The Christian Faith

Rating:
Summary: A Seminal Work in Modern Theology.
Review: Its no coincidence that Schleiermacher is called the 'father of modern theology.' This classic in systematic theology is indispensible to any theology student tho wants to understand liberal theology. The Christian faith is distinctly Christological in nature. Schleiermacher, because of his Moravian upbringing, has great reverance for Christ (unlike some of the modern theologians who were to follow). Another distinguishing characteristic of the Christian Faith is Schleiermacher's idea of "religion as feeling." For Schleiermacher, feeling was what authenticated religion. Another distiguishing feature is Schleiermacher's opinion of other faiths and Christianity's relation to those faiths. He has quite a progressive notion of religious pluralism for a nineteenth century theologian. In short, no theology scholar should be without this monumental work. As an accomponiment, I suggest you purchase Schleiermacher's "On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers," which is another book that gave birth to liberal theology. Schleiermacher truly was the greatest theologian between Martin Luther and Karl Barth.

Rating:
Summary: The birth of pseudo-Christian liberal subjectivism
Review: This is a seminal work, all right -- and it set the stage for twentieth-century liberal "Protestantism." Readers of this work should be sure to read J. Gresham Machen's _Christianity and Liberalism_ for a sound doctrinal "take" on Schleiermacher's whole approach.