A Criticism of Schleiermachers Mystical and Pantheistic Christology Byung Ho Moon 1.

Theology Commenting on the Christo-morphic tendency of Introduction: Christological Motives of Schleiermachers

Schleiermachers theology, Richard Niebuhr once pointed out that Schleiermachers theology had been derived mainly from his position of theology-from-below, in light of the fact that the feeling of absolute dependence upon God inherent to Christ has an effect on us.
1

It is true that in Schleiermachera earliest book, On Religion, where theological one foundations cannot easily are find philosophically any direct and remark theoretically which his

his

deployed,

unchanging position on Christology can be traced from. However, when we look carefully into Schleiermachers opus magnum, Christian

Faith, in the light of On Religion, Christo-morphic allusions pursued

in the former are clearly visible in the latter in great detail and profundity.2 In one of his lectures published under the title The Life of

Christ, Schleiermacher regards the divinity of Christ as the mere

power of the Holy Spirit working inwardly in His humanity. He calls the power of the Holy Spirit the element of the divine in our self-consciousness and asserts that from this perspective the humanity in every man is connected with the divinity in him.3 Schleiermacher maintains the view that, as men receive the same Spirit who was poured out fully into Christ at His baptism ceremony, they share His divinity as well as His humanity, but the
1 Richard R. Niebuhr, Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion: A New Introduction (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964), 210-214, 233-237. 2 On the center of Schleiermachers theology which is pursued in relation to God-consciousness and Christology, cf. William C. Martin, "Religion for Its Cultured Despisers: A Study in the Theological Method of Schleiermacher," Restoration Quarterly 13/2(1970): 91-105; Jack Forstman, "Barth, Schleiermacher and the Christian Faith," Union Seminary Quarterly Review 21/3(1966), 315-319. 3 Friedrich Schleiermacher, The Life of Jesus, Lecture 13, in Clements, ed., Friedrich Schleiermacher Pioneer of Modern Theology, 209.

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view is not in agreement with the theologies of covenant and redemption which are founded on the free imputation of the righteousness of Christ fulfilled on the cross. Reformed covenantal theology talks about Gods economy which accomplishes historical salvation through the imputation of Christs merit.4 Moreover, the Reformed theory of atonement asserts that the imputation is totally objective. That is to say that the righteousness of vicarious satisfaction of Christ should be regarded as the price (pretium) of redemption.5 According to Schleiermacher, however, Jesus can be our type or model but He is not required to be the true Mediator who saves people through the imputation of the price of His atoning death. According to Schleiermacher, Christs mediation as the only head of our body is unnecessary. He is only our ideal (Urbild) by being our example (Vorbild). In Christmas Eve, Schleiermacher asserts that the event of Christ has an atoning significance because we can now be immediately conscious of salvation, by making it a symbol. The church is regarded as a community with conscience. To him, the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus do not have value as historical events but rather significance as they can become an idealistic source. Incarnation is marked by the manifestation of the original and divine wisdom in the person of the man, Jesus. In this case the divinity of Christ is understood as the power of the Holy Spirit working within Himself, that is, His devotion and love. By the work of the Holy Spirit, people have an experience of an immediate birth. One gets by to experience the somewhat higher-level consciousness self-consciousness having self-existential

combined by the self-consciousness of becoming Jesus-like with Christ. Schleiermacher calls this the experience of salvation or of
4 On the condition of the covenant of grace, cf. Peter A. Lillback, The Binding of God: Calvins Role in the Development of Covenant Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001); J. Wayne Baker, Heinrich Bullinger and the Covenant: The Other Reformed Tradition (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1980). 5 On the satisfaction (atonement) of Christ, cf. Byung Ho Moon, "Satisfactio Christi I: The Formation of the Reformed Doctrine of Satisfation," Sinhakjinam 73/4(2006): 326-350; ibid., "Expiatio, Propitiatio, Reconciliatio: Bavink's Understanding of Christ's Satisfaction," Sinhakjinam 75/2(2008): 326-350..

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incarnation.6 Through The Life of Christ and Christmas Eve, we can realize that the reason why Schleiermacher emphasized emotion (Gefrl) as the essence of a religion in his On Religion was to advocate that the God-man Christ and believers share the same divine essence. He points out religious feeling as common between the incarnated Christ and men in order to set forth salvation as self-consciousness of being in and with God through the communication of inner affection. In this way the concept of the feeling of absolute dependence was developed in Christian Faith with a notable Christological motivation. This paper will investigate the origin and essence of liberation theology unfolded after Schleiermacher, by critically assessing the Christology of Schleiermacher who achieved an epoch-making feat of psychologizing the whole system of Christian theology.7 The subsequent chapters are as follows. Chapter 2 sets forth Schleiermachers position on the necessity of Christ as the Redeemer on the basis of his immanent soteriology, which calls the communication of the feeling of absolute dependence upon God the redemption. From this perspective, chapter 3 surveys the view of mediator by Schleiermacher, who asserts that every believer should be a mediator for others because the divinity of Christ is common among all men. Chapter 4 will observe the position of Schleiermacher who sees the mediation of Christ only as a model of mediation for and of all men and point out that he regards Christs redemption as a subjective influence on the inner self-consciousness rather than as the atoning ransom for the on guilty. Chapter and 5 work deals of with Christ. Schleiermachers position the person

Schleiermacher does not distinguish the person of Christ from His humanity. He regards the divinity of Christ as a mere divine power. As a result, the work of Christ is no more than a subjective, inner persuasion. This chapter points out that Schleiermacher destroys the Christological formula of the Chalcedon Creed in 451 AD. Finally, as
6 Friedrich Schleiermacher, Christmas Eve: Dialogue on the Incarnation, tr. Terrence N. Tice (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1967), 72-73, 78-80, 82-85. 7 Cf. Hugh Ross Mackintosh, Types of Modern Theology (London: Nisbet and Co., Ltd., 1937), 45.

