Homemade Mission, Universal Civilization: Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Theology of Mission

Abstract

Abstract Though it is generally acknowledged that Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1836) was the first to put mission studies in the curriculum of theology, the contents of his theology of mission are not very well known. This article offers a careful reconstruction of his mission theology based on a gender-critical and postcolonial reading of the main sources, in particular Christian Ethics. Schleiermacher made a case for a family-based type of mission, closely linking mission activity to religious education. He favored an organic and grassroots approach to mission. By highlighting his upbringing in the Moravian mission-oriented community and by analyzing his reluctance to morally justify modern foreign missions, the author replies to recently voiced criticisms that Schleiermacher’s theology takes a colonialist stance and contributes to the export of a “cult of female domesticity”. His views on the superiority of Christian religion can be counterbalanced and modified by his actual theology of the missional encounter. The article proposes to retrospectively regard Schleiermacher as one of the first theologians who convincingly expressed the notion of a missional church which is as inclusive as possible.