Schleiermacher: On Religion: Speeches To Its Cultured Despisers (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy)

Schleiermacher's On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers is a classic of modern Protestant religious thought that powerfully displays the tensions between the Romantic and Enlightenment accounts of religion. This edition presents the original 1799 text in English for the first time. Richard Crouter's introduction places the work in the milieu of early German Romanticism, Kant criticism, the revival of Spinoza and Plato studies, and theories of literary criticism and of the physical sciences. This fully annotated edition also contains a chronology and notes on further reading. Schleiermacher's addresses on religion to the cultured critics of his time comprise one of those rare works of literature that masterfully initiate an epoch but long continue to realize an influence far transcending their original effect. They comprise a masterpiece not only of personal testimony but of intelligent witness to that which is most lasting and fundamental, though often most elusive and difficult to achieve, in human life and culture. Religion presumable constitutes the most important set of relationships that can be cultivated in a person. Yet religion is often the most readily misunderstood and maligned. Schleiermacher's aim in these addresses is to penetrate the excrescences and the corruptions of so-called religion to reach its vital heart so as to clarify what religion essentially is, to suggest how it is to be found, to consider how it may be cultivated, and perhaps also to stimulate a responding chord of sensitively and devotion among his hearers. He is not trying to put something over on anyone. In tolerant, open-hearted response to familiar attitudes he is simply replying, again and again: "Is the situation really what you say? Consider this!" Or: "Yes, you are entirely correct, but that is not religion. You are looking in the wrong place." Or: "You are moving in the right direction but in the wrong way." A classic of modern religious thought, Schleiermacher's On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers is here presented in Richard Crouter's acclaimed English translation of the 1799 edition, originally published in Cambridge Texts in German Philosophy. Written when its youthful author was deeply involved in German Romanticism and the critique of Kant's moral and religious philosophy, it is a masterly expression of Protestant Christian apologetics of the modern period, which powerfully displays the tensions between the Romantic and Enlightenment accounts of religion. Unlike the revised versions of 1806 and 1821, which modify the language of feeling and intuition and translate the argument into more traditional academic and Christian categories, the 1799 text more fully reveals its original audience's literary and social world. Richard Crouter's introduction places the work in the milieu of early German Romanticism, Kant criticism, the revival of Spinoza and Plato studies, and theories of literary criticism and of the physical sciences, and his fully annotated edition also includes a chronology and notes on further reading. Acknowledgments -- List Of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Chronology -- Further Reading -- A Note On Editions -- On Religion : Speeches To Its Cultured Despisers -- First Speech : Apology -- Second Speech : On The Essence Of Religion -- Third Speech : On Self-formation For Religion -- Fourth Speech : On The Social Element In Religion ; Or, On Church And Priesthood -- Fifth Speech : On The Religions -- Index. Friedrich Schleiermacher ; Translated And Edited By Richard Crouter. Includes Bibliographical References (p. Xlii-xliii) And Index. Frontmatter Acknowledgments (page viii) List of abbreviations (page ix) Introduction (page xi) Chronology (page xl) Further reading (page xlii) A note on editions (page xliv) On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers (page 1) First Speech: Apology (page 3) Second Speech: On the Essence of Religion (page 18) Third Speech: On Self-formation for Religion (page 55) Fourth Speech: On the Social Element in Religion; or, on Church and Priesthood (page 72) Fifth Speech: On the Religions (page 95) Index (page 125) The work is here presented in Richard Crouter's acclaimed translation of the 1799 edition, originally published in Cambridge Texts in German Philosophy. Written when its youthful author was deeply involved in German Romanticism and the critique of Kant's moral and religious philosophy, it is a masterly expression of Protestant Christian apologetics of the modern period, which powerfully displays the tensions between the Romantic and Enlightenment accounts of religion.