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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT IN SCHLEIERMACHER'S :

THE 1830 AUGSBURG CONFESSION SERMONS

by Robert Thomas O'Meara

A Thesis submined to the Faculty of Theology of the University of SE. Michad's College and the deparunent of Theolw of the Toronto School of Theology in partial fuifiilment of the requiremencs for the degree of

awarded by the University of StMichael's Coilege

Toronto 1998

Q Robm T. O'Meara National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 ofCanada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. nie Wellington OîtawaON KlAON4 OttawaON K1A ON4 Canada Canada

The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/£ïlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique.

The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels rnay be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. In his 1830 sermons commemorating the 300th anniversary of the handing over of the Augsburg Confession, Friedrich Schleiermacher advocates an ecdesiology that is Catholic in spirit wirhin die conton of rhe predominanc Protert;ant spirit that imbues his theological vision. The thesis charts a path beginning with desiological dements ffom the original Augsburg Confession document of 1530 in order to show Schleiermacher's &ity wirh one of the founding symbolic books of Reformauon history. The argument then continues to delineare the consistency with which Schleiermacher pursues an essentially Cdthoüc view of the Church, fiom the burgeoning ecdesiology of die Speechez to the mature theology of The Cbn'stran Faith. The thesis condudes with die suggestion that in his A~gsburgConfession sermons of 1830, Schleiermacher consuucts a converging "fÙgalnecclesiology - Protestant at its core but Cacholic in ics sacramental, ministerial, eschatological and ecumenical anributes. Essenudy, Sdeierrnacher's theology of the Church is an ecumenical one seeking to constantly expand 'the ckde of Christian love". "No one thercfore can bc surprised to find at this point the proposition that sdvution m blrzecdnr iiz in the Chzrrch done, and that, since blessedness cannot enter from without, but can be found wichin the Church ody by being brought into existence there, the Cburcb alone saves.

Friedrich Sdeiermacher, The Chri~tr'anFdh

Professors Iain Nicol and George Schner for their theologid guidance and inspiration. & Pauicia and Mona for their support of this graduate project. Inuoduaion

*Ecdesiology" in the Augsburg Confession of 1530

The "Speeches" : Schleiermacher's "Burgeoning" Ecdesiology

Sdileiermacher's 1830 Augsburg Confession Sermons: The "Mature"Ecdesiology 1) The Context: Theology Serves the Pulpit 21 The Hermeneutics: The Architecture of the Sermons

Sdileier macher's "Fu$" Ecdesiology : An Integrauon of the Pro testant and Catholic Visions

Bibliography

AppmdUc 1: Summary Chan of the Ten Sermons and Related Themes

AppendUc 2: Chart of Ham Frei's Typology of

AppcndUc 3: Chan of Sdeiermacher's "Fugaln Ecdesiology Introduction OnSunday June 20,1830, a few days before the tercentenary commemorating the Augsburg Codesion, Friedrich Schleiermacher addressed his parishioners with the following cautionary sentiment: *Only if we approach this fisud in the knowledge of our total fieedom fiom the letter ... only then will we be able to reckon this celebration to our blessingn.1 A few months later, on November 7, 1830, he completed his series of ten sermons on the Augsburg Confession by achorting his undschtigen Fmnhto ddgently maintain "not a unity written in codes but die

'unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace' ".2 To fiee oneself kom the letter in order to engage in "noble servitude"3 to the Spirit of - this was the rdying cry of the pastor-theologian who became, for later generations of Christians, die founder of modern liberal Protestant theology. Though a romanticist at hem for whom feeling took precedence over knowing4 Schleiermacher's theological vision sought to preserve antithetical elements in a dialogicd pair, never forsaking one at the expense of the orher. He remained faithm throughout his life to the "coincidance of...contrariesn~that appears to undergird the deep mysterious structure of a human existence ennobled and divinized by the saving grace of the Redeemer. He espoused the respectful maintenance of an "equipoisen6 between such ancitheses as freedom and dependence, sin and grace, humanity and divinity, emotion and reason, the whole and the ii.agment, unicy and divenity, the individual and the community, the visible and the invisible Church, and - the Catholic spirit and the Protestant spirit.

1 Friedrich Scblaermachcr, R+rmeti But Ewr RcjGnnmsSmnonr in &&tron ro Che Ce&& of rbc Handng Owr of the A~~ CÔn#mbn (1830) m.Iain Nid(LwLron: Edwin Meilen Press, 1997), p.22 (Fdcr cirations hmthis work wili bc abbreviatcd CO Smnonr and the page number.) Sm~iyp.175 smns, p33 Friedrich Schleiamacher, The Chdzkn Frlith. edr. H.R Mackintosh and J.S. Sm(: T&T Clark), p.5 (Frurbcr citaaons WUbe abbrcviaud CO CFand the paragaph (0)andor page number (p). 5 Jama Joysc, Finnqam W& (New York: Viking Press, 1939), 49 CE p.15 I In the introduaory section to Thc Chnstàn Faith, Schleiermacher formulates his dassical distinction between the Pro testant and Cath01ic positions in

.. the former makes the individual's relation to the Church dependent on his relation to Christ, while the latter contrariwise makes the individual's relation to Christ dependent on his relation to Church.7 Note that on either side of this antithesis, Schleiermacher preserves a baiance between the individual and the communal elements. He Merwarns that the "greatest care musc be taken not to carry the antithesis too fir, lest we should fd into un-Christian positionsn.8 When fàced with polar opposites, we are encouraged to carry on the dialogue in a spirit of tolerance that seeks not to "constria the &de of Christian loveng but rather to invite ail of humankind to rnernbership within the vital fdowship of Christ the kdeemer.10 Ail are ulrimately destined to be eleaed into the Kingdom of the Fathu. Und such tirne, the Moravian pastor invites us to a theological banquet that is emotive, critid and dialogid, where religious feeling seeks understanding in a tolerant spirit of conversation with "the inhabiced earth".ll For Schleiermacher, Christian faith is a search for bannony within the spirit of the whok - a phrase that might summarize his position as a Christian theologian and his prayer as a Christian pastor. Wi& this ecumenical/colloquial ethos, I will argue the following thesic

In his 1830 semons cornmemorating the 300th anniversary of the handing over of the Augsburg Confession, Friedrich Schleierrnacher adv ocates an ecclesiology that is Catholic in

' as24 CF,P 24, p. 107 Sc*mom, p.136 Io ff, § 93, p. 384; § 113. p.525 11 ïhe mot mcaning of ecumcnicai, fiom the Grcek occumrni(os 'of ihe inhabiud d*. 2 spirit within the context of the pndominant Protestant spirit that imbues his theological vision. By the Protestant spirit, I refer to that trilithic core of principles that has fiamed theology since Wittenberg, namdy, s~~f;kscn;bwra and the priesthood of ail believers. Schleiermacher expounds this position throughout bis sermons but parricularly in Semzon 2 of the Augsburg collection where, with reference to the , he writes:

Thus, we have an important and permanent safeguard in scriphae insofar as we truly have concord in our faith in Christ, setting aside ail human authority, and acknowledge that no witness is valid for the development of doctrine and for the ordering of Me other than what is exprcssed in these writings.12 Later on he affirms "that di Christians shodd be priests" so that "the merence in