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a concluding remark, Chapter 6 proves the fact that Schleiermacher pursued his Christology in a mystical and pantheistic Christology-from-below way. 2. Redemption: Sharing with Christ the Feeling of Absolute Dependence upon God Piety (Frmmigkeit) is a key issue to understand

Schleiermachers theology. In On Religion, Schleiermacher defines religious life as exalting the human heart with piety so that the whole soul may be dissolved in the immediate feeling of the Infinite and Eternal (ein unmittelbares Gefhl des Unendlichen und Ewigen) and be sustained in communication (Gemeinschaft) with Him.8 In

Christian Faith, Schleiermacher defines piety as a modification of

Feeling, or of immediate self-consciousness (eine Bestimmtheit des

Gefhls order des unmittelbaren Selbstbewutseins).9 He calls it the

consciousness of being absolutely dependent, that is, of being in relation with God.10 This consciousness is conceiving God as the Whole and the Foundation including the self and as such, being that becomes the self by owning Him. Schleiermacher considers that every self-consciousness has two elements: a self-caused element (ein Sichselbstsetzen) and a non-self-caused former refers element to a (ein

Sichselbstnichtsogesetzthaben).
(ein

The a

Being

Sein)
(ein

and

the

latter

to

Having-by-some-means-come-to-be

Irgendwiegewordensein).

Therefore, each person conceives its Ego as its own existence in the world and co-existence with the world.11 Each of us is conscious of ourselves as a part of the world and there is no feeling
8 On Religion, 16. In English translation, the part on "fellowship" is omitted. 9 Friedrich Schleiermacher, Der christliche Glaube nach den Grundstzen der evangelischen Kirche in Zusamenhange dargestellt, Band 1 und Band 2 (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1821, 1822), 3. Proposition. The book used in this paper is Walter de Gruyter publication text (2008) of the second edition published under the same title in 1830. English translation used here is Friedrich Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, ed., H. R. MacKintosh and J. S. Stewart (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1976). Hereafter quotations from this book are marked as Christian Faith. 10 Christian Faith, 4. Proposition. 11 Christian Faith, 4.1.

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of absolute dependence or of absolute freedom with reference to the relationship between ourselves.12 However, according to Schleiermacher, the only thing that exists with reference to the relationship between God and us is the feeling of absolute dependence upon God. We have no feeling of freedom towards God. Schleiermacher does not presuppose the existence of God, still less the original knowledge of God, which is known as revelation. He simply thinks that the existence of God comes true when we are conscious of Him as the Whence and the Whole, who is exclusively outside us. Schleiermacher does not intend to speak of the existence of God. His sole concern is our consciousness of something divine, which can be properly called God because we conceives it as such. The feeling of absolute only as dependence this idea becomes comes a clear being

self-consciousness

into

simultaneously. In this sense it can be truly said that God is given to us in feeling in the original way; and if we speak of an original revelation of God to man or in man, the meaning will always be there just is this, given that, to along man with also the the absolute immediate dependence which characterizes not only man but all temporal existence, God.13 For Schleiermacher, Christian piety lies in the determination of self-consciousness, abiding-in-self the feeling of absolute dependence upon God by and a passing-beyond-self one whose life is to be conceived as an alternation between an (Insichbleiben) (Aussichheraustreten).14
12 Christian Faith, 4.2. 13 Christian Faith, 4.4. 14 Christian Faith, 3.3-5. On Schleiermacher's position on the doctrine of God which is derived from the concept of the feeling of absolute dependence upon God and human introvert and extrovert personality, cf. Martin, "Religion for Its Cultured Despisers: A Study in the Theological Method of Schleiermacher," 96-97.

self-consciousness of it, which becomes a consciousness of

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The feeling of absolute dependence of God is unique to each person, but can be seen as the consciousness of kind (Gattungsbewu

tsein), which is not individualistic.15 It forms itself by being

communicated in itself, shared in one and aimed at each other. Religiosity (Religiositt) denotes the individuals susceptibility to the influence of the fellowship or communion and participation in the circulation and propagation calls God this becomes of a the Highest religious One
18

emotions.16 According to the totality

Schleiermacher Schleiermacher,

communion

Church.17

as

expressed in the religious self-consciousness. through His attributes. Christianity, as

God is defined by communion of

the goal of the whole and the harmony of the whole is revealed the self-consciousness, is teleological and aesthetic.19 It must also be positive because each internal agreement materializes the unity of the whole in actual reality.20 Therefore, revelations and inspirations are no more than external and internal forms in expressing communal piety.21 Schleiermacher defines Christianity as a teleological and salvific religion that accomplishes self-consciousness towards God by communing with Christ in actual life.22 Christianity is a monotheistic faith, belonging to the teleological type of religion, and is essentially distinguished from other such faiths by the fact that in it everything is related to the redemption accomplished by Jesus of Nazareth.23
15 16 17 18 19 20 6.2. 6. Postscript. 6.4. 8.1. 9.1. By the word "positive," Schleiermacher means "the individual content of all the moments of the religious life within one religious communion, in so far as this content depends on the original fact from which the communion itself, as a coherent historical phenomenon, originated." Christian Faith, 10. Postscript. 21 Christian Faith, 10. 22 Christian Faith, 11.2. 23 Christian Faith, 11. Proposition: "Das Christenthum ist eine der teleologischen Richtung der Frmmigkeit angehrige monotheistische Glaubensweise, und unterscheidet sich von andern solchen wesentlich dadurch, da alles in derselben bezogen wird auf die durch Jesum von Nazareth

Christian Christian Christian Christian Christian

Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith,

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According

to

Schleiermacher,

Jesus

Christ

becomes

the

Redeemer in that people are conscious of redemption through Him. In this sense, Jesus Christ is the founder of a religious communion called Christianity. The redemption of Christ lies in His absolute freedom from the bondage of sin and incapacity by His perfect and unchanging absolute dependence upon God.24 Jesus Christ did redeeming activity (erlsenden Thtigkeit) in that He experienced absolute self-consciousness and communicated and propagated it among the people elected by God. According to Schleiermacher, salvation comes not only through (durch) but also from (von) Christ because it is to experience God-consciousness(Gottesbewu

tsein) along with Him.

