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*Makers of the Modern Theological Mind : Friedrich Schleiermacher

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“Blending elements of biography, systematic analysis, and a concern for contemporary relevance, Dr. C. W. Christian has produced a long-needed study of the man who is perhaps the most influential thinker since Luther and Calvin.“It is no mere matter of convenience to call Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768-1834) the ‘Father of Modern Theology,’ “ says Dr. Christian. “He is one of the very small group of theologians who have given birth, not to a new theology or to a new school, but to a new era.”One of the first thinkers to deal profoundly and effectively with the challenges that science and technology brought to traditional religion, Schleiermacher made it his lifelong commitment to seek a new foundation and a new basis for religious authority, one that could not be shaken by each successive discovery or invention.This book presents in readily available form the basic substance of Schleiermacher’s theology, focusing on his major theological writings, the Speeches on Religion and The Christian Faith, clarifying and evaluating his thought and suggesting the elements of permanent inheritance received from him by 20th century Christianity.No theologian, not even Barth, the author declares, has directed theology toward the concerns of the church with more determination. As much a forerunner of current neo-Protestant theology as he was of liberalism, Schleiermacher expressed through a profound Christocentrism the personal piety which originated in his childhood within the Moravian movement. At the same time, he took seriously the world about him, not as an alien culture but as a field for valid religious reflection.This study offers a balanced portrait of both the personal and cultural dimensions of Schleiermacher’s legacy. As a product of careful scholarship and original insights, it will commend itself to theologians and historians. As a stimulating narrative that traces the rise of so many of the issues of concern to the church today, it offers invaluable content for ministers and lay readers as well.” - Publisher