OU church becween those who prodaim God's word and those who hear it has &O becorne smder and smaller." 13 As for the Catholic spirit, I dude ro Sdeiermacher's anrithetid views. On the one hand, he uses the term Catholic to denote whac is "common to the whole Church"l4, namely the universal, ecumenid, indusivist connotations implied in the spirit of catbolicity. On the other, he adoprs the traditional Catholic position of saivific exclusivity, namely, "no salvation outside the Church" or in Schleiermacherian terms, no blessedness ourside the fellowship of Christ. In the section on the doctrine of the Church from The Christian Frzith, he explicidy adopts the position of St. Cyprianl5: No one thereforr cm be surprised to find at this point the proposition that salvation or blessedness is in the Chwch alone, and that, since blessedness cannot enter from without, but can l2 S~O~LT.p.41 l3 smnonr ,p.45 l4 CF,5 2 1, p.96 hac~claxanr dm.(No sabation mroidr the ChUrch) Sr Cyprian was bishop of Cardiagc. 248-258 C.E 3 be found within the Church only by king brought into existence the=, the Chwch alone saves. l6 (Emp hasis added) This amithetical theme of an inciiuivist catholicity within a seemingly cxcfwivist ecdesiology continues in the Augsburg Confession sermons as 'the goal toward which the effort of the Evangelical Church is directedn.'7 AU are inviteci to the Church (the indusive thune) but unless you join, you rernain outside the cirde of redeeming blessedness (the exclusive theme). Finally, by the term ecclesiology, I point to the structure and role of the Christian Ch& in the life of Gth. For Schleiermacher, the individu111life of faith springs from the communal Me of faith grounded in the reconciling work of the Redeemer. Church as "the fdowship of believers"i8 arises from the redemptive work taking effea within individuds. Ultimarely, the fiinaion of the Church is to make the life of Christian piety possible. In Schleiermacher's vision, piety is an inherendy ecclesial acuvity and Christian prayer is primarily communal. The thesis WUcomprise four inrerrelated chapters. Firstly, I wiU examine ecdesiologid elements from the original Augsburg Confession document of 15 30 in order to show Schleiermacher's Sniry widi one of che founding symbolic books of Reformation history. The second chapter will consider Speech 4 from

Schleiermacher's collection, On Religion, '9 as the groundwork of his ecdesiology. The third and most substantive chapter will involve a critical analysis of Sdeiermacher's 1830 collection of sermons on the Augsburg Confession in order to reconsuuct his ecdesiology and position irs role within his broader theological program. As I analyze these sermons, I will atternpt to integrate into the argument

l6 CE 5 1 13, p.527 l7 The deof hn10. l8 CE 1 113. p.525 19 Fkdkh Schkiamacher. On Rcli@on: Sperrba m ia Cukund Desphen, m.and cd. Richard Cmum (Gmbridgc: Cambridge University Press, 1988) 4 Schlciermacher's related insights from his other works, pmidarly The Chrtitian Faith. In addition, this chapter will indude a section on the critical response to Schleiermacher's theology fiom both Protestant and Catholic perspectives. The fourth and 1st chapter wiil engage the sdient features of Schleiermacher's mature theology of the Church. I intend to delineate the consistency with which he pursued his ecdesiology fiom his earliesr writings to hhis latest sermons - essentidy a Catholic view within a Protemnt theological framcwork. Cb'ptct 1 "Ecclesiology" in the Augsburg Confession of 1530 In the spring of 1530, the German Emperor Charles V convened a Diet in the city of Augsburg ordering the Luthcran princes to present a statement of their faith. Intending to settle the religious canuoversy berween Catholics and Protestants so they could maintain a united front against the Turks, the Emperor had hoped for a peaceful settlement among the divergent parties. With the approval of Luther, Phüip Melanchthon prepared and wrote the document. The confessional statement was signed by the German princes and presented ro the assembled Church and Stace representatives at Augsburg on June 25, 1530. This presentation of the Augsburg Confession ro the secular and sacred authorities of the day was considered a courageous act of &th on the part of the protesters "in view of the immense polirical and ecdesiastid power of the Roman

Church at rhat ùmen.20 In the foreword to his collecuon of sermons on the Augsburg Confession, Schleiermacher echoes this view when he daims that the jubilee of 1830 celebrated "more the act of handing ovcr &e confession than the work or the content of that document itselF.21 A smd Christian fellowship expressing ics faith and confessing it openly for the purpose of extending the cirde of Christian love - this for Schleiermacher is the essence of being the Church of the Redeemer. Though we may art01 the act of presenting heconfession, the document itself was obviously not a blank manuscript, in spite of anecdotal reports that the Emperor slept through its delivery. It is a carefdly crafied theological statement comprising twenty-two Artides of Faith in Part I and seven articles dding with ecdesiastid abuses in Pan II. Its tone is reconciliatory; its theology is catholic; in aim is unity - as a reader cmsurmise fcom Melanchthon's summation in Artide XXII:

20 Philip SM,A H* ofh Cdof CbMordom (: Hodder & Scoughron, 1877). p.226 21 Friedrich Schleiamachcr, Foreword. hmunc, p.2 (Emphasis dd4. 6 This is about the sum of doctrine among us, in which can be seen that there is nothing which is discrepant with the Scriptures, or with the Church Catholic, or even with the Roman Church, so far as that Church is known from writers [the writings of the Fathers]..But the dissension is conceming certain abuses. which without any certain authority have crept into the churches... they should bear with us, since not even the Canons are so severe as to demand the same rites every where. nor wmthe rites of ail churches at any tirne the same." The priority of Scripwes, the importance of a unified uuly "catholic" Church, the notion of corrective development, the plea for tolerance of the diversified manifestations of the Christian Church - themes cenual to the proponents of the Augsburg Confession of 1530; themes equally important to Schleierrnacher's Augsburg Sermons written in 1830 to commemorate this founding act and document of the reformed chucch, mer reforming. The next step to be taken is an examination of those Articles dealing with Church issues in order to discern the type of ecclesiology that animates this confessional symbol, an ecclesiology resonant with and yet distanced from Sdileiermacher's own theologid oudook. In the Preface irself. we encounter an ecumenical ecdesiology similar to that espoused by Schleiermacher in his sermons. We note a concern to ernbrace the true religion "as we are subjecrs and soldiers of the one Christ, so also in uniry and concord, we may Iive in the one Chrisuan churdi".23 The aim of the Augsburg Confession is die removai of dissension so rhat dl parries can return "to confess one ChrisP.24 This suiving for unity, for invithg al1 belicvers to the one Christ underlies

22 con+%fide XXI, p. 27 in Thc Cm& of the EvangcI;caI~t~ntChtrtrhcr, mnr. Pbilip Schaff, (Ladon: Hodda & Stoughoon, 1887). Augs6urg Confcrtion, p.4 24 Ibid p.5 7 most of the document, as it drives most, if not all, of Schieiermacher's theologicai projm. Artides V, VII, VIII, XIV and XV explicitly address ecdesiasticd topics: Ministry of the Church; Of the Church; What the Church 1s; Of Ecdesiastid Orders; and Of Ecdesiastid Rites. In addition, Anides IX through XII1 take on die sacramenu as essentid components of ecdesiology. Two related questions need to be posed at diis point. Firstly, what aspects of these Articles' ecclesiology does Sdileiemiadier accept? Secondly, what features does he reject? We can argue convincingly that the only feature Schleiermacher is uncornforrable with is the condemnatory tone towards those who believe differendy. The "Damnant Anabaptistas" of Artide V or the "Damnant Donaristas" of hicle VI11 are phrases that Schleiermacher considers incompatible with the religion of the Redeemer. As he indicares in Smn8 of his Augsburg collection, to condernn others