25

For Schleiermacher, redemption means reaching a state of being conscious of God as Christ by making Him the Urbild. In other words, redemption is to receive the same divinity inwardly that Christ received in His humanity. Everyone has this possibility.26 Schleiermacher does not admit original sin as imputed by the first Adam, but simply says that humans are born imperfect. Nevertheless, they are called and endowed with a possibility to reach the perfection.27 This is because the divine Spirit enhances the human reason to a higher degree.28 According to Schleiermacher, redemption corresponds, in essence, to the influence that evokes religious self-consciousness. Everyone is born with a divine nature to have a divine experience.29 This quality is seen to be elevated to experience God-consciousness by the working of the propensity to believe in Christ and of the common Spirit. A Christian community is called as a communion to share this experience, while preaching is regarded as its proclamation.30 Therefore, the whole work of the Redeemer is
vollbrachte Erlsung." Cf. Kelsey, Thinking about Christ with Schleiermacher, 14-15. Christian Faith, 11.3. Christian Faith, 11.4. Christian Faith, 13.1. Cf. David N. Duke, "Schleiermacher: Theology without a Fall," Perspectives in Religious Studies 9/1(1982), 21-37. 28 Christian Faith, 13.2. 29 Christian Faith, 13. Postscript. 24 25 26 27

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defined

by

the

communicability of

of

His

self-consciousness.31 in poetic,

Schleiermacher finds that a real doctrine (Glaubenssatz) lies in describing the communication God-consciousness dialectic, and rhetoric ways.32 Schleiermachers doctrine is devoid of such a concept as objective and absolute revelation.33 Faith is not to receive Gods revelation but to feel convinced of God-consciousness. Faith is to share the divine pleasure which Christ enjoyed.34 When Schleiermacher says that there is no other way but to believe in Christ as Redeemer, he means it in the following sense.35 Doctrines are said to teach affections and rituals, and the ecclesiastical value of doctrines lies only in religious feelings rather than in the spiritual persuasion of the Word of God.36 Doctrines are said to become precepts for preaching and discipline to communicate Christs original feeling.37 Schleiermacher regards a doctrinal truth as scientific in the sense that it is dialectic. A doctrine is dialectic in the sense that it is related to the rapport of knowledge rather than to the knowledge itself.38 The doctrine that Christian piety has its foundation on does deal not with the knowledge of Christ but with the knowledge of His piety.39 To Schleiermacher, piety is no more than feeling God comprehensively. Christ is the first person to have this feeling and one regards Him as Redeemer in the sense that through Him only,
30 Christian Faith, 14.1. Cf. Christian Faith, 14.2; 15.2; 18.1, 3; 19.1; 93.5. Schleiermacher regards preaching as the communication of inner feeling rather than the proclamation of biblical truths. Cf. Dawn DeVries, Jesus Christ in the Preaching of Calvin and Schleiermacher (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996), 48-52. 31 Christian Faith, 15.2. 32 Christian Faith, 15.1. On the relationship between theology, preaching and hermeneutics in the theology of Schleiermacher, cf. Catherine L. Kelsey, Schleiermacher's Preaching, Dogmatics, and Biblical Criticism (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2007), 1-8. 33 Cf. Gregory A. Thornbury, "A Revelation of the Inward: Schleiermacher's Theology and the Hermeneutics of Interiority," Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 3/1(1999), 4-26. 34 Christian Faith, 120.3. On faith as a ritual to participate in God's delight, Cf. Niebuhr, Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion: A New Introduction, 248-259. 35 Christian Faith, 14. Proposition. 36 Christian Faith, 17. 37 Christian Faith, 18. 38 Christian Faith, 28.1. 39 Christian Faith, 29.3.

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one is able to have the feeling of absolute dependence upon God. Church is a gathering of people who share this feeling and doctrines are ecclesiastical statements on such a feeling.40 According to Schleiermacher, redemption is to have an immediate and internal experience of being united with God through Christ, who Himself experienced Gods perfect salvific blessing. Christ is not the object of faith, but Urbild for believers, as Vorbild whom they have to imitate. In fact, it is a feeling that leads you to depend upon God as a part of God. This kind of feeling can be regarded as the divine feeling which Christ first experienced.41 Schleiermacher claims that this kind of feeling of oneness or unity springs immediately within the heart. So the feeling is called universal and natural to all men.42 Schleiermacher regards the bible not as the treasure of Gods eternal and self-evident wisdom but only as a source of this consciousness. In other words, for him, divine truth is generated from the self-consciousness of the humanity of men who also share in common the divinity with Christ.43 For Schleiermacher, Jesus Christ cannot become our Redeemer as sacrifice (sacrificium)-priest (sacerdos). He can only become Urbild as a model. Christ shares the same God-consciousness with us, but is distinguished from us in that his God-consciousness was perfectly absolute in degree. This kind of explanation is not compatible with traditional doctrines such as the imputation of the righteousness or merit of Christ. From the outset of his theology, Schleiermacher denies any possibility of Christs redemption in our place by placing human capacity at the center.

40 Christian Faith, 30.1. 41 Christian Faith, 32.1-2. Cf. Richard R. Niebuhr, "Schleiermacher: Theology as Human Reflection," Harvard Theological Review 55/1(1962): 20-49. This paper is published with a few modifications in Niebuhr, Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion: A New Introduction, 137-173. 42 Christian Faith, 33.1. 43 Christian Faith, 33.3. In the following sermon Schleiermacher asserts, the influence the Lord influenced upon the soul of believers is not different from what He reveals Himself in the Word. Friedrich Schleiermacher, A Servant of the Word: Selected Sermons of Friedrich Schleiermacher, tr. with an introduction by Dawn De Vries, "The Effects of Scripture and the Immediate Effects of the Redeemer," Fortress Texts in Modern Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987), 100-106.

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3.

Mediation

for

and

of

All:

Denial

of

Christs

Sole

Mediatorship According to Schleiermacher, Christ becomes our Redeemer who presents us with the new corporate life as

Urbild.

