Friedrich Schleiermacher: Between Enlightenment and Romanticism

Richard Crouter is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies, Carleton College, Minnesota. His many publications include the highly acclaimed Schleiermacher: On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers (1996).

• Introduction; Part I. Taking the Measure of Schleiermacher: 1. Revisiting Dilthey on Schleiermacher and biography; 2. Schleiermacher, Mendelssohn and Enlightenment theology: comparing On Religion (1799) and Jerusalem (1783); 3. Hegel and Schleiermacher in Berlin: a many-sided debate; 4. Kierkegaard's not so hidden debt to Schleiermacher; Part II. Signposts of a Public Theologian: 5. Schleiermacher's Letters on the Occasion and the crisis of Berlin Jewry; 6. A proposal for a new Berlin University; 7. Schleiermacher and the theology of bourgeois society: a critique of the critics; Part III. Textual Readings and Milestones: 8. Schleiermacher's theory of language: the ubiquity of a romantic text; 9. Shaping an academic discipline: the Brief Outline on the Study of Theology; 10. Rhetoric and substance in the revision of The Christian Faith (1821–2); 11. On Religion as a religious classic: hermeneutical musings after two hundred years.

Review of the hardback: 'Crouter's book is important for tracing the evolution of Schleiermacher's thought. … Crouter has long harboured a wish to write a biography of Schleiermacher, and his knowledge of the factors that shaped his life and thought make this book a valuable guide to understanding him.' Church Times