is to ignore ' exhonation not to judge or condemn others but to forgive thern.25. Schleiermacher goes on to opine: Jesus' waming against judging and condemning equdly applies to what we rake to be mistaken about the notions and opinions of others. as weli as to what we must consider to be wrong in the conduct of a person's life.26 Mu& better and more effective, Schleiermacher would argue, is to invite dissenrers into dialogue. Conversation is Christian; damnation has no place in oureligion - so Schleiermacher would condude. As for what Schleiermacher would agree with, we can delineate five resonating features in the ecdesially relevant Artides. Firstly, there is the notion that the essence of Spirit-inspired ministry consists of the two-pronged activity of preadiing the Word and administering the Sauaments. To quote fiom Artide V: "Nam per verbum et Sacramenta, tanquam per insuumenta, donatur Spiritus Sanctusn.27 Preahg the and administering the are signs of the continual and perpetud presence of Christ in the Church. In The ChtiztKrn Faith, Schleiermacher rdects this view where he proposes six essential doctrines related to the immutable aspect of the Church.28 Preadiing the Word, administering and distributhg 's Supper stand as the most important activities of Church minisuy and membership. The Minisrry of the Word of God as a "living witness to Christ" is "taken univenally as the dury and calling of every member of the Churchn.2g Preaching is "the most spiritual Minisrry"; it is "the ordered presencation of the Word of God... from which all radiates out and to whkh all is in relationn.30 The Word and the Sacraments form and sustain ecclesid fdowship. In this respect, Sdeiermacher's ecdesiology lies within the sarne vein as that of the Augsburg Confession. We note similarities as well with the second and third salienr features of Augsburgian ecdesiology, namely, the Church as "congregatio Sanctorumm,3'the congregacion of and the locus of Church as wherever "the Gospel is righdy taught and the Sacraments rightly administered."32 For Schleiermacher also, the Church is essencially "the fdowship of believers" who concinue "the work of redemptionn33 initiared by Christ. This "work" is the evangelical and sacramental activity "in behalfof the Kingdom of God which embraces men together in the grasp of the love flowing from Hirnm,34 the Redeemer. Wherever there is a "coming

27 Au@& Çon+n, p.10 'For by the Word and Sammcnr, as by insmimcnrs rh Holy SpLit is @ai" 28 CF. 5 127, p. 586 29 CF,p. 588 3O p. 616 31 A~~ Confiion, p. Il 32 hi&,p.11-12 33 m. p.577 34 CF,p.576 togethu of regenerate individuds to form a system of mutuai interaction and co- operationn,3sthere is the hm of Church. Tolerating the diumity with which the Christian faith can be expressed in multifanous human traditions constimtes a fourth meeting point between Augsburg and Schieiermacher. The confession emphasiw that customs, rites or cerunonies "ab hominibus institut as"^ (iitituted by men) need not be all alike everywhere. Quoting from the letter to the Epbaiam, the document rerninds us that "these is one &th, one baptism, one God and Father of a.Un.37 Expressing this divine onenus through human divcrsity, however, is the nadoutcome of a fàîth incarnated within history. Ulumately, we are unified as Christians by the Gospel and the Sacraments: "And unto the uue unity of the Chur&, it is s&cient to agree concernuig the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacramentsm.38 In his discussion of the putative differences between the Lutheran and Reformed theological positions with respect ro confessions, Schleiermacher works out of this Augsburg spirit of uniry within diversity when he condudes: "1 did not at all find that 1 stood in a different relationship to this festival from thar of my Luthman hothm in the rniniscry on account of my belonging to the Reformed schooln.39 Schleiermacher always underscores the prioricy of perceiving through the cornplex historid-cultural tapestry of humanity a udying thread, namely, die common spirit of humankind as responding to the accomplished by Jesus of Nazareth, a resDonse leadine to a vital fdowshio with Christ the Redeemer. Lasdy, the efficacy Sacraments as ordained and commanded by Christ emerges as a theme common to both the conféssion's and Sdileiermacher's sacramental theology. Implicit in this position is the prioriv of &th-righteousness over works-righteousness. God &OB& Christ alone brings goodness - no manu what the odds. Christ's definitive victory over the dark forces of evil is such that even "the minisuy of mil men" is neither "inutile (useless)" nor "inefficax (in&ective)".41 Sacramental power works through and in spite of evil to effect its goal of inviting aIl of humankind to fdowship with the Redeemer. A common ground appcars to surface at this point between the classicai

Protestant principle of sulafide and the traditional Catholic notion of ni opme operato

42 - in that both principles undergird the absolute eEcacy of the Sacramena as channels of Christ's redemptive presence in the world. To sum up then, the Augsburg Confession of 1530 as a foundatiod symbolic document of Protestantkm ernbodies an ecdesiology echoed in Schleiermacher's own theology of the Church as evangelical, sacramental and ecumenicai. In short, both are really committed to the good of the ecclcsia catholira, the univerd, Catholic Church.

4i ~ugsbwgConton, p. 13 42 'A tcrm uscd by thcol&uir to express the csscnUaIly objective mode of operation of the Sacramena and irs indcpenduia from the nibjmive aGnidcs of ùcher rbe minlrcr or che rccipienr.' The Con& O+& DKtionq of *iu Chturian Churrb cd. Elizabeth A. Livingstone (New York Orford Univa-sjry Press. 1977) 11 c/Jpm2 The Speeches Sdeiermacher's "Burgeoni.ng"Ecclesiology In his attempt to reach out to the "cultured despisers" of religion, Sdileiermacher published in 1799 a series of five speeches on the subject of religion.43 His purpose was ta reach out to &ends and acquaintances in order to demonsuate that one can be bot. culturally sophisticated and religiously &ected without having one in codict with the other. In ha, Schleiermacher goes one step fider and argues throughout the collection that a human being cannot help but be "religious", rhat is, cannot help but be touched in some way by an intuition and feeling for the infinite. We each of us arperience in either impliUt or explicit ways a taste for the infinite, a yearning for a different redity fiom the one we are engaged in widiin our quotidian context. The Speeches then as they have corne to be known are essentially an experiment in uanslacing the "religious experiencen of humanity into a generic vocabulq that wodd be meaningfd and relevant for Schleiermacher's contemporaries. In Speech 2, for example, he speaks of being "religiousn not as a cognitive activity of assent to beliefs but rather as an affective experience of tasting divinity in and through humanity's communal living. We don't look to the douds for a God "out there"; rather we enter wi& the imer sanctum of our consciousness to discover the "God withinn, the divine presence wirhin the interior casde of our sou1 - to borrow fiom St. Teresa. Wirhin this rnauix of relevant theoIogical uanslarion, Speech 4appears as the groundwork for Sdileiermacher's ecdesiology. The fodspeech contains in a nascent form Schleiermacher's theology of the Church, a theological position that cornes to fnlltion and manrrity in his lacer work, The Chrisdan Faith. In this chapter, we will consider cwo aspects of Schleiermacher's

*3 Friedrich Schieicrmuher, On Mgion: Spc& ta ia Cuhred Dnpirm 12 burgeoning ecdesiology: the hmeneutriaf viewpoint ( or the view "from without") and the condview(or the view "fiom within"). A) The Hermeneutid Wewpoint An examination of the structure of the Speeches may well lead one to ask the foIlowing question: Does the order of the Speeches contain a due as to the theologid intent of Schleiermacher? One could indeed argue affirmauvdy that Sdileiermacher intends a "movemen t " in religious unders tanding fio m the isolateci individual to the interacting community, fiom introspection to societal vision, fiom the self to the world. This intentional undertow in the collection can be represented as a series of concentric &des - moving away fiorn die self as "monad" to the self as "manifestation" of humanity. Ultimately, the "rdigious" self is ineluctably a "communal" self. For Schleiermacher, chue is no religion without community. Within the innermost circle lies the self of Speech I crying to End a religious sense within segregated consciousness. In Speech 2, the self encounters the Other wirhin others. Speeches 3,4and 5 move progressively ourwards from persona formation of the religious sense to social and universal development. The encounter between self and religion is mediated through the selfs relationships in communicy. By the end of the Speeches, SSdileiermacher has led us away fiom the dangers of a solipsistic pierism to a community-driven and cornmunity-defined notion of life lived within a "religious" ethos. At rhis point, we can dso ask a second herrneneutical question, particularly in reference to Speech 4 Does the "title" of the fourth speech give us a due to Schleiermacher's theological projea? Once again, we answer in the affirmative for Schleiermacher intends to lead us from the social element in religion to the ecdesial factor in . The argument is positioned as foUows: Religion as essentially a socid phenorneno n develops in to Christianiry 13 as essenùally an cccksiai phenomenon - where aIl members are expected to be prie~t~for one another. To be Cht.frttanfor Schleiermacher is co be Chrch.