Schleiermacher asserts that the purpose of redemption is to enhance the earthly life that God endowed by gaining new life from Christ and involving it within us.44 Schleiermacher claims that those who experience being one with Christ by immediately conceiving the consciousness of the new life45 should feel the need to become mediators themselves for others,46 for redemption to Schleiermacher is to feel oneself both as subject and as a part of the whole and to feel a reciprocity between Ego and Other both as a part and as a whole at the same time towards each other. Christ is said to be Mediator because He felt this feeling of the whole as God, that is to say, the Whole, for the first time. According to Schleiermacher, no God-consciousness exists without the feeling of co-existence of each part of the Whole. So the feeling of absolute dependence upon God is presupposed by ones relative dependence upon each other. Schleiermacher asserts that this kind of mediation would still be required even if no Fall had occurred in history. For him, the Fall is merely a process of general history to be perfected. In this respect, he says, Christ had the same mediatorial office even before the Fall as Redeemer. It is believed that like Christ, all men are mediators for others because they have been endowed with innate abilities. No uniqueness in Christs mediatorship can be found here.47 This basic position of Schleiermacher is already exhibited in his first work On Religion, where Schleiermacher asserts that each person works as a mediator for others as he or she conceives themselves as a part of the Whole. As a part of the One and of the Whole, men feel the higher self-consciousness of communication with
44 45 46 47

Christian Christian Christian Christian

Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith,

87.3. 88.2. 89.3. 89.

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others, with the universe and ultimately with God. By their very existence they prove that they themselves are ambassadors of God and mediators between finite men and the infinite humanity.48 The highest nature of humanity lies in the common feeling of the One in All, and All in One (das eine in allem und alles in einem). The true priest of the highest is the person who intercedes for others with the ability to enhance one's inner feeling by inspiration (Begeisterung). For Schleiermacher, inspiration is an activity of feeling for the finite to recognize the infinite as its Whole. It is no other than self-consciousness as a priestly mediator to feel one as another other among the Whole.49 Schleiermacher maintains that by the working of World-Spirit (Weltsgeist), every creature becomes a gallery of religious scenes and each part is practised in the Whole and the Whole is being completed.50 The universe is like an organ where the mastership (Meistertum) and the discipleship (Jngerschaft) are co-existing. Human beings are created to communicate and be united with each other. This is because each person has a chance to share the Primal Source (Urwesen) in the feeling of weakness (Unvermgens) and finitude (Endlichkeit).51 Schleiermachers concept of mediatorship is originally related to the economy and preservation of creation rather than to personal salvation. For him, the Fall refers merely to a stage of the evolution of the creature.52 Schleiermacher sees that humanity has an innate intuition to intercede between persons, moreover between our limited way of thinking and the eternal laws of the world. This kind of immediate consciousness is not different from pious feeling which is exalted by
48 Friedrich Schleiermacher, On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers, tr. John Oman, Rep. (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1994), 6. Hereafter quotations from this book are marked as On Religion. The original text used here is of Friedrich Schleiermacher, Reden ber die Reiligion an die Gebildeten unter ihren Verchten, mit einer Einleitung von D. Sigfried Lommatzsch, Zweite Auslage (Gotha: Friedrich Andreas Perthes, 1888). 49 On Religion, 7-8. 50 On Religion, 123. 51 On Religion, 123-125. 52 Schleiermacher finds the meaning of creation in the consciousness of creation. Cf. Brian A. Gerrish, Nature and the Theater of Redemption: Schleiermacher on Christian Dogmatics and the Creation Story, Ex Auditu 3(1987), 124-128, 132-136. especially, 126.

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inspiration.53 Those who have higher senses, that is piety, have a general susceptibility to all religious feelings (eine

allgemeine

Erregbarkeit fr alle religisen Gefhle).54 This human capacity

becomes an essential element to unite the Whole as the One by the working of World-Spirit.55 When the Whole is conceived as the One, the idea of the One becomes an existence, God, in the pious feeling of relationship and communication with the Universe. This kind of feeling is the only mode of Gods existence. For Schleiermacher, salvation in the God-consciousness through the mediation is none other than organic life in and with the Universe.56 There is no difference between the general grace and the special grace. Schleiermacher relates human social nature to priesthood.57 He says that the human soul is the common seat of the same feeling. The feeling of natural and eternal union with each other is unchangeable as a heavenly bond.58 The key in religious life is to live a living and life-giving life. True piety lies not in receiving something from without (von auen) but in imparting something unique from within (von innen heraus).59 Anyone who shares religious feeling and helps to form a bond of society works as a priest.60 In this sense, according to Schleiermacher, all are made mediators for all.61 He goes even further and says that all humans work as mediators for God because God as a mobile mass62 is in the process of becoming, through the intercessions of all creatures. Schleiermacher explains the plurality of mediation by the concept of World-Spirit. The high World-Spirit makes the Universe a Holy of Holies by each creatures reciprocal mediation. All human activities are understood as mediatorial works. Philosophy, ethics,

53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62

On On On On On On On On On On

Religion, Religion, Religion, Religion, Religion, Religion, Religion, Religion, Religion, Religion,

74-76. 130. 135. 141-142. 148-149. 151-154. 48, 160-161. 163. 168-169. 175.

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culture, and arts are suggested as religious genres. All should be mediators for all. All those mediated are divine. All that is human is holy, for all is divine.63 For Schleiermacher, mediation means an equal, reciprocal activity. It means a reciprocal complement.64 Schleiermacher does not mention at all the unique character of Christs mediation as true God and true Man who made everything, decreed only for us.65 There is no true mediation of Christ allotted by the theology of Schleiermacher because he deals with the divinity of Christ merely as a possibility to enhance humanity.66 You are a compendium of humanity. In a sense your single nature embraces all human nature. Your Ego, multiplied and more clearly outlined, is in all its smallest and swiftest changes immortalized in the manifestations of human nature. As soon as you see this, you will be able love yourself with pure and blameless love. Humility, which will never forsake you, has its counterpart in the feeling that the whole of humanity lives and works in you. What is more, contrition is sweetened for joyful self-sufficiency. This is the completion of religion on this aspect. Religion comes back to the heart, and there it finds the Infinite. The man in whom this has been accomplished, does not need a mediator any more for any sort of intuition of humanity. Instead he himself is a mediator for many.67 4. Christ the Mediator: Ideal (Urbilt) as an Example (Vorbild) Schleiermacher describes the state of believers under the grace of God as follows.

63 On Religion, 178-180. 64 On Religion, 76. 65 Schleiermacher derives the redemption of Christ from His God-consciousness. Cf. Clements, ed., Friedrich Schleiermacher: Pioneer of Modern Theology, 40-42. 66 Cf. Christian Faith, 13.2. 67 On Religion, 79.

