eleonore Christiane Grunow (née Krüger) (1769/1770–1837), the wife of Berlin clergyman August Christian Wilhelm Grunow (1764–1831).<ref name=EB1911/>

Though his ultimate principles remained unchanged, he placed more emphasis on human emotion and the imagination. Meanwhile, he studied [[Spinoza]] and [[Plato]], both of whom were important influences. He became more indebted to [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] though they differed on fundamental points. He sympathised with some of Jacobi's positions, and took some ideas from [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte|Fichte]] and [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|Schelling]]. The literary product of that period of rapid development was his influential book, ''Reden über die Religion'' ([[On Religion|''On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers'']]), and his "new year's gift" to the new century, the ''Monologen'' (''Soliloquies'').<ref name=EB1911/>

In the first book, Schleiermacher gave religion an unchanging place among the divine mysteries of human nature, distinguished it from what he regarded as current caricatures of religion and described the perennial forms of its manifestation. That established the programme of his subsequent theological system. In the ''Monologen'', he revealed his ethical manifesto in which he proclaimed his ideas on the freedom and independence of the spirit and on the relationship of the mind to the sensual world, and he sketched his ideal of the future of the individual and of society.<ref name=EB1911/>

=== Pastorship ===
From 1802 to 1804, Schleiermacher served as a pastor of a small [[Reformed churches|Reformed church]] in the [[Province of Pomerania (1653–1815)|Pomeranian]] town of [[Słupsk|Stolp]]. He relieved Friedrich Schlegel entirely of his nominal responsibility for the translation of Plato, which they had together undertaken (vols. 1–5, 1804–1810; vol. 6, Repub. 1828). Another work, ''Grundlinien einer Kritik der bisherigen Sittenlehre'' [Outlines of a Critique of the Doctrines of Morality to date] (1803), the first of his strictly critical and philosophical productions, occupied him; it is a criticism of all previous moral systems, including those of Kant and Fichte: Plato's and Spinoza's find most favour. It contends that the tests of the soundness of a moral system are the completeness of its view of the laws and ends of human life as a whole and the harmonious arrangement of its subject-matter under one fundamental principle. Although it is almost exclusively critical and negative, the book announces Schleiermacher's later view of moral science, attaching prime importance to a ''Güterlehre'', or doctrine of the ends to be obtained by moral action.<ref name=EB1911/> The obscurity of the book's style and its negative tone prevented immediate success.

=== 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/>

=== Death ===
[[File:Schleiermacher-Strasbourg.jpg|alt=|thumb|A statue of Schleiermacher at [[Palais Universitaire, Strasbourg|Palais Universitaire]] in [[Strasbourg]]]]
Schleiermacher died at 65 of [[pneumonia]] on 12 February 1834.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Knox|first=John S.|title=Friedrich Schleiermacher: A Theological Precursor of Postmodernity?|url= https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/friedrich-schleiermacher-a-theological-precursor-of-postmodernity/ |access-date=2020-10-15|website= Church Life Journal|date=November 23, 2018 }}</ref>

== Work ==

=== Doctrine of knowledge ===
Schleiermacher's [[psychology]] takes as its basis the phenomenal dualism of the ego and the non-ego, and regards the life of man as the interaction of these elements with their interpenetration as its infinite destination. The [[mind-body dualism|dualism]] is therefore not absolute, and, though present in man's own constitution as composed of body and soul, is relative only even there. The ego is itself both body and soul — the conjunction of both constitutes it. Our "organization" or sense nature has its intellectual element, and our "intellect" its organic element, and there is no such thing as "pure mind" or "pure body." The one general function of the ego, thought, becomes in relation to the non-ego either receptive or spontaneous action, and in both forms of action its organic, or sense, and its intellectual energies co-operate; and in relation to man, nature and the universe the ego gradually finds its true individuality by becoming a part of them, "every extension of consciousness being higher life."<ref name=EB1911/>

The specific functions of the ego, as determined by the relative predominance of sense or intellect, are either functions of the senses (or [[organism]]) or functions of the intellect. The former fall into the two classes of feelings (subjective) and perceptions (objective); the latter, according as the receptive or the spontaneous element predominates, into cognition and volition. In cognition, thought is ontologically oriented to the object; and in volition it is the teleological purpose of thought. In the first case we receive (in our fashion) the object of thought into ourselves. In the latter we plant it out into the world. Both cognition and volition are functions of thought as well as forms of moral action.<ref name=EB1911/>

It is in those two functions that the real life of the ego is manifested, but behind them is self-consciousness permanently present, which is always both subjective and objective — consciousness of ourselves and of the non-ego. This self-consciousness is the third special form or function of thought — which is also called feeling and immediate knowledge. In it we cognize our own inner life as affected by the non-ego. As the non-ego helps or hinders, enlarges or limits, our inner life, we feel pleasure or pain. Aesthetic, moral and religious feelings are respectively produced by the reception into consciousness of large ideas — nature, mankind and the world; those feelings are the sense of being one with these vast objects. Religious feeling therefore is the highest form of thought and of life; in it we are conscious of our unity with the world and God; it is thus the sense of absolute dependence.<ref name=EB1911/>

