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Feeling of absolute dependence or absolute feeling of dependence? (What Schleiermacher really said and why it matters)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 1998

Georg Behrens
Georg Behrens
Affiliation:
Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720
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Abstract

Friedrich Schleiermacher is known as the theologian who said that the essence of Christian faith is a state of mind called ‘the feeling of absolute dependence’. In this respect, Schleiermacher's reputation owes much to the influential translation of his dogmatics prepared by Mackintosh, Stewart and others. I argue that the translation is misleading precisely as to the terms which Schleiermacher uses in order to refer to the religious state of mind. I also show that the translation obscures a problem of some substantive depth regarding what Schleiermacher thought to be the nature of pious feeling.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , December 1998 , pp. 471 - 481
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

An earlier version of this paper was delivered before the annual meeting of the A.A.R.'s western chapter, held in Berkeley in March 1997.