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We have fellowship with God only in a living fellowship with the Redeemer, such that in it His absolutely sinless perfection and blessedness represent a free and spontaneous activity, while the recipients need of redemption represents free and assimilative receptivity.68 Schleiermacher understands the merit of salvation as related to the influence of Christs divine consciousness. The influence is both

immediate and mediate; immediate in that it is conceived mentally

without any responsive activity, and mediate in that it follows the original feeling of Christ as the ideal.69 Christs dignity is said to be distinct only because His activity and persuasion into inner affection are incomparably predominant. From this perspective, Schleiermacher deals with the person of Christ teleologically as he does with His mediatorial work.70 It foundation is notable view already that Schleiermacher his in works, has sustained From the his start, Christological was throughout found whose theological

On Religion.

Schleiermacher deals with redemption without mentioning Christs atoning righteousness or merit. He presupposes Christs mediatorship as the original fountain of perfect religious consciousness. Only in this respect, Schleiermacher notes, is the necessity of the Messiah viable.71 The Messiah is regarded as the highest human being who can feel the One with the conception of the disruption between the One and its parts and overcome it as an original model.72 For Schleiermacher, Christs consciousness as Mediator signifies His divinity. Christ is called God because He feels that He is the only way to God (Matt. 11:27), which is an existence in God as well as with God. The divinity of Christ merely denotes His self-sufficiency of spiritual need.73 Like all other gods, Christ works
68 69 70 71 72 73

Christian Faith, 91. Proposition. Christian Faith, 91. Christian Faith, 92. Cf. Christian Faith, 86.1. On Religion, 240. On Religion, 240-243. On Religion, 247.

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as god in our immediate self-consciousness. The divine activity of the Messiah called Christ is to absolve conflicts between the One and the many in the One. His mediation is divine only in that it is conceived immediately and intuitively among us as a means to overcome the gap between the infinite and the finite, and the eternal and the temporal. The original intuition of Christianity is more glorious, more sublime, more worthy of adult humanity and penetrates deeper into the spirit of systematic religion and extends itself further over the whole Universe. It is just the intuition of the Universal resistance of finite things to the unity of the Whole, and of the way that the Deity treats the resistance. Christianity sees how He reconciles His hostility to Himself, and sets bounds to the ever-increasing alienation by scattering points here and there over the whole that are both finite and infinite, human and divine. Corruption and redemption, hostility and mediation, are the two indivisibly united, fundamental elements of this type of feeling, and by them the whole form of Christianity and the cast of all the religious matter contained in it are determined.
74

According to Schleiermacher, everyone as a mediating and divine being lives a divine life in communion with the infinite Whole. Each person who has a higher God-consciousness shares it with others as a logical mediator (ein logisch Mittler) and an ethical mediator (ein ethisch Mittler). Christ mediates as a representative. He becomes at the center of mediation.75 He demonstrates an exemplary type of mediator.76 With reference to mediation, Christ becomes our Urbild as Vorbild.77
74 On Religion, 241. 75 On Religion, 248-252. 76 In this respect, Schleiermacher opposes Christ's mediation according to both of His natures. Cf. Lori Pearson, "Schleiermacher and the Christologies behind Chalcedon," Harvard Theological Review 96/3(2003): 349-367. 77 Cf. Catherine L. Kelsey, Thinking about Christ with Schleiermacher (Louisville: Westminster John

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In

Christian Faith, Schleiermacher relates Christs dignity

(wrde) to His activity in the founding of a community (der

Gemeinschaftstiftenden Wirksamkeit).78 Christ is regarded as the

Founder of the Christian fellowship because its members are conscious of God through Him.79 That is, for Schleiermacher, Christ becomes the head of the church as an origin of religious rites.80 By the persuasion of Christ all Christians are aware of the spontaneity of the new corporate life (die

Selbstthtigkeit

des

neuen

Gesammtlebens).81 The marks of the church are revealed most

significantly in an ever-active susceptibility to His influence (der

regebleibenden Empfnglichkeit fr seine Einwirkung). Christ always

has an exemplary (vorbildliche) dignity. But this does not mean that He always influence Christians becomes not ideality always (Urbildlichkeit). presuppose to surpass that His He In representative has absolute with does

perfection. For with an ever-deepening understanding of Christ pursue possibility Him.82 dealing salvation, Schleiermacher emphasizes spontaneity as an essential element for self-accomplishment.83 This type of spontaneity marks the divinity of men most significantly because it causes their humanity to conceive something beyond it. Schleiermacher finds the perfect ideal of a mediator in Christs God-consciousness. Piety is regarded as living fellowship with His feeling of absolute dependence upon God.84 Christs miracles become marks which show His self-overcoming approves the via absolute of God-consciousness. Schleiermacher concept

sinfulness of Christ. However, he considers it trivial. Thus, Christ is described as Redeemer and redeemed in one person (Erlser und

Knox, 2003), 51-53. 78 Christian Faith, 93.1. 79 Christian Faith, 11.3(56). 80 Schleiermacher emphasizes the communication of God-consciousness among believers. Cf. Dennis M. Doyle, "Mhler, Schleiermacher, and the Roots of Communion Ecclesiology," Theological Studies 57/3(1996), 467-480. 81 Christian Faith, 93. Proposition. 82 Christian Faith, 93.2. 83 Cf. Mackintosh, Types of Modern Theology, 33. 84 Christian Faith, 93.5.