Schleiermacher's doctrine of knowledge accepts the fundamental principle of Kant that knowledge is bounded by experience, but it seeks to remove Kant's skepticism as to knowledge of the ''[[ding an sich]]'' (the ''noumenon'') or ''Sein'', as Schleiermacher's term is. The idea of knowledge or scientific thought as distinguished from the passive form of thought — of aesthetics and religion — is thought which is produced by all thinkers in the same form and which corresponds to being. All knowledge takes the form of the concept (''Begriff'') or the judgment (''Urteil''), the former conceiving the variety of being as a definite unity and plurality, and the latter simply connecting the concept with certain individual objects.<ref name=EB1911/>

In the concept, therefore, the intellectual and in the judgment the organic or sense element predominates. The universal uniformity of the production of judgments presupposes the uniformity of our relations to the outward world, and the uniformity of concepts rests similarly on the likeness of our inward nature. This uniformity is not based on the sameness of either the intellectual or the organic functions alone, but on the correspondence of the forms of thought and sensation with the forms of being. The essential nature of the concept is that it combines the general and the special, and the same combination recurs in being; in being the system of substantial or permanent forms answers to the system of concepts and the relation of cause and effect to the system of judgments, the higher concept answering to "force" and the lower to the phenomena of force, and the judgment to the contingent interaction of things.<ref name=EB1911/>

The sum of being consists of the two systems of substantial forms and interactional relations, and it reappears in the form of concept and judgment, the concept representing being and the judgment being in action. Knowledge has under both forms the same object, the relative difference of the two being that when the conceptual form predominates we have speculative science and when the form of judgment prevails we have empirical or historical science. Throughout the domain of knowledge the two forms are found in constant mutual relations, another proof of the fundamental unity of thought and being or of the objectivity of knowledge. Plato, Spinoza and Kant had contributed characteristic elements of their thought to this system, and directly or indirectly it was largely indebted to Schelling for fundamental conceptions.<ref name=EB1911/>

=== Hermeneutics ===
While Schleiermacher did not publish extensively on [[hermeneutics]] during his lifetime, he lectured widely on the field. His published and unpublished writings on the subject were collected together after his death and published in 1838 as ''Hermeneutik und Kritik mit besonderer Beziehung auf das Neue Testament''.  However, it was not until Heinz Kimmerle's 1959 edition<ref>''Friedrich Schleiermacher: Hermeneutik'', Heinz Kimmerle (ed.), 1959; second, revised edition, Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1974.</ref> "based on a careful transcription of the original handwritten manuscripts, that an assured and comprehensive overview of Schleiermacher's theory of hermeneutics became possible."<ref>Duke, James O. "Translators' Introduction" ''Hermeneutics: The Handwritten Manuscripts''. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1977, 1.</ref>  

Schleiermacher wanted to shift hermeneutics away from specific methods of interpretation (e.g. methods for interpreting biblical or classical texts) and toward a focus on how people understand texts in general. He was interested in interpreting Scripture, but he thought one could do so properly only after establishing a system of interpretation that was applicable to all texts. This process was not a systematic or strictly philological approach, but what he called "the art of understanding."<ref>Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E. "The Hermeneutics:  Outline of the 1819 Lectures," ''New Literary History'', Vol.10, No. 1, Literary Hermeneutics (Autumn, 1978), 1.</ref>  Schleiermacher viewed a text as a vehicle that an author used to communicate thoughts that he had had before creating the text.<ref>Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E.  "The Hermeneutics:  Outline of the 1819 Lectures," ''New Literary History'', Vol.10, No. 1, Literary Hermeneutics (Autumn, 1978), 2-3.</ref>  These thoughts were what caused the author to produce the text; at the moment of text creation, these "inner thoughts" become "outer expression" in language. In order to interpret a text, then, the interpreter must consider both the inner thoughts of the author and the language that s/he used in writing the text. In other words, the reader must submerge himself in the realities of the object of understanding (the text). This approach to interpreting texts involves both "grammatical interpretation" and "psychological (or technical) interpretation."  The former deals with the language of the text; the latter with the thoughts, emotions, intentions and aims of the author.<ref>Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E. ed. Andrew Bowie. ''Hermeneutics and Criticism''. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 229.</ref>

The language used by an author "is what mediates sensuously and externally between utterer and listener".<ref>Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E. ed. Andrew Bowie. ''Hermeneutics and Criticism''. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 232.</ref>  The ultimate goal of hermeneutics for Schleiermacher is "understanding in the highest sense"<ref>Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E. ed. Andrew Bowie. ''Hermeneutics and Criticism''. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 228</ref>&mdash; experiencing the same thoughts that the author experienced when writing the text which he identified as submerging   Understanding is a historical process involving learning about the context in which the author wrote, and how the text's original readership understood its language.<ref>Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher, "The Hermeneutics:  Outline of the 1819 Lectures," ''New Literary History'', Vol. 10, No. 1, Literary Hermeneutics (Autumn, 1978), 6.</ref> Understanding is also a psychological process drawing upon intuition and a connection between interpreter and the author.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Hermeneutics: Interpretation Theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer|last = Palmer|first = Richard|publisher = Northwestern University Press|year = 1969|isbn = 9780810104594|location = Evanston, IL|pages = 87–88}}</ref> Reader and author are both human.  As humans, they have some degree of shared understanding.  That shared understanding is what makes it possible for a reader to understand an author. 

Part of the art of understanding is the art of avoiding misunderstanding.  Schleiermacher identifies two forms of misunderstanding. ''Qualitative misunderstanding'' is a failure of grammatical interpretation&mdash; failing to understand the language of the text&mdash; "the confusion of the meaning of a word for another."<ref>Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E. "The Hermeneutics: Outline of the 1819 Lectures," ''New Literary History'', Vol. 10, No. 1, Literary Hermeneutics (Autumn, 1978), 9.</ref>  ''Quantitative misunderstanding'' a failure of technical/psychological interpretation&mdash; misunderstanding the nuance in the author’s own "sphere."  

