Schleiermacher; Rejection of the Trinity
Understanding the person of Jesus Christ has been widely disputed among theologians for years and will continue to be disputed until the eschaton. The heart beat and vitality of Christianity is at stake on this issue because our religion centers itself around God's revelation in Jesus to mankind. Each theologian seems to pick and choose a 'home base' in which he/she derives the rest of his/her theology and thus his/her Christology. For Calvin and Barth, the soverignty of God acts as 'home base.' For Wesley, God's love is central. Schleiermacher bases his theology on blending reason and metaphysics putting emphasis on God consciousness. Emotions and feelings play into his theory that we strive for "God consciousness" in which Jesus was the only one to ever have achieved fully . Jesus is who we are, and who we are becoming so we know no one as well as Jesus (Rigby lecture).
For Schleiermacher, Christ is the redeemer; the 'Second Adam' (209) not just to come and fix communications between God and humanity, but to reconnect them. God and humanity become inseperable. He thus rejects the doctrine of the Trinity.
The incarnation was an event in time and space where God became fully human. For Schleiermacher, this means that the event, in order to fit into natural circumstances of existence, was the time when God became fully human. He rejects the theology that God in human form, Jesus, has been around since eternity; that the existence of the Holy Spirit had no existence until the formation of the Church. The doctrine of the Trinity ascribes God's three revealed aspects as always having been. God has always been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What Schlermacher proposes is a reshuffling from this line of thought to that of below to above; from humanity to God rather than above to below or from God to us. To see how reaches this conclusion we first have to look at how he reaches this conclusion in his Christology and his overall theology.
For Schleiermacher, religion is our "feeling of absolute dependence" and thus our need for a 'Redeemer.' The redeeming work and worth of Christ consists not in what He taught or in what He did, but in what He was. For Schleiemacher, the crucifixion, Christ's suffering, his resurrection, are all mute points. Who Christ was is the important fact. But for Schleiermacher, the incarnation was an event in time that occured only at that specific moment. To say that the incarnation came before Abraham is not accepted by Schleiermacher. He is fixated on the fully human aspect of God, which limits Him to temporal constraints. Jesus being fully human is everything for Schleiermacher, even at the expense of saying there is no supernatural occurences in the incarnation. Much of this has to do with his ae being a 'child of the Enlightenment' and his wanting to reason his way to God.
God's divine properties were quiesced because otherwise there would be two wills within the one entity; the will of the human nature vs. the divine.(210) To this, Schleiermacher says there could be two wills, but they willed in unity. (204) He maintains and emphasizes the oneness of God. He compares the two natures of Christ in relation to humanity in that humanity contains a spark of the divine imperfect since Adam. Because Christ has full 'God consciousness' humanity is able to also seek God consciousness. Schleiermacher sees this God consciousness as internally sought out. Through Jesus we are able to communicate with God again but to an even fuller extent. Schleiermacher's theology is very pantheistic; God is 'all and all' as opposed to the panentheistic approach that says God is in all. Schleiermacher understands Chalcedon and maintaning the oneness of God in this pantheistic belief of interconnectedness among God and humanity, but in such he seems to shortcome the essence of Jesus divinity.
Schleiermacher's Christology is one that puts humanity down into the mix of understanding. For him, it doesn't matter whether Christ suffered, or died, or was resurrected, only that he achieved full 'God consciousness,' something humankind indefinately strives for. Through the Redeemer (being Jesus the Christ) we can triumph into religious consciousness (Sch. 108). God is within every one of us but imperfectly developed according to his theology. He acknowledges the Holy Spirit within us, but our comprehending it is fully dependent upon Jesus (the Redeemer's) existence.
The revelation of God through Jesus is thus, just in Christ's existence. His teachings, though they hold some weight for Schleiermacher, are portrayed as secondary. The virgin birth, death, resurrection, etc. is not of great importance to our seeking of religious God consciousness. Schleiermacher assumes that by taking all supernatural elements out of the incarnation of God (which in itself is a supernatural event) we can reason our way to God. He shifts his focus off of God and God's sovereignty to what humanity can do as far as deciphering the God consciousness within themselves. It is our feeling of absolute dependence that allows us to attribute Jesus as the 'Redeemer.' Because of this, it can be said that Schleiermacher rejects the doctrines of atonement, faith in Christ, and sanctification. Our salvation comes through who Jesus was, not by our faith, or or by Jesus' teaching but in his actual human existence.
