Reading Schleiermacher's Glaubenslehre

This graduate seminar will afford students the chance to read and engage deeply with Friedrich Schleiermacher’s greatest dogmatic work, The Christian Faith systematically Presented according to the Principles of the Evangelical Church (1830/1). Recognized as a foundational work of German liberal Protestantism, The Christian Faith – also known as the Glaubenslehre – emerges from the principle that all Christian doctrine is traceable to the feeling of having been redeemed by Jesus of Nazareth. By the end of the seminar, students will have read the entirety of the Glaubenslehre, as well as understood its shape, systematic infrastructure, and influence in the development of modern Protestant dogmatics. The aim of the course is for students to grow in critical appreciation for Schleiermacher not only as a formative voice in the history of Christian theology, but also as an example of how fundamental decisions in method affect one’s conceptions of Christian theology, preaching, and mission.