In studying the language that an author uses to present his/her thoughts, an interpreter may be able to understand these thoughts even better than the author him/herself.<ref>Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E. "The Hermeneutics:  Outline of the 1819 Lectures," ''New Literary History'', Vol. 10, No. 1, Literary Hermeneutics (Autumn, 1978), 9.</ref> This can be done by discovering why a particular work was produced, and by discovering unity within other works produced in a similar genre by others, or unity in other works by the same author in any genre.<ref>Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E. ed. Andrew Bowie. ''Hermeneutics and Criticism''. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 256.</ref>  

Despite Schleiermacher’s claim to the possibility of understanding of the author’s thoughts better than the author, he grants that "good interpretation can only be approximated" and that hermeneutics is not a "perfect art."<ref>Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E. "The Hermeneutics:  Outline of the 1819 Lectures," ''New Literary History'', Vol. 10, No. 1, Literary Hermeneutics (Autumn, 1978), 14.</ref>  The art puts the interpreter in the best position by "putting oneself in possession of all the conditions of understanding."<ref>Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E. ed. Andrew Bowie. ''Hermeneutics and Criticism''. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 227.</ref>  However, the extent of an interpreter’s understanding of a text is limited by the possibility of misunderstanding the text.

Schleiermacher's work had a profound impact on the field of hermeneutics, so much so that he is often referred to as "the father of modern hermeneutics as a general study."<ref>Palmer, Richard E. ''Hermeneutics''. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1969.</ref> His work marks the beginning of hermeneutics as a general field of inquiry, separate from specific disciplines (e.g. law or theology).<ref>{{Cite book|title = Hermeneutics|last = Palmer|first = Richard|publisher = Northwestern University Press|year = 1969|isbn = 9780810104594|location = Evanston, IL|pages = 96–97}}</ref> In the twentieth century, philosophers such as [[Heidegger]], [[Gadamer]], and [[Ricoeur]] would expand hermeneutics even further, from a theory of interpretation of textual expressions into a theory of interpretation of lived experiences.

=== Ethics ===
[[File:20220514 Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof II, Grab Friedrich Schleiermacher.jpg|thumb|upright|His grave in Berlin]]
Next to religion and theology, Schleiermacher devoted himself to the moral world, of which the phenomena of religion and theology were, in his systems, only constituent elements. In his earlier essays he endeavoured to point out the defects of ancient and modern ethical thinkers, particularly of [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] and [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte|Fichte]], with only [[Plato]] and [[Spinoza]] finding favour in his eyes. He failed to discover in previous moral systems any necessary basis in thought, any completeness as regards the phenomena of moral action, any systematic arrangement of its parts and any clear and distinct treatment of specific moral acts and relations.<ref name=EB1911/>

Schleiermacher's own moral system is an attempt to supply these deficiencies. It connects the moral world by a deductive process with the fundamental idea of knowledge and being; it offers a view of the entire world of human action which at all events aims at being exhaustive; it presents an arrangement of the matter of the science which tabulates its constituents after the model of the physical sciences; and it supplies a sharply defined treatment of specific moral phenomena in their relation to the fundamental idea of human life as a whole. Schleiermacher defines ethics as the theory of the nature of the reason, or as the scientific treatment of the effects produced by human reason in the world of nature and man.<ref name=EB1911/>

As a theoretical or speculative science it is purely descriptive and not practical, being correlated on the one hand to physical science and on the other to history. Its method is the same as that of physical science, being distinguished from the latter only by its matter. The ontological basis of ethics is the unity of the real and the ideal, and the psychological and actual basis of the ethical process is the tendency of reason and nature to unite in the form of the complete organization of the latter by the former. The end of the ethical process is that nature (i.e. all that is not mind, the human body as well as external nature) may become the perfect symbol and organ of mind.<ref name=EB1911/>

Conscience, as the subjective expression of the presupposed identity of reason and nature in their bases, guarantees the practicability of our moral vocation. Nature is preordained or constituted to become the symbol and organ of mind, just as mind is endowed with the impulse to realize this end. But the moral law must not be conceived under the form of an "imperative" or a "''Sollen''"; it differs from a law of nature only as being descriptive of the fact that it ranks the mind as conscious will, or ''Zweckdenken'', above nature. Strictly speaking, the antitheses of good and bad and of free and necessary have no place in an ethical system, but simply in history, which is obliged to compare the actual with the ideal, but as far as the terms "good" and "bad" are used in morals they express the rule or the contrary of reason, or the harmony or the contrary of the particular and the general. The idea of free as opposed to necessary expresses simply the fact that the mind can propose to itself ends, though a man cannot alter his own nature.<ref name=EB1911/>

In contrast to [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] and [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte|Fichte]] and modern moral philosophers, Schleiermacher reintroduced and assigned pre-eminent importance to the doctrine of the ''[[summum bonum]]'', or highest good. It represents in his system the ideal and aim of the entire life of man, supplying the ethical view of the conduct of individuals in relation to society and the universe, and therewith constituting a philosophy of history at the same time. Starting with the idea of the highest good and of its constituent elements (''Güter''), or the chief forms of the union of mind and nature, Schleiermacher's system divides itself into the doctrine of moral ends, the doctrine of virtue and the doctrine of duties; in other words, as a development of the idea of the subjection of nature to reason it becomes a description of the actual forms of the triumphs of reason, of the moral power manifested therein and of the specific methods employed. Every moral good or product has a fourfold character: it is individual and universal; it is an organ and symbol of the reason, that is, it is the product of the individual with relation to the community, and represents or manifests as well as classifies and rules nature.<ref name=EB1911/>