Schleiermacher's Christology remains interesting in the light of the Enlightenment, but it is really the area where his theology breaks down. 'Schleiermacher sought to justify and maintain traditional incarnation language while redefining it in essentially naturalistic terms.' (213). He more or less denies the supernatural insofar as Jesus' divine ability. He also sucumbed to developing a theology from 'within' with reason. Jesus was fully human, and in order to be fully human, as Schleiermacher would say, Jesus' divine ability would have to be absent, or possibly in the unconscious of Jesus; quiesced. So is God a limited entity, or does God limit himself? In other words, does God decide to limit his power on earth or does he have a choice in the matter? What is the divinity of God vs. his humanity? Schleiermacher is dead set on maintaining Chalcedon and the oneness of God, but in his Christology he seems to have trouble portraying the divine Christ. "We must think of his (Jesus) actions being fully (wholy) human, for otherwise I cannot follow him."(211)
Rejecting the Trinity for Schleiermacher is not hard in the light of his view of the fully human Christ with perfect God consciousness. The weight of his arguement lies on the incarnation event in time and space because only then would Jesus be fully human. Only in temporal human existence could Jesus be fully one of us. Only in this state could he achieve full God consciousness becoming our Redeemer. Because of the Enlightenment, it was probably logical and thus easy to reject any supernatural elements surrounding Christ as well. The ability to achieve God consciousness then rests upon humanity. God's done his work, its our turn, according to Schleiermacher.
What does it mean today if we disregard the doctrine of the Trinity or if we reject it like Schleiermacher? Does that give humanity a step up in how we reason about God or does it retract from traditional progress? Humanity would ultimately rely on itself and what its 'human nature' to search out God. As is Schleiermacher's Christology, ours would become centered in human feeling rather than Scripture. One of Schleiermacher's weakness' is his lack of Scriptural reference. The doctrine of the Trinity merely illustrates the different ways God has revealed himself to us through Scripture.
Another issue would arise as well. Where does the Holy Spirit fit in? Schleiermacher's theology leaves no room for the Holy Spirit to continue acting in mankind. Jesus was a new start for humanity and in such, is the only thing humanity needs to seek out religious consciousness and salvation. Jesus Christ was everything, and the Holy Spirit gets the shaft because it is now up to humankind to seek God consciousness. Why do we need God to continue to work through us? Schleiermacher would say of the Spirit. Schleiermacher's God is immanent (in the world) but not in the sense of the Holy Spirit, but in a sense that he is connected to creation and cannot be separated.
Still researching, but thought it might be a somewhat interesting thesis on Schliermacher's Christology.
Understanding the person of Jesus Christ has been widely disputed among theologians for years and will continue to be disputed until the eschaton. The heart beat and vitality of Christianity is at stake on this issue because our religion centers itself around God's revelation in Jesus to mankind. Each theologian seems to pick and choose a 'home base' in which he/she derives the rest of his/her theology and thus his/her Christology. For Calvin and Barth, the soverignty of God acts as 'home base.' For Wesley, God's love is central. Schleiermacher bases his theology on blending reason and metaphysics putting emphasis on God consciousness. Emotions and feelings play into his theory that we strive for "God consciousness" in which Jesus was the only one to ever have achieved fully . Jesus is who we are, and who we are becoming so we know no one as well as Jesus (Rigby lecture).
For Schleiermacher, Christ is the redeemer; the 'Second Adam' (209) not just to come and fix communications between God and humanity, but to reconnect them. God and humanity become inseperable. He thus rejects the doctrine of the Trinity.
The incarnation was an event in time and space where God became fully human. For Schleiermacher, this means that the event, in order to fit into natural circumstances of existence, was the time when God became fully human. He rejects the theology that God in human form, Jesus, has been around since eternity; that the existence of the Holy Spirit had no existence until the formation of the Church. The doctrine of the Trinity ascribes God's three revealed aspects as always having been. God has always been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What Schlermacher proposes is a reshuffling from this line of thought to that of below to above; from humanity to God rather than above to below or from God to us. To see how reaches this conclusion we first have to look at how he reaches this conclusion in his Christology and his overall theology.
For Schleiermacher, religion is our "feeling of absolute dependence" and thus our need for a 'Redeemer.' The redeeming work and worth of Christ consists not in what He taught or in what He did, but in what He was. For Schleiemacher, the crucifixion, Christ's suffering, his resurrection, are all mute points. Who Christ was is the important fact. But for Schleiermacher, the incarnation was an event in time that occured only at that specific moment. To say that the incarnation came before Abraham is not accepted by Schleiermacher. He is fixated on the fully human aspect of God, which limits Him to temporal constraints. Jesus being fully human is everything for Schleiermacher, even at the expense of saying there is no supernatural occurences in the incarnation. Much of this has to do with his ae being a 'child of the Enlightenment' and his wanting to reason his way to God.