The ContdPerspective Having briefly examined the Speeches "60m without", we can now focus on the text of Speech 4 itself in order to discun "from within" the underlying ecdesiology that imbues this section on the social nature of religion. We shall consider twehe key themes upon which Schleiumacher's contaal perspective

We begin with a summative statement at die outset, a dedaration that sets the tone for the enüre speech: "Once there is religion, it musc necessarily also be sociaY.4 This is Sdileiermacher's resounding theme, namdy, ththere is an inherent, innate "social" nature to religion. To put it in terms of the contemporary Catholic spirinia theologian, Henri Nouwen: communion with the divine inevirably leads to the community of those who have experienced the divine and wish to share that experience with each orher. To encounter God is to encounter the human fdowship of those who are so touched by a sense of the infinite that die "touch" brings them together to worship in community. In tasting the infinite, humanity becomes in a sense divinised or deified. In encountering God, we become like God. We experience what the Eastern Christian traditon cals theosis or participation in divine life. Recovery of this concept is a dominant therne in curent Cacholic spiritud/ethid theology as evident in Mark O'Keefe's Becoming Go04 Becoming H0ly.45 Today's spiritual theologians may very well find a resonant conversation partner in Schleiermacher with his notions of religious fdowship.

44 Spmba p. 73 (AU page rdermm in rh. thesis rcfer to rhe Crouter mnslauon & edition, 1988) 45 Mark O'KKfe, Brromhg Gdkcoming Hob (N.Y.: Paulist Press, 1995) 14 A second theme in Speech 4 cenues around the image of the "city of GodY ïhe social, commuaal expression of religion fùnctions as a preview and foretaste of the *heavenly bondw47among humans who experience mutuality, cordialiry and "most perfect equaütym.48The "practiced sense of community" 49 brings the hearts of all rdigious persons on to a U common sragen.5* This "common stagewwiil metamorphose in The CMnFaith into the worshiping stage of believus embraced by the Redeemer, chat is, the Church. A third element focuses on one of the pillars of Reformation theology, namely, the "priesthood of aIl beiievers". Religion as a socid phenomenon engenders for Schleiermacher a society of "priestly people" .5 * An authentic religious community is a sacerdotal demouacy where members function both as priesrs and laity, "where each alternately lads and is led; each follows in the other the same power that he also feels in himself and with which he rula others."52 Indeed for Schleiermacher, the Church aims to become "a perfect republicn53, a concept reflecting Schleiermacher's Platonic interests as well as duding to the "royal priesthood, holy nationn%statu to which God's people are called. Tdy religious associations are cded to an egalitarian mode of living that overcomes "discord and dissensionn55by concentrahg on the notion of a unified spirit underlying superficial differences. As Schleiermacher puts it in Speech 4 "1 see nothing except rhat alI is one and that d disUncrions that really

46 Spemha, p. 75 47 %id p. 75 48 Ibid 49 &id. So Ibid Ibid. p. 76 s2 Xbid. 53 Ibid. s4 1Pcur 2:9 55 Spmk p.76 exist in religion flow smoothly into one another through the social association".s6 A engenders a communal spint that becomes a brce of unification in the world. In his 1830 Augsburg Confession homiletic collection, Schleiermacher continues this e!galitarian theme in Smnon 6 under the topic of confession. In that sermon, he espouses the blessings and benefits of an equal mode of confession where members confess cheir sins to each other57 such that the confessional trust among brethren enhances "the unifymg power of Christian faithn.s8 In a sense, confession becomes an ecumenical witness to a unified Church. Unity underiying dittmity is a fourth important thune in Speech 4 The fragments of Me are dl "inseparably bound up with the wholen.sg In so far as human persons are inexuicably in contact with others, "one bond encloses them allw60 so rhat we are all "flowing, integraring part(s) of the whole..".61 Later, in his mature theology, Sdeiermacher will ident* the whole with the redeeming Body of Christ Le. the Chutch - to which all of humaniry is called. In essence, the individual believer has no life apm from che whole community, rhat is, apart fiom the Church. The call for religious tolerance constirutes another therne in Speech 4 and becornes the leitmotif for mosr of Schleiermacher's work. If one had to select the key principle that motivated Sdeiermacher throughout his life as both a theologian and pastor, it would be that of tulerance for all creanires great and small. In Speech 4, he warns against wresting from a puson whatever "portion s6 %id. 57 Taking hir cue hom jrrmes 5: 16 Smons, p. 104 59 Spmha, p.?7 60 ibid 61 Ibid. of religionn62 chat person has chosen for it is society's role to enhance the religious sense in whatever form it chooses to appear. In Smon 8 on the Augsburg Confession, he specifically pleads against condemning those who believe difKerently for to condemn others is to "wantonly constrict the urde of Christian lovene and in essence irnplies a condemnation of ourselva. We are called rather to a *loving forbearance"64 towards d of humanity, caking our cue from the redemptive love of Jesus of Nazareth.65 Distinguishing between the "uue"church and the *cornmon" church is a sixth preoccupation in Speech 4 For Schleiermacher, the "tnien church exists wherever there is a true mutual communication based on a shared affective experience of the infinite. This "uue" church is the "church uiumphantn, not the church "that still suuggles against all the hindrances of religious culturen but the church "that has already overcome everychuig that was opposed to it and has ucablished itself."66 By contrast, the "common churchn is of'ten a hierarchic rather than a democratic assembly and la& mutuality. Church goers remain passive recipients of doctrines, rules and "dead concepts" and fail to experience the "living intuitions and feelings from which they were origuially derivedn. 67 We sense at this stage in Speech 4 the beginnings of an ecclesiology based on an inclusivist sense of the work of the Spirit: The Church is for all and all are destined to become Chur& hou& the sustaining and indwelling work of the Spirit. In a sense, for Schleiermacher, we do not so much belong to a church as much as we become the Church in our religiously affected fdowship.