The first two characteristics provide for the functions and rights of the individual as well as those of the community or race. Though a moral action may have these four characteristics at various degrees of strength, it ceases to be moral if one of them is quite absent. All moral products may be classified according to the predominance of one or the other of these characteristics. Universal organizing action produces the forms of intercourse, and universal symbolizing action produces the various forms of science; individual organizing action yields the forms of property and individual symbolizing action the various representations of feeling, all these constituting the relations, the productive spheres, or the social conditions of moral action. Moral functions cannot be performed by the individual in isolation but only in his relation to the family, the state, the school, the church, and society — all forms of human life which ethical science finds to its hand and leaves to the science of natural history to account for. The moral process is accomplished by the various sections of humanity in their individual spheres, and the doctrine of virtue deals with the reason as the moral power in each individual by which the totality of moral products is obtained.<ref name=EB1911/>

Schleiermacher classifies the virtues under the two forms of ''Gesinnung'' ("disposition, attitude") and ''Fertigkeit'' ("dexterity, proficiency"), the first consisting of the pure ideal element in action and the second the form it assumes in relation to circumstances, each of the two classes falling respectively into the two divisions of wisdom and love and of intelligence and application. In his system the doctrine of duty is the description of the method of the attainment of ethical ends, the conception of duty as an imperative, or obligation, being excluded, as we have seen. No action fulfills the conditions of duty except as it combines the three following antitheses: reference to the moral idea in its whole extent and likewise to a definite moral sphere; connection with existing conditions and at the same time absolute personal production; the fulfillment of the entire moral vocation every moment though it can only be done in a definite sphere. Duties are divided with reference to the principle that every man make his own the entire moral problem and act at the same time in an existing moral society. This condition gives four general classes of duty: duties of general association or duties with reference to the community (''Rechtspflicht''), and duties of vocation (''Berufspflicht'') — both with a universal reference, duties of the conscience (in which the individual is sole judge), and duties of love or of personal association.<ref name=EB1911/>

It was only the first of the three sections of the science of ethics — the doctrine of moral ends — that Schleiermacher handled with approximate completeness; the other two sections were treated very summarily. In his Christian Ethics he dealt with the subject from the basis of the Christian consciousness instead of from that of reason generally; the ethical phenomena dealt with are the same in both systems, and they throw light on each other, while the Christian system treats more at length and less aphoristically the principal ethical realities — church, state, family, art, science and society. [[Richard Rothe|Rothe]], amongst other moral philosophers, bases his system substantially, with important departures, on Schleiermacher's. In [[Friedrich Eduard Beneke|Beneke]]'s moral system his fundamental idea was worked out in its psychological relations.<ref name=EB1911/>

Schleiermacher held that an [[problem of hell|eternal hell]] was not compatible with the love of God.  Divine punishment was rehabilitative, not penal, and designed to reform the person.<ref>Gunton, Colin E. ''The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine''. p. 240.</ref>  He was one of the first major theologians of modern times to teach [[Christian Universalism]].

=== Writings concerning society ===
''On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers'' is a book written by Schleiermacher dealing with the gap he saw as emerging between the cultural elite and general society. Schleiermacher was writing when the Enlightenment was in full swing and when the first major transition into modernity was simultaneously occurring. With the fall of the late Middle Ages and a vigorous discourse taking hold of Western European intellectuals, the fields of art and natural philosophy were flourishing. However, the discourse of theologians, arguably the primary and only discourse of intellectuals for centuries, had taken to its own now minor corner in the universities. ''On Religion'' is divided into five major sections: the Defense (''Apologie''), the Nature of Religion (''Über das Wesen der Religion''), the Cultivation of Religion (''Über die Bildung zur Religion''), Association in Religion (''Über das Gesellige in der Religion, oder über Kirche und Priesterthum''), and the Religions (''Über die Religionen''). Schleiermacher initiates his speeches on religion in its opening chapter by asserting that the contemporary critique of religion is often over-simplified by the assumption that there are two supposed "hinges" upon which all critiques of religion(s) are based. These two over-simplifications are given by Schleiermacher as first, that their conscience shall be put into judgement, and second, the "general idea turns on the fear of an eternal being, or, broadly, respect for his influence on the occurrences of this life called by you providence, or expectation of a future life after this one, called by you immortality."<ref>F. Scheiermacher, ''On Religion'', Ch.1, pp12-13.</ref>

=== Religious thought ===
From [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]], [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]], [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte|Fichte]], [[Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi|Jacobi]] and the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] school, Schleiermacher had imbibed a profound and mystical view of the inner depths of the human personality.<ref name=EB1911/> His religious thought found its expression most notably in ''The Christian Faith'', one of the most influential works of Christian theology of its time.