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Erlster in einer Person). Like us, according to Schleiermacher,

Christ cannot conquer human sinfulness in His physical life, but by living the spiritual life full of God-consciousness He makes us recognize a miraculous fact (eine wunderbare Erscheinung). The nature to live a spiritual life is given by God. Jesus shows the ideality in that He made the perfect ideal of the nature come true for the first time.85 This type of nature is called divinity, which Schleiermacher regards as common to all Christians. Christ too has this nature just like us, but exalts it to the highest point, unlike us.86 Schleiermacher acknowledges the possibility of sinlessness as given to all humans. He makes remarks on original sin, but does not regard it as essential. Schleiermacher sees the influence of sin as sin. He says both Christ and the first Adam are sinless in that they are not influenced by sin.
87

However Christ is different from Adam

before the fall in that He lived a life under the influence of the sins committed by Adam and his descendents. Men cannot escape from sin by themselves. Only Christ conquered sin with an absolutely powerful God-consciousness, which best illuminates an existence of God in Him (ein Sein Gottes in ihm). In communion with the God-conscousness in Christ, we conceive the feeling of an existence of God in us (ein Sein Gottes in uns). This feeling refers to the divinity divinity our common of Christ to as all Christians.88 Schleiermacher regards in the His the God-consciousness are nourished engraved by His

humanity, made sanctified from dormant sinfulness. Christ becomes Mediator because we absolute consciousness of God through mystical communion and communication with His mental self. After all, salvation signifies the impartation of the divinity of Christ.89 Here we can find Schleiermachers point of view that identifies salvation with deification. For him, to be

85 86 87 88 89

Christian Christian Christian Christian Christian

Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith,

93.3. 93.4. 94.1. 94.2. 94.3.

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redeemed means to be God, as a part of God, which is wholly pantheistic. 5. The Person and Work of Christ the Mediator Schleiermacher following reasons. First, he finds no biblical passages that clearly show the existence of the divinity of Christ before the Incarnation. The subject of Incarnation cannot be Logos, the eternal Word of God. Second, since the word nature (die Natur) signifies the finite attributes of a creature, it cannot not be used to refer to the divinity. Third, since the union of two natures is not compatible with the unity of person, if we maintain the traditional concept of the hypostatic union, we will surely fall into errors by regarding Christ either as two persons or as a third person. Fourth, if we take the position of hypostatic union, we will come to the dilemma that we can say neither that Christ has two wills nor that He has one will. Fifth, if we take the position of hypostatic union, we cannot explain the trinity. For, if we add the unity of nature to the unity of essence, ultimately it is synonymous to presupposing the union of the divinity of Christ with two other persons properties.90 This critique of Schleiermacher is originated from his misunderstanding of theological terms such as hypostasis, nature, unity, and union. Most of all, he does not clearly differentiate between hypostasis and nature or between unity and union. Schleiermacher warns if we admit the hypostatic union we will fall into Ebionism or Docetism.91 Interpreting the Word became flesh, Schleiermacher explains the Word as the activity of God expressed in the form of consciousness, flesh as a general expression for the organic. For Schleiermacher, the Incarnation is
90 Christian Faith, 96.1. 91 Christian Faith, 96.2.

denies

the

hypostatic

union

of

Christ

the

Mediator, established by the Chalcedon Creed in 451 AD, for the

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none other than a physical activity of consciousness by the working of the Holy Spirit. He says Christ has an absolute and clear God-consciousness incarnatedness of because God becomes He (ein eternal has the innermost, fundamental power, which is attributed to divinity. A new incarnation and

neues
in

Menschwerden
Therefore, it

und
is

Menschgewordensein Gottes) denotes the fact that the activity of

God-consciousness Christ. asserted that always and everywhere all that is human in Him springs out of that divine (immer und berall alles menschliche in ihm

aus jedem gttlichen wird).92 Here Schleiermachers view is clearly

visible in that the divinity is none other than the divine activities of humanity. Thus the biblical concept of Incarnation is completely overthrown. The only thing that Schleiermacher acknowledges in regard to the person of Christ is His divine and human act of union (den Act

der

Vereinigung)
which

and signifies

state

of

union of

(den

Zustand

des

Vereintseins).
activity,

The beginning of the person is the beginning of the revelation God-consciousness.93

Schleiermacher regards the Incarnation as an activity of humanity to receive the divinity. In the Incarnation, divinity plays a predominant role in causing God-consciousness through the work of the Holy Spirit. By the divine power, divinity is united into humanity in the immediate feeling of absolute dependence upon God. This is what Schleiermacher understands concerning the union of the two attributes called divinity and humanity.94 According to this understanding, the necessity of the Incarnation has nothing to do with the Fall. It is simply for the consummation of the creation.95 Schleiermacher does not distinguish the human nature of Christ from His human personality. He strictly opposes accepting the concept of impersonality (Unpersnlichkeit) of the human nature, for

92 93 94 95

Christian Faith, 96.3. Christian Faith, 97.1. Christian Faith, 97.2. the former part. Cf. Niebuhr, Niebuhr, Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion: A New Introduction, 247-248. The
author calla this tendency "a tension between doctrine of creation and redemption."

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he believes that the word humanity means a life-form as a unity (Lebensform als Einheit). He identifies Christs humanity with His person. For Schleiermacher, while only humanity forms the subject of Christ, divinity refers only to divine attributes. Thus the union of the two natures, the divine and the human, cannot be allowed as the Incarnation, which is known as the virgin conception of Christ by the Holy Spirit.96 Schleiermacher, by the union of the two natures in Christ, means receiving of divine activity by humanity. In Christ Himself the original assumptive divine activity and the divine activity during the union are not to be differentiated; but all activities, in so far as distinguishable in time, are simply developments of the human activity. Only the humanity forms the person of Christ incarnated. The divinity is only acting in the human person. The humanity signifies the being as well as nature, while the divinity only denotes the divine attributes exhibited by divine activities. So there can be no equal union between the divine and the human nature.97 Schleiermacher denies Christs mediation for us as true man and true God in the union of both natures.98 Schleiermacher criticizes both the Reformed and the Lutheran view of communicatio idiomatum because both traditions presuppose two equal but incompatible natures and try to either separate or mix them.99 Nevertheless, Schleiermachers point of view on the person of Christ is quite similar to that of Lutherans in that both are founded on the concept of the assimilation of the divinity into the humanity. However, no similitude between the Reformed view of communication of properties and that of Schleiermacher displayed in the following description: And we possess a far better canon in the following formula: the creation of man first reached a completion in Christ. For
96 Christian Faith, 97.2. the latter part. 97 Christian Faith, 97.3. 98 Cf. Forstman, "Barth, Schleiermacher and the Christian Faith," 319. The author points out that although Schleiermacher and Karl Barth emphasize the Incarnation of Christ, Schleiermacher pursues its meaning as a theological core, while Barth is concerned mainly with its truth itself. 99 Christian Faith, 97.5.