62 Ibid p. TI 63 Smnonr. p. 136 Ibid. 65 CF.§ 11.p.52 66 Sp'~~:ha,p. 78 67 Ibid., p.81 The seventh theme appears as a reprise of the who& in thefiagmrna The prolifération of "churches" doan't bother Sdileiermacher since he views the rnultif~iousforms of Christian communities as simply "detached fwment(s) of the meand universal church, which is just maruring quietly and slowly toward its union in spirit witk this great who1eB.68 This undercurrent of "catholicity" in Schleiermacher's ecdesiology points towards a "Catholic" view of the Church rather than the uaditional Protestant one. There is only one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. However, it resides neither in Rome nos in Berlin but in the redeemed heans of those united around the one Redeemer who maintains his presence and power in the very process of affective religious fellowship. For Schleiermacher rhere would appear to be many roads co Emmaus; it is the common goal which unites us - the coming of the Kingdom of God in full consummation.69 Until this point of hal completion, we are a Chuch "on the way", a Church whose goal is unity and peace. In Smon IOof the Augsburg collection, Sdileiermacher pursues this theme of the unifying goal of the Church. The Church in this last sermon is presented as God's work of continuous enacted in human form and fashion and guided by the Spirit.70 This collaborative work calls us to become not passive spectarors "expecting something fiom beyond", but radier to engage the world as active participants, as CO-redeemers of Our own humanity. This would appear to be a Jarnesian influenced works-ethic "Catholicn theology of the Church rather than the uaditional Pauline inspired faith-ethic of "Protestantn theology. To be fair to Schleiermacher's overd theological vision however, it would be more accurace to Say that

68 ibid., p.83 69 CF. 1 157, p. 696 Scnnonr, p. 156 Sdeiermacher ho16 the Jarnesian and Pauline ecdesiologies in a dialogical pair. In many ways, Sdeiermacher is both Catholic and Protestant at the same Ume. He is cornfortable Living with ambiguiry, with the juxtaposition of opposites. He is not so concerned, as Hegel was, to synthesize amitheticai rdities. We live in both a saand a graceful world - where light is the lefi hand of darkness, where divinity appears when and where we lest expect it. We are cdled to be in constant dialogue with al1 aspects of a world already redeemed and yet to k redeemed in full glory. The eighth theme is a variation on the tme churchlfalse church dichotomy. In essence, Schleiermacher points out the way in which the spirit of the uue church can become institutionalized into a "false" church where the initial affectivelprophetic energy wanes into pebctory routine rituals. Here he anticipates the sociology of religion work developed by the mentieth century author, Max Weber. In his book, The Sociolon ofReiz"''on, Weber idencified what he termed "the routinization of the charisman7' whereby inscitutionalization can lead to die de-spiritualization of the church. As a pastor involved in the socio-political structures of his day, Schleiermacher was well aware of the dangers when a [rue church of the spirit becornes "politicized"into a Use bureaucratie entity. The trappings of eady riches can easily replace uue religious feeling, as he writes in a somewhat rhe torical, poetic Won: Indeai, if only no prince had ever been aiiowed in the temple before he had laid dom in front of the portal the most beautifui omaments, the nch cornucopia of all his favours and tokens of honoia! But they have taken it with them: they have presumed that they could decorate the simple nobility of the heavenly edifice wiâh the tarrers of their earthly

71 Max Weber, Th SbcioI;ogy ofRhcügion (Boxon.1963) as quored in fmmote 12 on page 84 of rhe Crouter edition 19 splmdor, and instead of a sanctified heart they have left behind worfdly gifts as offerings to the highest t~eing.~z Indeed with institutionalization, "the vitniosos of holinessn who embodied the uue spirit of religion are replaced by "v~ososof political bureaucracy" who instantiate the Çdse spirit of a false church. Schieiermacher pleads against politid intrusion into religion The resulc of such fore@ importation is the defilement of uue relqpous füowship. In this appeal, Schleierrnadiu appears as a modern day prophet calhghis flock back to thek original covenant with the Redeemer. Ultimately, the true chuch as a community of freely chosen mutually caring reiationships needs nothing ëxcept a language in order to understand each other and... a space to be togerher , chings for which they need no prince and his favourn.73 A quadruple litany of pleas comprises the ninth concern in Speech 4. Firstly, a plea for religious tulerance as there are thousands of individual intuitions and "different ways in which these intuitions might be put together in order to illumine each other? As he so eloquently and forcefully describes ic: Master and must be allowed to seek out and choose one another in perfect -dom, otherwise one is lost for the 0th; one must be pennitted to seek what is beneficiai to all individuais. and no persons must be compelled to give more than they have and uncimtand75 If reLgion isn't fieely chosen for Schleiermacher, chen it isn't mereligion. Secondly, a restated plea for a ciro~aticp~estbuudofall believers such that the distinction between priests and laig can be "sofknedn to the point where lairy can be at the same cime priests. This egalitarian notion of the Church as the

72 SpcmQ4 p. 85 '3 lbid., p.88 74 Ibid., p.89 '5 Ibid. people of God anticipates, a century before its cime, the democrauc concept of the Catholic Church resurrected with Vatican II in die 1960's. A &rd plea calls for an ecumenical spirit that will overcome "the malicious spirit of sectarianism and proselycizing, which always leads fùrther away fiom the essence of religion"? Tdyreligious people do not feel that rhey belong to hermetically seded "distinct" cirdes. They may identify with a particular manifestation of the religious experience but they do not dude thunselves nor do &ey ordude others fiom the common taste for the infinite resident within each member of humanicy. The taste for the infinite in the Speeches which becomes the feeling of absolute dependence as the "essence" of religion in The Chnktiian Faith moves on to become the personal relationship with the Redeemer as the "essence" of Christianiry. The final plea is an invitation to form a religion of action rather than a religion of empty words, a religion where one's entire Me becornes a "priestly work of art". Schieiermacher writes: "If their whole life and every movement of their inner and outer form are thus a priesdy work of art, then perhaps, by this mute speech, the sense of what dwells in them will open up in rnanyn.nIndeed chis is none other than the priestly prayer of Jesus in John's gospel: The world wiU corne to know you by the love you have for one another.78 The importance of rhefamily as the tirst and last source of true religious spirit brings us to the tenth theme. "If sounds of love accompany dl movements", Sdileiermacher writes, "the family has the music of the spheres in its domainn.79 Pious dornesticity becomes prepararory ground for mature religious feeling. Indeed, if pushed to the wall, Schleiermacher would concede

76 Ibid., p.91 77 Ibid, p.92 78 john 1405 79~peccb4p.9 2 that the priesthood of the fàmily is ultimately the Üue" church. ALI other forms are immateriai: " This priesshood was the first in the holy and childlike primeval world and it will be the last when no other is any longer necessarym.8O In Smnon lof the Augsbq wliection, Schleiermachu identifia the Wyas the Boden, the foudation of a virtuous society. Though churches may be scattered, the spirit reigns suprane wherever two or three are gathered in the name of the Redeemefl* who brings eternal life to all humanity through community, however smdl and insignificant that community may seem to the outside world. The penulumate theme in Speech 4 centres on the notion of what later came to be known in mentieth cuiniry theology as pun-m-th~.8~This is the recognition of the Pauline position that the coming of Jesus as the Christ reconciles all creation back to God83 so that in effm, as Sdileiermacher writes at the end of Speech 4 : "Everydimg human is holy, for everydiing is divinen.84 To recognize infinite divinig within &ily humanity becaux die Word became flesh and dwelled arnong us - this is Schleiermacher's reminder. We cannot denigrate ueation for the Redeemer completes the creauon begun by the Father and brings humanity to Godtonsciousness, to participation in divine Me. Appropriately, Schleiermacher brings Speech 4 to a dose with the reprise that there is noching nobler in human life than community where ëach is simultaneously conscious of the otherm.8sWe are calIed to become and to continue to be a "band of brothers [and sisrers]" thar together form a choir of fiiends singing the praises of the God that lives within human fdowship, the

