Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Reden and the problem of religious plurality

Martin Prozesky

doi:10.4102/hts.v75i4.5458

Abstract

Modern knowledge of the world’s religions brings to light the problem of religious plurality, meaning the problem of why there is such great religious diversity, and which set of religious beliefs, if any, can be judged to be true. In 1799 and in the later editions, the young Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) offered a pioneering account of religion in his revolutionary work, widely known as the Reden , first rendered in English in 1893 with the title On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers , which this article summarises and critically evaluates in relation to that problem. Guided by the work of Eric Sharpe on the history of the comparative study of religion, the article locates Schleiermacher in the context of the state of knowledge about the plurality of religions when he wrote the Reden, compared to our present knowledge. The evaluation takes as its primary critical criteria the requirements of the academic study of religions, not the theological interests relevant to Schleiermacher as a Christian thinker. The evaluation yields a mixed verdict, noting four significant strengths in Schleiermacher’s account of religion but also three important limitations, the main one arising, understandably, from his personal faith, but nonetheless a problem in the academic study of religions.

Highlights

The question explored in the present article is how well Schleiermacher’s account of religion in his early work accounts for what has been called the problem of religious plurality and its underlying issue of an adequate knowledge of the nature of the religions
The religions could, as secularists aver, all be mistaken, if that can be shown by the same principles of academic enquiry. Such is the problem generated by the reality of a divergent religious plurality
Four important strengths can be identified in Schleiermacher’s account of religion, over 200 years later, despite his very limited knowledge of the various religions. His account is remarkably advanced given the state of the prevailing views of and knowledge about religion, these being either sceptical dismissal of all religions or uncritical and poorly informed adherence to a personal faith. This strength is best seen in the way he was able to address the fact of religious plurality by using concepts like ‘sense and taste for the infinite’, concepts that do not belong to the special vocabulary of any of the religions, and especially not to his own

Summary

Introduction

The question explored in the present article is how well Schleiermacher’s account of religion in his early work accounts for what has been called the problem of religious plurality and its underlying issue of an adequate knowledge of the nature of the religions. His account is remarkably advanced given the state of the prevailing views of and knowledge about religion, these being either sceptical dismissal of all religions or uncritical and poorly informed adherence to a personal faith This strength is best seen in the way he was able to address the fact of religious plurality by using concepts like ‘sense and taste for the infinite’ (further explained in the paragraph below about the fourth merit of Schleiermacher’s view of the religions), concepts that do not belong to the special vocabulary of any of the religions, and especially not to his own. What can be said by way of overall conclusion is that despite such problems, the young Schleiermacher made a lastingly important contribution to a better, more inclusive, academic way of understanding religion in its divergent diversity, through the strengths identified in this article

Ethical considerations

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