AUTHOR: Ovidiu Cristian NEDU
THE CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY IN A NATURALISTIC AND PLURALISTIC RELIGIOUS CONTEXT
(ACCORDING TO FR. SCHLEIERMACHER)
Danubius, XXXIX, Galaţi, 2021, pp. 237-254.
Abstract
For Fr. Schleiermacher, the founder of the liberal stream of Protestant theology, religion is a natural function of all humans. Being natural and spontaneous, religious life and experiences are prior to any confession. Confessions are nothing but cultural codifications of natural religiosity.
Christianity is a mere confessional “option”, as valid as any other confessional choice. Nevertheless, Schleiermacher particularly extols the Christian formulation of religious experience, considering it as a higher form of development of the natural religious conscience. It is only due to this excellency of Christianity that he chose this confession. The traditional Christian exclusivism, which claims validity only for Christianity, is rejected by Schleiermacher, who considers it as an appropriate religious attitude, resulting from a misinterpretation of the religious excellency of this confession.