God's divine properties were quiesced because otherwise there would be two wills within the one entity; the will of the human nature vs. the divine.(210) To this, Schleiermacher says there could be two wills, but they willed in unity. (204) He maintains and emphasizes the oneness of God. He compares the two natures of Christ in relation to humanity in that humanity contains a spark of the divine imperfect since Adam. Because Christ has full 'God consciousness' humanity is able to also seek God consciousness. Schleiermacher sees this God consciousness as internally sought out. Through Jesus we are able to communicate with God again but to an even fuller extent. Schleiermacher's theology is very pantheistic; God is 'all and all' as opposed to the panentheistic approach that says God is in all. Schleiermacher understands Chalcedon and maintaning the oneness of God in this pantheistic belief of interconnectedness among God and humanity, but in such he seems to shortcome the essence of Jesus divinity.
Schleiermacher's Christology is one that puts humanity down into the mix of understanding. For him, it doesn't matter whether Christ suffered, or died, or was resurrected, only that he achieved full 'God consciousness,' something humankind indefinately strives for. Through the Redeemer (being Jesus the Christ) we can triumph into religious consciousness (Sch. 108). God is within every one of us but imperfectly developed according to his theology. He acknowledges the Holy Spirit within us, but our comprehending it is fully dependent upon Jesus (the Redeemer's) existence.
The revelation of God through Jesus is thus, just in Christ's existence. His teachings, though they hold some weight for Schleiermacher, are portrayed as secondary. The virgin birth, death, resurrection, etc. is not of great importance to our seeking of religious God consciousness. Schleiermacher assumes that by taking all supernatural elements out of the incarnation of God (which in itself is a supernatural event) we can reason our way to God. He shifts his focus off of God and God's sovereignty to what humanity can do as far as deciphering the God consciousness within themselves. It is our feeling of absolute dependence that allows us to attribute Jesus as the 'Redeemer.' Because of this, it can be said that Schleiermacher rejects the doctrines of atonement, faith in Christ, and sanctification. Our salvation comes through who Jesus was, not by our faith, or or by Jesus' teaching but in his actual human existence.
Schleiermacher's Christology remains interesting in the light of the Enlightenment, but it is really the area where his theology breaks down. 'Schleiermacher sought to justify and maintain traditional incarnation language while redefining it in essentially naturalistic terms.' (213). He more or less denies the supernatural insofar as Jesus' divine ability. He also sucumbed to developing a theology from 'within' with reason. Jesus was fully human, and in order to be fully human, as Schleiermacher would say, Jesus' divine ability would have to be absent, or possibly in the unconscious of Jesus; quiesced. So is God a limited entity, or does God limit himself? In other words, does God decide to limit his power on earth or does he have a choice in the matter? What is the divinity of God vs. his humanity? Schleiermacher is dead set on maintaining Chalcedon and the oneness of God, but in his Christology he seems to have trouble portraying the divine Christ. "We must think of his (Jesus) actions being fully (wholy) human, for otherwise I cannot follow him."(211)
Rejecting the Trinity for Schleiermacher is not hard in the light of his view of the fully human Christ with perfect God consciousness. The weight of his arguement lies on the incarnation event in time and space because only then would Jesus be fully human. Only in temporal human existence could Jesus be fully one of us. Only in this state could he achieve full God consciousness becoming our Redeemer. Because of the Enlightenment, it was probably logical and thus easy to reject any supernatural elements surrounding Christ as well. The ability to achieve God consciousness then rests upon humanity. God's done his work, its our turn, according to Schleiermacher.
What does it mean today if we disregard the doctrine of the Trinity or if we reject it like Schleiermacher? Does that give humanity a step up in how we reason about God or does it retract from traditional progress? Humanity would ultimately rely on itself and what its 'human nature' to search out God. As is Schleiermacher's Christology, ours would become centered in human feeling rather than Scripture. One of Schleiermacher's weakness' is his lack of Scriptural reference. The doctrine of the Trinity merely illustrates the different ways God has revealed himself to us through Scripture.
Another issue would arise as well. Where does the Holy Spirit fit in? Schleiermacher's theology leaves no room for the Holy Spirit to continue acting in mankind. Jesus was a new start for humanity and in such, is the only thing humanity needs to seek out religious consciousness and salvation. Jesus Christ was everything, and the Holy Spirit gets the shaft because it is now up to humankind to seek God consciousness. Why do we need God to continue to work through us? Schleiermacher would say of the Spirit. Schleiermacher's God is immanent (in the world) but not in the sense of the Holy Spirit, but in a sense that he is connected to creation and cannot be separated.
Still researching, but thought it might be a somewhat interesting thesis on Schliermacher's Christology.
posted by Adam | 1:20 PM
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