8o Ibid., p.93 81 M& 1820 82 q.Pd Ti&. ~I;Os.Vehme In 83 Cid 1:19-20 S'ha, p. 94 85 Ibid, p.94 22 God that caa be touched here and now. In this way and only in this way are we 'on the way to uue immortality and eternit.." Chaper3 Schleiermachet's 1830 Augsburg Conféssion Sermons: The "Mature" Ecclesiology 1) The Con- Tbeology Smfi aSc Pdpit On the fourth of April in 1830, King Friedrich Wihelm III issued a royal directive for a festival to ammunorate the presentation of the Augsburg Confission. Considering this symbolic document as the "principal foundation of the Evangelicd church",87 the govanment intended to promote a spirit of unity arnong chuch members and hopefùlly consolidate the ecumenical work of the Lutheran-Reformed union begun in 18 17. This unification process had unfortunately corne to an impasse with rhe radical muenchment of the confessionalists on one side and the rationalists on the other. The former appeared committed to suingent doctrinal uniformity and rectitude in a blind, unchanging sok fi& seemingly without thoughr; the latter rernained coldly isolated in a "calculated policy of soia ratio in al1 matters theologicaIn,*8seemingly without &th. Into this dichotomous arena, Schleiermacher emerges as a mediator, anempting to inject a dialogid spirit into the controversy. He calls for a balance between &th and reason; he advocates Mrywichin diversity; he incends primarily to heal the divisions wichin his own ch& in Berlin. As Iain Niwl has aptly argued in his introduction, Schleiermacher's 1830 response to the Augsburg Confession was not so much an acadernic one benr on resolving the Halle dispute berween the confessiondisa and the rationalists, but more a partoral one intent on h&g the disorder in his own congregation. With this goal in mind, Schleierrnacher puts theology at the service of the pulpit and delivers a series of ten sermons in the summer and fdof 1830 on the subject of the Augsburg Confession.

87 Quopd ti IinNicol, introduction. hnr,p. a8 Ibid, p. ix 24 As we hten to this collection of sermons, we can &cem three key intercalated presupposiuons in Schleiermacher's presentation, The hst presupposition States that Christian doctrine as a human, historid formulation of Spirit is subject to a continuous process of development. There is therefore no furcd body of docuinal knowledge; docuine is forever cvolving. The second presupposition daims that the Church as "an organic wmmunity of faith and life is, essentially, a living and dynamic historical process " 89 Consequently, the ecdesia is noc a fxed, unchanging institution; like its own doctrine, the Church &O evolves over Ume undu diverse manifestations. A third presupposition posics a threefold didectic of spirits underlying the historical development of the Chrisuan Church. Firstly, there is the "original" Christian spirit of the Gospel preached by the early diurch. Secondly, there is the Catholic spirit as manifested in Roman Catholic traditional documents. Lady, the Protestclnt spirit surfaces as embodied in the confessional wrirings of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. In this dialectic, all historical manifestations of the spirit of Christianity, Catholic or Protestant, are to be "measured and judged"g0 against Scripture. In the foreword to his collection of Augsburg sermons, for example, Schleiermacher indicates his ailegiance to the Confssio Sigismandi of 161 4, "as long as it is in agreement with holy scripnirem.9iScripture aione is the nomnon nomanda, the unnormed norm - a tmer of &di and argument held by most (if noc all) Protestant and Catholic thinkers throughout the history of theology. For Aquinas in medid times, for Luther in the Reformation era, for Schleiermacher in the Romantic puiod and for Barth or Rahner in our own cencury, Scripture is the theological cenue and

- p. Ibid., p.xvii Ibid.. p. n 91 Schleiermacher, Forcword p. 4. noo 6 25 within Scripture ,Jesus as the Word and the Christ is the "ascriptive subjectm92of the Christian fith cxperience - explicidy or implicitly. We would do weil to remember this common evangelical ground when hced with ciassical Catholic-Protestant theological debates. For Schleiermacher, diverse eccIesiologies are welcome multifàrious epiphanies of the urilfying spirit of Jesussf-Nazareth-asasRedeunu. From the presuppositions stated above, a number of implications suggest themseives. Firstly, one of theology's task is the continuous reformulation of tradition, assisting the process of doctrinal deveiopment rather than arresting ireg3What was "theirs badc then" cannot "be ours now" in the same sense. We need to maintain continuity with the past while redescribing it for the present, neirher kidnapping a ton from the past nor leaving it buried there. To the ment that Christian doctrine is subject ro development and that the Spirit must be freed continually from the letter, then the process of reformulation is never-ending, can never be brought to closure, can never lay down its head until the eschaton and the final corning of the Kingdom of Christ. Consequently, doctrinal documents like the Augsburg Confession are syrnbols "surcharged with meaning", to borrow from Ricoeur, and confessional interpretations can never be exhausred or condusive. In fact, on-going debates are a sign of doctrinal health for Schleiermacher. Diversity of the letter within a unified spirit of Christianity is co be encouraged. A second implication is the emergence in Sdeiermacher's ecclesiology of an eturnenical approach avant Ir temps. Domid differences are co be resolved not with anathemas but in Smit und Liebe, in controversy and love. Evangelical freedom arising fiom the spirit of Protestantkm can sustain "a plurality and diversity of

92 Hans Frei, T~pcrof Cht;Mn Thcology, eds. George Hunsingcr and Waam C Plachcr (New Haven: Yale Uniwticy Press, 19%) 93 Niad, li=oduuion, p. xvii 26 doctrine and pracricen?4 Within the same Christian fold devoted to the Spirit of Christ, there is a place for the "plurality of voices" to put it in twentieth centwy terms. Schleierrnacher exudes an inspiring confidence that the fieedom inherent in the GospeI WU bring humanity together, mting that Christ is present wherever two or three are gathered in His name whatever the words of the prayer or hyrnn may be. As Nicol condudes: "Sdeiermacher may weU have prophesied the advent of the Ecurnenid Movernent of the twentieth ~entuq?"'~~ The third implication arising from Sdeiermacher's presupposirions is that by irs very developmental nature, the Chur& is indeed r@mata semper r(omczn& a reformed church, ever reforming. This u ever reforming" spirit applies to its confessions, its liturgies, its theologies. The church lives in a dynamic state of permanent dialogue. It is a church in perpetuai motion, subject to no human document or institution, Save to Christ and His Spirit. For Schleierrnacher, the Christian faith calls us to be "pilgrims on the way to an Emmaus chur~h",~~to a church forever on the horizon. We can take hem about being immersed widiin a for Christ has promised to be with us to the very end of the

2) The Hèmzmeuh'cs: ThArchitecture of the Snmons Prior to a detailed invesrigation of the acmal contents of the Augsburg Conlession sermons, we WU examine the underlying architecture upon which this collection is based. This query involves looking at three hermeneutical areas: the s@tural, the ordinaIand the structural From a scriptural viewpoint, Schleiermacher's choice of introductory New Testament texrs for each sermon is significant for the dwelopment of his argument.