Schleiermacher saw the ego, the person, as an individualization of [[universal reason]]; and the primary act of [[self-consciousness]] as the first conjunction of universal and individual life, the immediate union or marriage of the universe with incarnated reason. Thus every person becomes a specific and original representation of the universe and a compendium of humanity, a microcosmos in which the world is immediately reflected. While therefore we cannot, as we have seen, attain the idea of the supreme unity of thought and being by either cognition or volition, we can find it in our own personality, in immediate self-consciousness or (which is the same in Schleiermacher's terminology) feeling. Feeling in this higher sense (as distinguished from "organic" sensibility, ''Empfindung''), which is the minimum of distinct antithetic consciousness, the cessation of the antithesis of subject and object, constitutes likewise the unity of our being, in which the opposite functions of [[cognition]] and [[volition (psychology)|volition]] have their fundamental and permanent background of personality and their transitional link. Having its seat in this central point of our being, or indeed consisting in the essential fact of self-consciousness, religion lies at the basis of all thought, feeling and action.<ref name=EB1911/>

At various periods of his life Schleiermacher used different terms to represent the character and relation of religious feeling. In his earlier days he called it a feeling or intuition of the universe, consciousness of the unity of reason and nature, of the infinite and the eternal within the finite and the temporal. In later life he described it as the feeling of absolute dependence, or, as meaning the same thing, the consciousness of being in relation to God.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Schleiermacher, Friedrich Daniel Ernst|inline=1|volume=24|pages=330–334|first=John Frederick|last=Smith|author2=Anonymous}}</ref> In his [[On Religion|''Addresses on Religion'']] (1799), he wrote:<ref name ="N">Quoted in Kedourie, Elie. ''Nationalism'', p. 26. Praeger University Series. 1961. {{ISBN|0-09-053444-1}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Religion is the outcome neither of the fear of death, nor of the fear of God. It answers a deep need in man. It is neither a metaphysic, nor a morality, but above all and essentially an intuition and a feeling. ... Dogmas are not, properly speaking, part of religion: rather it is that they are derived from it. Religion is the miracle of direct relationship with the infinite; and dogmas are the reflection of this miracle. Similarly belief in God, and in personal immortality, are not necessarily a part of religion; one can conceive of a religion without God, and it would be pure contemplation of the universe; the desire for personal immortality seems rather to show a lack of religion, since religion assumes a desire to lose oneself in the infinite, rather than to preserve one's own finite self.}}

Schleiermacher's concept of church has been contrasted with [[Johann Salomo Semler|J.S. Semler's]].<ref>
Rendtorff, Trutz. ''Church and Theology: The Systematic Function of the Church Concept in Modern Theology'', Westminster Press, 1971, {{ISBN|978-0-664-20908-7}}.
</ref>{{qn|date=June 2017}}

== Reception ==
The Dutch Reformed theologian [[Herman Bavinck]], deeply concerned with the problem of objectivism and subjectivism in the doctrine of revelation, employs Schleiermacher’s doctrine of revelation in his own way and regards the Bible as the objective standard for his theological work. Bavinck also stresses the importance of the church, which forms the Christian consciousness and experience. In so doing, he attempts to overcome the latent weakness of Schleiermacher’s doctrine of revelation through his emphasis on the ecclesiological doctrine of revelation.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Woo | first=B. Hoon | title=Bavinck and Barth on Schleiermacher's Doctrine of Revelation | journal= Korea Reformed Theology | year=2015 | volume=48 | url=https://www.academia.edu/25177723 |pages=38–71| doi=10.34271/krts.2015.48..38 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

== Legacy ==
* Asteroid [[12694 Schleiermacher]] is named for this German theologian—the name was chosen by German astronomer [[Freimut Börngen]].

* In the Berlin-Kreuzberg district, Schleiermacherstrasse was named after him in 1875; an area in which the streets were named after the founding professors of the Berlin University.

== Works ==
Under the title ''Gesamtausgabe der Werke Schleiermachers in drei Abteilungen'', Schleiermacher's works were first published in three sections:
# Theological (11 vols.)
# Sermons (10 vols., 1873–1874, 5 vols)
# Philosophical and Miscellaneous (9 vols., 1835–1864).
See also ''[https://archive.org/search.php?query=Friedrich%20Schleiermacher%27s%20sa%CC%88mmtliche%20werke Sämmtliche Werke]'' (Berlin, 1834ff.), and ''[https://archive.org/search.php?query=Werke%20mit%20einem%20Bildnis%20Schleiermachers%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts Werke: mit einem Bildnis Schleiermachers]'' (Leipzig, 1910) in four volumes.

Other works include:
*''[https://archive.org/details/schleiermachers02schlgoog Pädagogische Schriften]'' (3rd ed., 1902).
*''[https://archive.org/search.php?query=Aus%20Schleiermacher%27s%20Leben%20AND%20collection%3Aamericana Aus Schleiermachers Leben in Briefen]'' (Berlin, 1858–1863, in 4 vols., correspondence).
*''[https://archive.org/details/a573984200dolluoft Leben Schleiermachers]''. Vol. 1. Ed. [[Wilhelm Dilthey]]. Berlin: Reimer, 1870. (Correspondence from 1768–1804).
**''The Life of Schleiermacher as Unfolded in His Autobiography and Letters''. [https://archive.org/stream/lifeschleiermac00rowagoog#page/n11/mode/1up Vol. 1] and [https://archive.org/details/thelifeofschleie02schluoft Vol. 2]. Tr. F. Rowan. London: 1860.
*''[https://archive.org/details/friedrichschlei00schegoog Friedrich Schleiermacher, ein Lebens- und Charakterbild]''. D. Schenkel, 1868 (based on selection of letters).