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what distinguishes Christ from all others is that which is innermost in Him. Hence, the being of God dwelling in Him must be related to the whole human nature in such a way that previously was innermost was related to the whole human organism-an analogy which, although not clearly expressed, runs through the whole foregoing presentation of the subjec t.100 Schleiermacher merely regards communication idiomatum as a type of analogy of relationship. He finds the sinlessness of Christ in the perfection of personality (Persnlichkeit). Christ was able not to sin (non potuit peccare) like Adam before the Fall. According to Schleiermacher, Christ is not the person who was not able to sin (potuit non peccare) because He was influenced by the depraved human state. Schleiermacher says the difference between Christ and men is not essential but accidental.101 Schleiermacher finds the sinlessness of Christ in the fact that He is fully open to God in His perfect God-consciousness.102 Here we see again Schleiermachers teleological (teleologische) view of Christology. Overall Schleiermacher deals with the person of Christ in the light of His God-consciousness. Christ did not commit any sin although he was in the state sive potuit peccare sive potuit non

peccare. Thus He could not be in the curse of death punishment. But

He stood spontaneously in the state of sinner by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit dwelling within Him, that is, the divinity.
103

Schleiermacher deals with Christs Resurrection and Ascension in

the same vein. They are historical events in that Gods being in Christ gives rise to God-consciousness related to them immediately inwardly. concept.104
100 101 102 103

Referring

to

Christs

so-called

Descent

into

Hell,

Schleiermacher mentions only the persuasion of people related to this

Christian Christian Christian Christian

Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith,

97.4. 98.1. 66.2; 63. 98.1-2.

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In dealing with the work of Christ, Schleiermacher is only concerned with the influence of His God-consciousness in each event. The same applies to his view on Christs threefold office.105 The prophetic office of Christ is said to teach and proclaim His God-consciousness, which is His special organ. Schleiermacher calls this divine consciousness the original revelation of God in Christ.106 Christs priestly office of Christ is thought of living His life for us, the perfect fulfillment of the law, the atoning death, and the intercession to the Father for believers. Schleiermacher asserts that Christs willing obedience to Gods will becomes vicarious satisfaction (stellvertretende Genugthuung), in that it has an influence on believers God-consciousness.107 For this reason Christ becomes our satisfying representative (unsern genungthuenden Stellvertreter). Christs righteousness which is fulfilled on the cross is sufficient to put us in fellowship with His God-consciousness.108 According to Schleiermacher, Christs kingly office refers to His government that reigns over the whole religious affection of believers. He denies Christs humiliation and exaltation, but acknowledges His deification. This office works to elevate us to the point that we participate in Christs perfect consciousness, which is in His divinity.109 According to Schleiermacher, Christs threefold office only amounts to His self-accomplishment. It is only effective to believers in terms of its being an Ideal as Example to them, Urbild als Vorbild. Here Christs priestly office does not refer to vicarious redemption but to the influence of the prophetic office. For Schleiermacher does not admit any The concept same is of objective applies to be imputation to the effectuated of kingly Christs office. righteousness. Christs principle

government

thought

by the inner

104 Christian Faith, 99.1. 105 Christian Faith, 102. 106 Christian Faith, 103. 107 For Schleiermacher, the concept of satisfaction is related to the influence of original feeling of Christ. Cf. Niebuhr, Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion: A New Introduction, 258-259. 108 Christian Faith, 104. 109 Christian Faith, 105.

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persuasion of religious affection. Schleiermachers understanding of the person and work of Christ originates from his subjective way of biblical interpretation. Schleiermacher points out to the fact that Christ was not at all conscious of Himself as God-Man (Gottmensch) according to the Bible. Schleiermacher gives special attention to the title Son of Man. He believes that the title dramatically proves Christs unique property as the Son of God in His God-consciousness. In the same vein Schleiermacher sets forth the title of Logos, the fact that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls Christ the form of Gods hypostasis, and the fact that Paul describes Christ as the founder of new humanity. Schleiermacher does not accept the traditional meaning of the divinity in the person of Christ. He just acknowledges exalted humanity (die erhhtes menschliches).110 Schleiermacher does not acknowledge the eternal divinity of Christ. He thinks that it was shaped along with spiritual affection which is temporal and accidental. The person of Christ is identified with His humanity. The divinity shows only the ability and predominance of the humanity. Overall Schleiermachers Christology is overwhelmed by its teleological scheme. He completely overturns the biblical teaching on the person and work of Christ the Mediator which is based on the concept of the hypostatic union. 6. Conclusion: Schleiermachers Mystical and Pantheistic

Christology The Redeemer draws believers into the power of His

God-consciousness, and this is His redemptive activity.111 By this succinct proposition, Schleiermacher carefully describes his position on the teleological character of Christian piety (des

teleologischen Charakters der christlichen Frmmigkeit). He finds the

110 Christian Faith, 99. Postscript. 111 Christian Faith, 100. Proposition: "Der Erlser nimmt die Glubigen in die Krftigkeit seines Gottesbewutseins auf, und dies ist seine erlsende Thtigkeit."

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object of

of

piety

not

in

the is

work also

of

Christ

itself in

but

in

His

God-consciousness as the Redeemer and the redeemed.112 This kind teleological approach apparent Schleiermachers understanding of the Trinity. He strives to explain the doctrine of the Trinity with an analogy to the union of the divinity of Christ into His humanity through His God-consciousness. Schleiermacher regards Redemption as being conscious of the divine salvific economy to have humanity communicated and united with the divine essence through the working of the Holy Spirit.113 Schleiermacher makes analogous the relationship between the three persons in the Trinity to their activities in redemption.114 Schleiermacher defines Christs divinity by an exalted state or its element of His humanity achieved by the feeling of absolute dependence upon God. The divinity is merely ascribed to the unique power which has been germinated in the humanity. Christ works as Mediator only for the enhancement of the humanity into the highest feeling which best marks which in his the type has divinity. of been Here we can of to is find being the his Schleiermachers (communicatio righteousness pantheistic communication made The

entis),
exists

analogous concept

trinitarian relationship. No concept of the imputation of Christs theology. only pantheistic impartation of being or essence. Schleiermacher calls this kind of redemptive activity soul-bestowal (Beseelung).115 For Schleiermacher, salvation means human self-realization as part of God. God-consciousness lies in ones conception of oneself as the one who has the divinity which makes one conscious of God as the Whole, the One, and the Eternal. God-consciousness is related not only to being with God but also to becoming God. Schleiermacher calls this type of his mystical view teleological.116 He points out the character of his position by differentiating it from either an empirical

112 113 114 115 116

Christian Christian Christian Christian Christian

Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith,

100.1. 170.1. 171.1. 100.2. 101.1.