% Ibid., p. xxiiï 95 Ibid. pniv 96 Nd., nv '' Ma.2820 We note the following selections, the combination of whidi reflects the dialcctic of spirits that generates and sustains Schleiermacher's ecclesiologica discourse. Six of the sermons are based on Pauline letters - 1 and II Corinthians, Gahtiuns, Ephesians and PhiIippians. Hcbrews is also induded as the source for Snnion 5 on the uonce-for-all" sacrifice of Christ. These passages dearly represent the Prot~skmtspirit. Constiniting seventy percent of his choices, there is no denring that Schleiermacher wem his uue coloua as a theologian working within a traditional Pro testant hework. As for the remaining epistolary selections, however, both are caken from the "Catholic" epistles - 1 Peter and James. The choice of chese New Testament texts rdects an authentic concern for the C'tholic spirit - the Peuine drive for a unified Church as well as the Jamesian cal1 for a "good worksn cornponent to faith. Interestingly, in Smon IO, Schleiermacher underscores the importance of being active participants rather than passive specrators as believers involved in ecdesial life. Instead of "expecting something fiom beyond", he writes, "we ourselves need to get involved" for "the divine completion of this work is always at the same Ume a human onem.9*Christ alone redeems, but as members of his vital fdlowship we are cded and ordained to extend the redemptive cirde ro humankind in our daily lives. In this particular instance and in fact throughout his ecdesiology, Sdileiermacher conrinues to hold faith-righteousness (the Protestant spirit) and works-righteousness (the Catholc spirit) in a didogica pair. The only Gospel text selected for this collection of sermons is that of Luke 637. Considering Schleiermacher's predilection for John i Gospel in most of his writings, it is most notable that on this occasion, he selects Luke. Why? Because Lukei is the irenic gospel of tolerance, and universality, chemes central to his Augsburg sermons.99 Further, Lake's gospel and its sequel, Act% constitute the sacred books chat establish the Church as the conünuauon of Christ's redeeming work for humankind. LuAeMcts is the CatholiclEcclesiaI text suited to Schleiermacher's Catholic-leaning ecdesiology and so he makes use of Luke ro underpin these sermons d&g with the meanhg of being Church. AS a theologian hlly cognizant of hermeneutical infrastructures, Sdileiermacher's placement of the Augsburg sermons in the panicular order in which they occw is consequenrid. As with the Speeches, SdileiermacherS ordinal choice with the Augsburg Semons dearly reflem an ecdesially-driven crajectory towards a dyspiritual Church. The concern for avoiding inauthentic servitude to the Letter of Smnon I leads to the championhg of meecdesial unity in Smon IO, a uniry noc written in codes but in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Beginning with the Pauline exhortation to be suvants of Christ and the Spirit, not slaves to men and leaers (Snmon I), Schleiermacher nert cds upon the Peuine challenge to defend the "hope that is in youw,but widi gencleness and reverence. (Smon Z). The handing over of the Augsburg Confession in 1530 is a dassic example for Sdileiermacher of defending the Christian f~thand cxpanding its hope to d widrin an acmosphere of colaance and forbearance. Snmons 3 and 4deiineate the implications of the Christian faith. We are fmr justified by faih in Chrisr and rhrough this fith-righteousness, Christ cornes to live in us. We then share his God-consciousness and participate in His divine Me. Rather chan being reduced to doctrines, faith becomes a living, communal redicy. This c4 sharing and participation" howwer does not occur in a ghostly vacuum. It becomes incarnared in the sacramenrd action of the Eudiarist (Smnon 5) and Confession (Smon 6). Confessing our sins to one another and shahg the Lord's Supper are g9 Only Ucmnczins such unique pasages as rhc parable of the Prodigai Son (Lk 15:I 1-32), rhe thief who enurs paradise wich Jesus (Lk 2343) and the wrds: "Fathex. hrgive thcm for thcy know not what chcy don.(Lk 23.34). surely rhe cpitomc of rhc Spirit of forgiveness - CO forbcar one's omaccurionen. 29 signs of the presence of the Spirit in our communally- expressive faa. Although as Christians we are all called to be spiritual priests for one another, there is scill the necessiry for public minisuy (Smnon 3,for a derid priesthood ro oversee the f~th- community - protecting, encouraging and enhancing the fellowship with the

Within this sacramentallecclesial community, there is no room for condemnation of those who believe differently (Smnon 8 nor for a wrathf'ul, vmgeful God (Smon 9) to frighten humans into a fear-ridden belief. Rather the Church as the Redeemer-cenued community lives with tolerant kindness and prays to a loving, forgiving God. (Smnon I a) Findy, the ultimare goai of the Christian life is not perfect adherence to human rules and rimais (the Letter) but rather a love-abounding ecclesid unig (the Spirit) that instantiates in human form die divine completion of the sanctification of the world. This sanctification is enacted through the service of human beings. To sum up then, Schleiermacher's hermeneutid ordering of the ten Augsburg Sermons erects a matrk upon which his thematic arguments WU lie. The very order of these sermons reveais Schleiermacher's theological, pastoral intent - to coax and coach his parishioners away from a self-preoccupied, letter-enslaving, exclusivist towards an ecdesially-cenued, Spirit-driven, inclusivis t faith. The fdhermeneuticai aspect to be considered in Ais section is that of the consistent structure with which Schleiermacher builds each sermon. He begins with a scrijmral tnct, spells out its theologicai impCicatiom and suggests its ethicai applicationr for the Christian Me of communal piety. Consider, as an example, Smon Gon rhe exhortation to confess our sins. Based on the James 5: 16 tan, Schleiermacher's introduction immediately situates confession within die conrext of the Eucharistie . Confession is not wncerned wih "an enmeration of panicular trespasses".'* Rather the confession of sias "belongs to our partaking of the supper of our Redeemer as a fiesh reassufance of the divine f~r~iveness".'~'The theological iimpiicah.on of the Jarnesian text is that confession is really a "subject of prayer"l02 and is meant for healing and remnciliation, not for piuiishment and atonement. The blesings of confession in an ditarian mode reflect the priesthood of all believers. Ultimacely, confasion becomes an ecumenical witness, a witness co the "ulufying power of Christian fàith".'03 The ethical appIicatioon of James' exhortation for Schleiermacher is to act in such a way that brotherly and sisterly ~t is ro undergird aIl our relationships with each other as a refleaion of our uusting relationship widi C.hist. This three-fold movement of scriptural text, theological implicacion and ethical application aco as the homiletic paradigm for all of Schleiermacher's sermons in this collecüon. As a model, rhis structural componenr of each sermon rweds a theology concerned about and devored to the pastoral needs of the rccksia, a theology gui* parishioners towards a bdief-and-behaviour mode refleccive of their common faith in the Redeemer. 3) The Te,At Lad :Thms and Variiations Having considered the contemual and hermeneutical framework for the Augsburg sermons, we can now oramine the text itself in order to tease the fàbric of ecdesiai themes and variations wntained herein, a capestry cornprising an essenudy Cathotic ecclesiological foregound witba Protestant theologid badcgroundP

Smnon I :Admonition Concming Serf-Induccd Smitzuù For Schleiermacher, the "whole kernd of this confession"lO5 comprises the Redeemer as the only-begotten Son of the Fathes and the Spirit "whose outpouring on his people he first requested of the Fathern.106 In other words, it is the expression of a Redeemer-centred cornmunitarian faith, a faith chat generates, sustains and celebrates a communal life refleccive of the divine life of the .107 The communal iife of the eccksiia acts as a window to the communal life of 3ie Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What are the feamres of this ecdesial life? It is characterised not by a self- induced slavery to institution or confessionaf document but by a "noble, spirirual servinide in Christ".l08 It is animateci by an egalitarian spirit of friendship where none cdeach 0thmasrer, for the only master is Christ. It cds al1 of us to share in the work of Christ who transfers us fiom the "kingdom of darkness" ro the "kingdom of lightn.lOg Christ has already accomplished die wosk of salvation and in faith we gracefùlly receive the fnrits of His labour - Protestant spirit territory. But, as noble semts of the Redeemer, "we too are part of this stniggle and ic behooves us too to share in paying the price to be paid for odiersn.l10 There are "Merbades" to be