Modern editions:
*''Brief Outline for the Study of Theology'' (''[https://archive.org/details/zurdarstellungde00schl Kurze Darstellung des theologischen Studiums zum Behuf einleitender Vorlesungen]'', 1830).
** [https://archive.org/details/briefoutlinetheo00schluoft 1850 text] tr. by William Farrer, Edinburgh.
** 1966 text tr. by Terrence Tice, Richmond, VA.
*''The Christian Faith in Outline'' (2nd ed. of ''[https://archive.org/details/derchristlichegl01schluoft Der Christliche Glaube]'', 1830–1).
** [https://archive.org/details/theologyofschlei00schluoft 1911 condensed presentation] tr. and ed. by George Cross, ''The Theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1911.
** [https://archive.org/details/christianfaithin00schluoft 1922 outline] tr. by D. M. (Donald Macpherson) Baillie, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.
** 1999 text tr. by H. R. MacKintosh, ed. J. S. Stewart. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. Paperback: {{ISBN|0-567-08709-3}}.
*''Christmas Eve: A Dialogue on the Incarnation'' (''[https://archive.org/details/dieweihnachtsfe01schlgoog Die Weihnachtsfeier: Ein Gespräch]'', 1826).
** [https://archive.org/details/christmasevedial00schl 1890 text] tr. by W. Hastie, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.
** 1967 text tr. by Terrence Tice, Richmond, VA: Scholars Press.
*''Dialectic, or, The Art of Doing Philosophy: A Study Edition of the 1811 Notes'' (''[https://archive.org/details/schleiermachers00halpgoog Schleiermachers Dialektik]'', 1903). Tr. Terrence Tice. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 2000. Paperback: {{ISBN|0-7885-0293-X}}
*''Fifteen Sermons of Friedrich Schleiermacher Delivered to Celebrate the Beginning of a New Year'' (''Monologues'', 1800), tr. Edwina G. Lawler, [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 2003. hardcover: {{ISBN|0-7734-6628-2}}
*''[https://archive.org/details/selectedsermonso00schl Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher]''. Tr. Mary F. Wilson. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1890.
*''[https://archive.org/details/schleiermachers00schluoft Schleiermacher's Introductions to the Dialogues of Plato]'', trans. William Dobson. 1836; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1973; reprint, Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar, 2009. Paperback: {{ISBN|1-116-55546-8}}.
*''Lectures on Philosophical Ethics'' (''[https://archive.org/details/friedrichschlei00twesgoog Grundriss der philosophischen Ethik]'', 1841). Tr. Louise Adey Huish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Paperback: {{ISBN|0-521-00767-4}}
*''The Life of Jesus'', tr. S. Maclean Gilmour. Sigler Press 1997. Paperback: {{ISBN|1-888961-04-X}}
*''[https://archive.org/details/gospelofstluke00schluoft A Critical Essay on the Gospel of Luke]'' (''[https://archive.org/details/ueberdieschrifte01schl Űber die Schriften des Lukas: ein kritischer Versuch]'', 1817). London: Taylor, 1825.
*''Hermeneutics and Criticism and Other Writings'' (''[https://archive.org/details/hermeneutikundkr00schl Hermeneutik und Kritik mit besonderer Beziehung auf das Neue Testament]'', 1838). Tr. Andrew Bowie. Cambridge University Press, 1998 Paperback: {{ISBN|0-521-59848-6}}
*''Hermeneutics: The Handwritten Manuscripts'', Ed. Heinz Kimmerle. Tr. James O. Duke and Jack Forstman. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1977 Paperback {{ISBN|0-89130-186-0}}
*''On Creeds, Confessions And Church Union: "That They May Be One"'', tr. Iain G. Nicol. [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 2004. hardcover: {{ISBN|0-7734-6464-6}}
*''On Freedom'', trans. A. L. Blackwell. [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 1992.
*''On the ''Glaubenslehre: ''Two Letters to Dr. Lucke'' (''[https://archive.org/details/schleiermachers00mulegoog Schleiermachers Sendschreiben über seine Glaubenslehre an Lücke]''). Tr. James O. Duke and Francis Fiorenza. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1981.
*''On the Highest Good'', trans. H. V. Froese. [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 1992.
*[[On Religion|''On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers'']] (''[https://archive.org/details/werkemiteinembil04schl Über die Religion: Reden an die Gebildeten unter ihren Verächtern]'', three editions: 1799, 1806, 1831)
**1799 text tr. Richard Crouter, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Paperback: {{ISBN|0-521-47975-4}}
**[https://archive.org/details/onreligionspeech00schl 1893 text] tr. by John Oman, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994. Paperback: {{ISBN|0-664-25556-6}}
*''On the Worth of Life'' (''[https://archive.org/stream/monologennebstde00schl#page/166/mode/2up Űber den Wert des Lebens]''), trans. E. Lawlor, T. N. Tice. [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 1995.
*''Soliloquies'', trans. [[Horace L. Friess]]. Chicago, 1957.
*''Toward a Theory of Sociable Conduct and Essays in Its Intellectual-Cultural Context'', tr. Ruth Drucilla Richardson. [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 1996 hardcover: {{ISBN|0-7734-8938-X}}
*''[https://archive.org/details/selectedsermonso00schl Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher]'', tr. Mary F. Wilson. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2004. Paperback: {{ISBN|1-59244-602-7}}
*Winkler, M., Beljan, J., Ehrhardt, Ch., Meier, D., Virmond, W., ''Vorlesungen über die Pädagogik und amtliche Voten zum öffentlichen Unterricht''. Friedrich Schleiermacher Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Abteiling II: Vorlesungen, Band 12, Berlin / New York, Walter de Gruyter, 2017

