Schleiermacher, the Via Negativa, and the Gospel of Love
July 1, 2008 DOI: 10.1177/004057360806500202 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that Schleiermacher's understanding of piety as nondual awareness of God, together with his analysis of immediate self-consciousness and contemplation, offers a way to retain generosity of spirit amid culture wars. |
Abstract
Schleiermacher found himself caught between oppressive orthodoxy and religion's despisers. As a corrective, he described piety as nondual awareness of God that issues in equanimity and love. This essay examines his understanding of immediate self-consciousness and contemplation as they provide him with a way of describing the interdependence between divine transcendence and the primacy of love. The analysis of mind together with what it revealed about religion provided Schleiermacher, and potentially provides our own generation, with one way of retaining a generosity of spirit amid ongoing culture wars.