The Theology of Schleiermacher: Lectures at Gottingen, winter semester of 1923-24

by Karl Barth, Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Translator), Dietrich Ritschl (Photographer)

Hardcover with dust jacket. G/G. Slight penciling, sunned dust jacket

Genres: Theology

287 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Protestant theologian Karl Barth, a Swiss, advocated a return to the principles of the Reformation and the teachings of the Bible; his published works include Church Dogmatics from 1932.

Critics hold Karl Barth among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important since Saint Thomas Aquinas. Beginning with his experience as a pastor, he rejected his typical predominant liberal, especially German training of 19th century.

Instead, he embarked on a new path, initially called dialectical, due to its stress on the paradoxical nature of divine truth—for instance, God is both grace and judgment), but more accurately called a of the Word. Critics referred to this father of new orthodoxy, a pejorative term that he emphatically rejected. His thought emphasized the sovereignty of God, particularly through his innovative doctrine of election. His enormously influenced throughout Europe and America.

Reviews

[Troy Neujahr]

Barth is both gentle and rigorous with Schleiermacher, giving him credit where proper credit is due and challenging his methods and assumptions where those diverge from the Christian faith. Most interesting to me is Barth's attempt to understand and evaluate Schleiermacher from within his own system, rather than merely being satisfied with an aloof broad brush-ed approach. I found it a challenging but valuable read that added depth to my theology and understanding of theology's history.

[David]

This book is a close examination of the father of theological liberalism's theology by the father of neo-orthodoxy. It was unbelievably fascinating and brilliant, even though I could barely understand parts of it.

You can feel Barth's respect and reverence for Schleiermacher. He continually works to present his ideas in the best possible light and repeatedly shares his admiration. This makes his eventual critique and criticisms of Schleiermacher even more powerful. He pulls no punches and has repeated quips that were laugh-out-loud funny. I kept annoying my wife by reading aloud sections I found hilarious that probably made less sense out of context. I kept reading despite the sections I couldn't understand, just for how funny and devastating Barth's critiques were.

This book has a valuable afterward where Barth further explains how his evaluation and thoughts on Schleiermacher developed over the years. I appreciated this being included after the lectures instead of before because it leaves you constantly wondering what his real opinion is while you read the book.

My favorite part was the section where Barth ponders Schleiermacher's involvement in an affair and how his sexual sin should affect our evaluation of his theology. It was especially ironic considering Barth's own later failures.