==See also==
* ''[[First Alcibiades]]''
* [[Translation#Fidelity and transparency|Fidelity and transparency]]
* [[Allegorical interpretations of Plato]], for Schleiermacher's influential Plato interpretation
* [[Plato's unwritten doctrines]], for the reaction against Schleiermacher's Plato interpretation
* [[Hermeneutic circle]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== References ==
* [[Heinrich Fink]]: ''Begründung der Funktion der Praktischen Theologie bei Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher: Eine Untersuchung anhand seiner praktisch-theologischen Vorlesungen.'' Berlin 1966 (Berlin, Humboldt-U., Theol. F., Diss. v. 25. Jan. 1966) [master's thesis]
* Wilhelm Dilthey: ''Leben Schleiermachers'', ed. M. Redeker, Berlin 1966
* Falk Wagner: ''Schleiermachers Dialektik. Eine kritische Interpretation'', Gütersloh 1974
* Brian A. Gerrish: ''A Prince of the Church. Schleiermacher and the Beginnings of Modern Theology'', London / Philadelphia 1984
* Kurt-Victor Selge (ed.): ''Internationaler Schleiermacher-Kongreß Berlin 1984'' (Zwei Teilbände), Berlin / New York 1985
* Günter Meckenstock: ''Deterministische Ethik und kritische Theologie. Die Auseinandersetzung des frühen Schleiermacher mit Kant und Spinoza 1789–1794'', Berlin / New York 1988
* Hans-Joachim Birkner: ''Schleiermacher-Studien.'' (Schleiermacher-Archiv. Band 16), Berlin / New York 1996
* Ulrich Barth / Claus-Dieter Osthövener (Hg.), ''200 Jahre "Reden über die Religion". Akten des 1. Internationalen Kongresses der Schleiermacher-Gesellschaft'' Halle, 14.–17. March 1999 (Schleiermacher Archiv 19), Berlin / New York 2000
* Kurt Nowak: ''Schleiermacher. Leben, Werk und Wirkung''. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2001.
* [[Matthias Wolfes]]: ''Öffentlichkeit und Bürgergesellschaft. Friedrich Schleiermachers politische Wirksamkeit'', Berlin / New York 2004
*{{cite book |last=Lundberg |first=Phillip |title=Tallyho – The Hunt for Virtue: Beauty, Truth and Goodness – Nine Dialogues by Plato |publisher=AuthorHouse | year=2005 | isbn=1-4184-4976-8}}
* Walter Wyman, Jr.: "The Role of the Protestant Confessions in Schleiermacher’s The Christian Faith". ''The Journal of Religion'' 87:355–385, July 2007
* ''Christentum – Staat – Kultur. Akten des Kongresses der Internationalen Schleiermacher-Gesellschaft in Berlin, March 2006.'' Hrsg. von Andreas Arndt, Ulrich Barth and Wilhelm Gräb (Schleiermacher-Archiv 22), De Gruyter: Berlin / New York 2008
* Daan Thoomes, ''Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768 - 1834): Theoloog, filosoof en pedagoog''. In: Tom Kroon & Bas Levering (red.), ''Grote pedagogen in klein bestek''. Amsterdam, SWP, 2008 / 2019 [https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/218755]

== Further reading==
;In English
* Andrejč, Gorazd. "Bridging the gap between social and existential-mystical interpretations of Schleiermacher's 'feeling'." ''Religious Studies'' (2012): 377-401. [https://www.academia.edu/download/9253661/Schleiermacher-Feelings-FINAL-Andrejc.pdf online]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
*Barth, Karl. ''The Theology of Schleiermacher''. trans. Geoffrey Bromiley. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1982.
*Barth, Karl. "Schleiermacher," in ''[https://archive.org/details/protestantthough013180mbp Protestant Theology from Rousseau to Ritschl].'' New York: Harper, 1959. Ch. VIII, pp.&nbsp;306–354.
*Brandt, R. B. ''The Philosophy of Schleiermacher: The Development of his Theory of Scientific and Religious Knowledge''. Westport, CT: 1968.
*Crouter, Richard. ''Friedrich Schleiermacher: Between Enlightenment and Romanticism''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2008.
* Dawson, Jerry F. ''Friedrich Schleiermacher: The Evolution of a Nationalist''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966. {{ISBN|978-0-292-74073-0}}
* Dole, Andrew. ''Schleiermacher on religion and the natural order'' (AAR: Religion, Culture & History, 2010).
* Dole, Andrew. "What is ‘religious experience’ in Schleiermacher’s Dogmatics, and why does it matter?." ''Journal of Analytic Theology'' 4 (2016): 44-65. [https://jat-ojs-baylor.tdl.org/jat/index.php/jat/article/download/jat.2016-4.001322031404a/280 online]
*Gadamer, Hans-Georg. ''Truth and Method'', 2nd revised ed. tr. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald . Marshall. New York: Continuum, 1994.
*{{Cite journal|last=Kenklies |first=K. |year=2012 |title=Educational theory as topological rhetoric. The concepts of pedagogy of Johann Friedrich Herbart and Friedrich Schleiermacher| journal=Studies in Philosophy and Education|volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=265–273 |doi=10.1007/s11217-012-9287-6|s2cid=144605837 }}
*Kenklies, Karsten. "Schleiermacher, Friedrich Daniel Ernst". In ''Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy''. Edited by D.C. Phillips.  Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2014, pp.&nbsp;733–735.
*Kerber, Hannes. "Strauss and Schleiermacher. An Introduction to 'Exoteric Teaching".  In ''Reorientation: Leo Strauss in the 1930s''. Edited by Martin D. Yaffe and Richard S. Ruderman.  New York: Palgrave, 2014, pp.&nbsp;203–214.

