Friedrich Schleiermacher Quotes
Friedrich Schleiermacher was a German theologian and philosopher, often regarded as the father of modern Protestant theology and modern hermeneutics. His Speeches on Religion to its Cultured Despisers reframed religion as neither doctrine nor morality but the immediate consciousness of absolute dependence on the infinite. The quotes below are attributed to Friedrich Schleiermacher, organized by topic.
Browse Friedrich Schleiermacher by topic
Friedrich Schleiermacher on God
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Attributed to Friedrich Schleiermacher:
“Religion is the feeling of absolute dependence.”
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Attributed to Friedrich Schleiermacher:
“The contemplation of the pious is the immediate consciousness of the universal existence of all finite things, in and through the Infinite.”
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Attributed to Friedrich Schleiermacher:
“Every man has been made by God for religion.”
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“Him pervaded the Cosmic Spirit, the Infinity was his beginning and his end, the Universe his only and everlasting love. In holy innocence and deep humility he beheld himself mirrored in the eternal world, and perceived how himself was its most amiable mirror. Full of religion was he and full of Holy Spirit. Wherefore he stands there, alone and unequalled a master of his art, but sublime above the profane rabble, a peerless beacon forever.”
Friedrich Schleiermacher, on Spinoza, as quoted by Cornelius Lanczos in Albert Einstein and the Cosmic World Order (1962), -
“But the imparting of religion is not to be sought in books, like that of intellectual conceptions and scientific knowledge. The pure impression of the original product is too far destroyed in this medium, which, in the same way that dark-colored objects absorb the greatest proportion of the rays of light, swallows up everything belonging to the pious emotions of the heart, which cannot be embraced”
Friedrich Schleiermacher, On The Social Element in Religion (1799), The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries , Volume 5 -
“Second Speech: The Nature of Religion". On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers . London: Paul, Trench, Trubner. 1893. p. 23.”
Miracle is simply the religious name for event. Every event, even the most natural and usual, becomes a miracle, as soon as the religious view of it can be the dominant. To me all is miracle.
Friedrich Schleiermacher on Knowledge
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Attributed to Friedrich Schleiermacher:
“Hermeneutics is the art of understanding.”
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Attributed to Friedrich Schleiermacher:
“Wherever there is misunderstanding, there is also the possibility of understanding.”
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Attributed to Friedrich Schleiermacher:
“We must learn to interpret each utterance both grammatically and psychologically.”
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“Jämmerlich ist freilich jene praktische Philosophie der Franzosen und Engländer, von denen man meint, sie wüßten so gut, was der Mensch sei, unerachtet sie nicht darüber spekulierten, was er sein solle.”
Pitiful, to be sure, is what the pragmatic philosophy of the French and English is. … They are considered to be so well versed in the knowledge of what man is, despite their failure to speculate on what he should be. Cited in Lucinde and the Fragments , P. Firchow, trans. (1991), "Athenaeum Fragments" (1798), § 355. -
“Pitiful, to be sure, is what the pragmatic philosophy of the French and English is. … They are considered to be so well versed in the knowledge of what man is, despite their failure to speculate on what he should be. Cited in Lucinde and the Fragments , P. Firchow, trans. (1991), "Athenaeum Fragments" (1798), § 355.”
Jämmerlich ist freilich jene praktische Philosophie der Franzosen und Engländer, von denen man meint, sie wüßten so gut, was der Mensch sei, unerachtet sie nicht darüber spekulierten, was er sein solle. -
“Friedrich Schleiermacher, A Critical Essay on the Gospel of St. Luke , 1825, pp. 185–186”
Moreover, in Christ's second discourse, the mode in which the mention of Jonas is understood in Matthew, verse 40, is wholly unsuited to the context and to the application which even there is made of it ; and if we do not take this for a later interpolation, for which no adequate inducement suggests itself, it must be considered as an erroneous comment of the reporter, which he has mixed up with C -
“Between the beginning of our existence and our present life and aims there lies a time in which lust was the prevailing power; in which it conceived and brought forth sin. If we are honest, we can say that there is a period on which we look back only with the feeling that we appear to ourselves to have become since then different men. That which was then our innermost I and Self has now become som”
The Necessity of the New Birth, Selected sermons of Schleiermacher , translated by Mary Wilson 1890, p. 89
Friedrich Schleiermacher on Life
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“Friedrich Schleiermacher, Christ's Resurrection an Image of Our New Life The World's Great Sermons , Volume 3 by Grenville Kleiser”
Oh, that we had our eyes more and more steadily fixt on the risen Savior! Oh, that we could ever be learning more and more from Him to breathe out blessing, as He did when He imparted His Spirit to the disciples! Oh, that we were more and more learning like Him to encourage the foolish and slow of heart to joyful faith in the divine promises, to active obedience to the divine will of their Lord an
Friedrich Schleiermacher on Nature
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“Friedrich Schleiermacher, on Spinoza, as quoted by Cornelius Lanczos in Albert Einstein and the Cosmic World Order (1962),”
Him pervaded the Cosmic Spirit, the Infinity was his beginning and his end, the Universe his only and everlasting love. In holy innocence and deep humility he beheld himself mirrored in the eternal world, and perceived how himself was its most amiable mirror. Full of religion was he and full of Holy Spirit. Wherefore he stands there, alone and unequalled a master of his art, but sublime above the -
“Miracle is simply the religious name for event. Every event, even the most natural and usual, becomes a miracle, as soon as the religious view of it can be the dominant. To me all is miracle.”
Second Speech: The Nature of Religion". On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers . London: Paul, Trench, Trubner. 1893. p. 23.