The Oxford Handbook of Friedrich Schleiermacher

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Abstract Friedrich Schleiermacher is now regarded as among the most influential figures in the history of Christian thought for his contributions to theology, philosophy, and theories and methods in religious studies. The German-language critical edition of his work beginning in 1980, Schleiermacher Kritische Gesamtausgabe, and English translations of key portions of his corpus beginning in the late nineteenth century, have allowed scholars to investigate the richness of his thought. German scholars have often focused on Schleiermacher’s ties to early modern philosophy, his aesthetics, hermeneutics, and theory of religion, while English-speaking scholars have often focused on the theological influences and implications of Schleiermacher’s work. Over the last thirty years, both German and Anglophone scholars have been at work translating and analyzing key texts. This volume gathers authoritative interpretations of Schleiermacher’s work from both German and English-speaking scholars, bringing together the best that Schleiermacher scholarship has to offer. The first part, “Schleiermacher in Context,” offers a clear and nuanced understanding of Schleiermacher’s own historical and intellectual context. The second part, “Schleiermacher’s Thought,” presents a close analysis of the structure and content of Schleiermacher’s thought, in relation both to questions of method and particular theological themes and to broader inquiries in philosophy and the humanities. The third part, “Thinking after Schleiermacher,” provides an examination of the reception of his thought and of its contemporary implications for theology and the study of religion.