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or a magic view. He calls empirical the tendency to make Christ as an objective type of salvation; magic the tendency to ascribe the whole process of salvation to the imputation of the righteousness of Christ.117 Here he thoroughly roots out the biblical foundation of redemption, the imitation of Christ and the imputation of His merit. Schleiermacher, sustaining his mystical view, defines salvation as person-forming (personbildend, die Personbildung) by having a living fellowship with Christ, who is

Urbild

als

Vorbild.118

Schleiermacher regards the feeling of absolute dependence upon God itself as the essential activity of the divinity. So if there is any merit in Christs mediatorial work, it only refers to feeling-bestowal, which is not different from what he calls soul-bestowal. In this view, Christs vicarious satisfaction or atonement only refers to the power of the God-consciousness (die Krftigkeit des Gottesbewutseins). By salvation Schleiermacher means sharing with Christ His God-consciousness, which is participating in the work and person of Christ. Schleiermacher calls this pantheistic and mystical fellowship reconciliation.119 In this sense Schleiermacher in Christmas Eve calls the death of Christ a symbol of atonement and reconciliation.120 Thus far we have investigated the mystical and pantheistic character of Schleiermachers Christology. Following is a short summary of our investigation. First, Schleiermacher denies the hypostatic union of Christ the Mediator. He denies the existence of the eternal Son of God as the Word. To him, Christ is not true man because in Him the divinity was germinated at His birth, nor true God because Christs existence before the Incarnation is rejected. Second, Schleiermacher denies the Fall. He deals with salvation as the final activity of the creation. Not surprisingly, he maintains that without the Fall, Christ would have been incarnated.121
117 Christian Faith, 100.3; 101.3. 118 Christian Faith, 101.2, 4. Thus Schleiermacher sees the person-forming as the transcendence of self-consciousness. Cf. Niebuhr, Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion: A New Introduction, 214-216. 119 Christian Faith, 101.4. 120 Schleiermacher, Christmas Eve: Dialogue on the Incarnation, 72-73.

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Third, Schleimacher makes Christs redemptive work analogous to our self-accomplishment. Thus he does not see salvation as the imputation of Christs righteousness but a participation into the highest absolute feeling of Christ. There is no concept of vicarious satisfaction (satisfactio vicaria) in his theology of Schleiermacher. Only subjective affection remains. Fourth, Schleiermacher deems not the work of Christ, but its consciousness, as historical . Christs humiliation and exaltation is dealt with merely as related to His God-consciousness. Fifth, Schleiermacher denies the sole mediatorship of Christ. Everyone can become a mediator for others. This thought is in the same vein with his concept of God as both the One and the Whole. Schleiermacher asserts the plurality of mediatorship because he believes that everyone constitutes part of the Whole, God, as a part of God. Therefore, Christ is only an ideal as example (Urbild als

Vorbild) for our mediation.122 This position reflects his view of

divinity in terms of power or ability working through the Holy Spiri t.123 Sixth, for vain and idle speculation Schleimacher distorts essential biblical teachings into a kind of mental flow chart as he deals with them teleologically. Schleiermacher even makes the Trinity analogous to the union of men with Christ in the process of salvation. From the outset, Schleiermacher makes the most of human mental need in his theological investigation.124 Only human feeling, consciousness and affections are regarded as really true. Even the concept of God is thought to be derivative. Every revelation in the Scripture is merely a preliminary source which has to be interpreted
121 Gerrish, Nature and the Theater of Redemption: Schleiermacher on Christian Dogmatics and the Creation Story, 136. 122 This position of Schleiermacher is similar to that of Roman Catholicism to grasp the nature of the church on the basis of the plurality of mediation. Cf. Doyle, "Mhler, Schleiermacher, and the Roots of Communion Ecclesiology," 467-468. 123 In the following paper it is noted that Schleiermacher's position to see the Trinity as analogous to the relationship between three persons of the Trinity in the process of believers' salvation is also found in early church Fathers such as Irenaeus and Athanasius. Cf. Khaled Anatolios, "The Immediately Triune God: A Patristic Response to Schleiermacher," Pro Ecclesia 10/2(2001), 159-178. 124 Schleiermacher's apologetics originates with this kind of teleological purpose. Cf. Forstman, "Barth, Schleiermacher and the Christian Faith," 305-315.

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by the human mind.125 For Schleiermacher, salvation is obtained not by Christs special work, but by its immediate feeling.126 Although Schleiermacher frequently mentions atonement or satisfaction, he does not know the concept of redeeming price (pretium), which is imputed to us for our salvation. The price is replaced by religious affection. No concept but

Urbildlichkeit remains to Schleiermacher.127 For him, Urbildlichkeit

denotes only the object of Vorbildlichkeit.128 Christ is merely an example of salvation. All that He did is for the accomplishment of self-realization. He can be called our ideal, only in that He is our exemplary predecessor. In conclusion, according to this understanding of Schleiermacher, is we cannot as accept the Christ who as our first Redeemer. established Schleiermacher known one

Christology-from-below. However, his success is only an attestation of his limitations, faults and discrepancies.

(Soli Deo Gloria in Aeternum)!

125 Cf. Clinton Curle, "The Schleiermacher Redemption: Subjective Experience as a Starting Point for Evangelical Theology," Didaskalia 9/2(1998), 17-36. The author assets that Schleiermacher's anthropological approach is not contradictory to biblical and evangelical perspectives. 126 Cf. Kelsey, Thinking about Christ with Schleiermacher, 97-100. 127 Cf. Kelsey, Thinking about Christ with Schleiermacher, 51-52. 128 Cf. Niebuhr, Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion: A New Introduction, 226-228.

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