*Kirn, O. "Schleiermacher, Friedrich Daniel Ernst." ''[https://archive.org/details/newschaffherzog15haucgoog The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge]''. Vol. X. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1911. pp.&nbsp;240–246.
*Mariña, Jacqueline, ed. ''The Cambridge Companion to Schleiermacher''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
*Munro, Robert. ''[https://archive.org/details/schleiermacherpe00munrrich  Schleiermacher: Personal and Speculative]''. Paisley: A. Gardner, 1903.
*Niehbuhr, Richard R. ''Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion: A New Introduction''. New York: Scribners, 1964.
*Park, Jae-Eun. "[https://www.academia.edu/15475404/_Schleiermachers_Perspective_on_Redemption_A_Fulfillment_of_the_coincidentia_oppositorum_between_the_Finite_and_the_Infinite_in_Participation_with_Christ._Journal_of_Reformed_Theology_9_3_2015_270-294 Schleiermacher's Perspective on Redemption: A Fulfillment of the ''coincidentia oppositorum'' between the Finite and the Infinite in Participation with Christ.]" ''[[Journal of Reformed Theology]]'' 9/3 (2015): 270-294.
* Pedersen, Daniel James. ''The eternal covenant: Schleiermacher on God and natural science'' (de Gruyter, 2017).
* Pedersen, Daniel J. ''Schleiermacher’s Theology of Sin and Nature: Agency, Value, and Modern Theology'' (Routledge, 2020)
* Poe, Shelli M. ''Essential Trinitarianism: Schleiermacher as Trinitarian Theologian'' (Bloomsbury, 2017).
* Poe, Shelli M., ed. ''Schleiermacher and sustainability: a theology for ecological living'' (John Knox Press, 2018).

* Robinson, Matthew Ryan. ''Redeeming relationship, relationships that redeem: free sociability and the completion of humanity in the thought of Friedrich Schleiermacher'' (Mohr Siebeck, 2018).
*Selbie, W. E. ''[https://archive.org/details/schleiermacherac003170mbp  Schleiermacher: A Critical and Historical Study]''. New York: Dutton, 1913.
* Stratis, Justin. ''God's Being Towards Fellowship: Schleiermacher, Barth, and the Meaning of ‘God is Love’.'' (Bloomsbury, 2019).

;In French
* [[Antoine Berman|Berman, Antoine]]. ''[[L'épreuve de l'étranger. Culture et traduction dans l'Allemagne romantique: Herder, Goethe, Schlegel, Novalis, Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Hölderlin]]'', Paris, Gallimard, Essais, 1984. {{ISBN|978-2-07-070076-9}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline|Friedrich Schleiermacher}}
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* {{Librivox author |id=6614}}
* {{cite SEP |url-id=schleiermacher |title=Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080201060617/http://www.infography.com/content/708444911385.html Infography about Friedrich Schleiermacher]
* {{Cite Americana|last=Böhme |first=Traugott |wstitle=Schleiermacher, Friedrich Ernst Daniel|year=1920 |short=x}}
* {{DNB portal|118608045}}
* {{de-ADB|31|422|457|Schleiermacher, Friedrich|Wilhelm Dilthey|ADB:Schleiermacher, Friedrich}}
* {{DDB|Person|118608045}}
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{{Romanticism}}
{{philosophy of religion}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schleiermacher, Friedrich}}
[[Category:1768 births]]
[[Category:1834 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century Christian universalists]]
[[Category:18th-century essayists]]
[[Category:18th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:18th-century German philosophers]]
[[Category:18th-century German Protestant theologians]]
[[Category:18th-century German writers]]
[[Category:18th-century non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:18th-century German translators]]
[[Category:19th-century Christian universalists]]
[[Category:19th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]
[[Category:19th-century German essayists]]
[[Category:19th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:19th-century German non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:19th-century German philosophers]]
[[Category:19th-century German Protestant theologians]]
[[Category:19th-century German writers]]
[[Category:19th-century German translators]]
[[Category:Age of Enlightenment]]
[[Category:Christian universalist theologians]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Germany]]
[[Category:Enlightenment philosophers]]
[[Category:German biblical scholars]]
[[Category:German Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]
[[Category:German Christian universalists]]
[[Category:German epistemologists]]
[[Category:German essayists]]
[[Category:German ethicists]]
[[Category:German logicians]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:German male writers]]
[[Category:German sermon writers]]
[[Category:German translation scholars]]
[[Category:Hermeneutists]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin]]
[[Category:German idealists]]
[[Category:Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Ontologists]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Silesia]]
[[Category:German philosophers of culture]]
[[Category:German philosophers of education]]
[[Category:German philosophers of history]]
[[Category:Philosophers of logic]]
[[Category:German philosophers of mind]]
[[Category:Philosophers of psychology]]
[[Category:German philosophers of religion]]
[[Category:German political philosophers]]
[[Category:Protestant philosophers]]
[[Category:Romantic philosophers]]
[[Category:Systematic theologians]]
[[Category:Translators of Ancient Greek texts]]
[[Category:University of Halle alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Halle]]
[[Category:Writers about activism and social change]]
[[Category:Writers from Wrocław]]
[[Category:German scholars of ancient Greek philosophy]]
[[Category:Plato scholars]]