A surnr~~~rhut of the ren wrmonr rnd rhur rdevant themer ir provided for the rcadcr in Appuidix 1. los hm,p.23 *O6 Ibid. lo7 For Schleicrmachcr, the Triniry' is mdly &n in the modalistic seme of Srbellius. Sec p.750 of chc CE IOr, Ibid. p33 %id. p JO Io Ibid. p31 32 fought and more suffiring required "to complete Christ's afnictions"~~~- Catholic spirit terrain. Schleierrnadier appears to wak a ughuope: as a Protestant, he can never let go of fàith-righteousness; yet, the im plici t necessity of worlcs-righteousness haunts him like a spectre. His Protestant side assures hirn of the Redeemer's victory; his Catholic side calls him to the everlasting stniggIe und we do achieve the "uninterrupred enjoyrnent of all blessiqp of the kingdom of Godm.1l2 Unfomuiately, while we toil on this side of paradise, we are faced widi not only a divided world but a divided diurch. This divisive ecdesial condition shodd not lead us to grievous despair but rather should evoke a 'loving forbearancen and an "&hg compassionn~~3for uuly we know not what we do. We conrinue to live in die shadow of Calvary, with the cries of the Redeemer redounding in our ears. Yet, we cake hem that we will be with him in paradise. In the interim, we act to "ensure that the bond of the unity of the Spirit will not be dissolved by these divergent tendencies". '4 We live as fiee suvants of Christ dedicated ro the Word, never forcing others ro become "slaves of any human word or prescription, for our freedom lies in this: that all is ours, but we are Christ'sVs The Word of God before the word of

By the end of this fxst sermon, Sdileiermacher has dearly delineated some essential features of his ecdesiology. He cds his flock to a spiritual, egalirarian, compassionate church where much work of service srill needs to be done. He cds his fdow pastors to become leading examples to the flock, servants to the communiry and "stewards of the mysteries of Godn.116

l3 Ibid. p32 l4 ibid. p.33 '5 Tbid. Ibid. p27 Smnon 2 :On the Handng Uuer of the GnfMOn

lu Giving an Accountfir the Ground of Hope Tho* it begins with a Catholic epistle~~'exhoning us to ddend our &th, the second sermon is for the most part a classical expression of the three pillars of the Protestant spirit: by faith alone; scripture as the sole norm for Christian doctrine and practice; and the priesthood of all believers. Lest we suspect that he ha defmed to the Catholic camp, Sdileiermacher unequivodly reminds us that neither extemal works nor any meritorious activities of ouown can "bring peace with Godn.l18 Radier, righteousness cornes from God through the one He has sent so that in communion with the Son we might have eternd life. This communion involves a "living faith in the Redeernerm1I9who done brings salvation and peace. AU other things are to be rejected, even confessional documents, for "the letter of the text" should nwer prevent "the advance and increase of knowledgen120of the life of the Spirit. On this latter issue, Sdileiermacher departs from many of his confessionalisr- oriented Protestant contemporaries for whom confessional symbols like the Augsburg document were written in Stone with the same degree of normativity as die original tablets of Exodus or the Bearirudes of the .12l On the contrary, for Schleiermacher, the understanding of Our faith evolves over tirne so chat the articulation of this faith in written documents &O develops over urne. In shon, the meaning of a tnct. even a scriptural text, depends on the hiscorical conta It meant something then in its own tirne; it means something different now to us in our own

li7 IPer3:15 l8 Scimonr, p.38 1 19 Ibid. 120 %id. p39 121 It is &rcsting CO note chat contcrnporary support for Sdikicrmrcher's notion of docuinal devdopmcnt came fiom thc Gtholic rheologian, johann S&artr;afi Drry (1777-1853). thc founder of the Gchoiic hculv nt the University of Tübingen. Drcy's rchnonship with Schieicrmubu's cheology is addressed in n rubsequent sedon of rhis thesis. 34 situation. Docuine, as the expression of &th in a given contua, ineluctably changes and develops over time. The rask of the pastoral theologian is to discern, preserve and enliven the spirit of &th thou& its letter may change over tirne. The husk may fd by the wayside; the kernd mut be protected and sown und the hdwming. Each generation will address &th in irs own dothing so that it speaks relevantly to its own rimes. The danger, however, might be that we lose sight of the core of our %th. For Schleiermacher, the continual presence of the Spirit within the vital fdowship of the Redeemer will dways Save us fiom any impending loss of sight of our &th. The preaching of the Word ensures us of this presence. This preaching aaivity is not limited to formal addresses fiom the pulpit. It is ofkn instantiated in public actions such as the very act of handing over the Augsburg Confession in 1530. Schleiermacher cites thee praiseworrhy aspecrs surrounding this deed of living &th. Firstly, it was an exemplary action of faithfulness, the faith of die Evangelicd church in action in the real world of its own cimes. The procesrers in 1530 did not cower in underground caves or escape to monastic enclaves to profess their faith. Radier diey courageously stood in a public forum addressing the polirical-ecclesial powers of the day to confess their religious bdiefs and practices.1~ Secondly, it was an atrempc to maintain unity within a diversified expression of &di. The aim "was not ar ail to establish a new and separate community but was simply to preserve their liberty of consciencen123 within a unified church. Schleiermacher argues that had the Church of Rome been willing to dlow divergenr. regionai tendencies within on overriding unity, the Reformation would perhaps no t have spawned a schismatic but rather a renewed church.124

lu Srnnonr, p.39 Ibid. p.40 124 Infttcstingiy, the rcmdof rhc notion of diversified expressions of hich with VaScan II in the 1960's rcsonaoa 4th Schicicmachcr's insighc Schkiermachu wouid probably have beni a welmmc guesr ac &e Vatican II sessions. 35 Thirdly, the deed of 1530 dhted the principle of sokz s+nrra The Word of God, Christ embodied in suipture, is the sole unnormed norm against which to judge the development of doctrine and the ordering of the Chrisuan mord life. For Schleiermacher. no witness is vaIid except for "what is atpressed in these writingsW.l25 In addition to his exposition in this sermon of the fuith-abne and srripture- &ne principla of Protestant theology, Schkeiermadier also reiterates the democratic notion of the univdtyof Christian priesthood. He afEms: . . .Aat aU Chnstürns should be priests and that mtsof GodosWord wae dednot to be rnasters of people's consciences but rightly to divide the Word of God so thai everyone might freely mite use of it. Lhwise, ever since ihen the difference in our church berween those who pmlaim God's Word and thox who bear it has also becorne smaiier and smaiier. lZ6 Does this mean that Schleiermacher eschews a derical ministry? Not at d,ro judge fiom his observation at the outset of this sermon where he writes: u Great care musc be taken in selecting reachers for the new congregations and in nrruring th& propu ovmighf .127 Sdeiermadier reveds his Cdvinist roors in espousing a cornmuniry- driven notion of church. We don't express faith by ourselves; we srpress it in communal worship. We don'r read scriptures by ourselves exclusively withour communal oversight. We give an account of oufaith "noc rnerely each person for oneself but also as one communiry"W Once again, in spite of the predominanc Protestant theological landscape in this sermon,we can reasonably dixern lurking in the tan ecdesial elemencs of a more "Catholic" nature : not only faith-alone but works-with-others; noc oniy scriprure-

125 Srnnons, p.41 nid ~.45 ln Ibid. p37 femphasl &&dl l* Ibid. p.44 done but worship within community; not only universal priesthood, but episcopai oversight as wd.

Smnon 3 :The Rehtiumhip of Euangeiicd Fuith to the Law Within the context of determining which Jements of a confession are universal and eternal and which are transienc, hist or ically-condit ioned feawes, the chird Augsburg sermon is euentiaily a reprise of the theme of the priority of faith over works of the law. Basing his homily on the dassic Galarians tact "thar a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ n ,129 Schleiermacher cautions his parishioners against the tendency for Law and the works-righteousness mentality to seep badc into the church cornmunity through idolatry to doctrines or confessional documents. A dear distinction has to be drawn, Sdileiermacher warns, between living faith and doctrinal ietter."" As a Christian communiry, we must avoid the reductionist tendency to distill a truly living fiith into pe&ctory adherence to moribund doctrines. The "faith that matters" is not concerned with "legalistic puriry of doctrine" but with Lebensgmpimch~fi,with the "living communion offered to us by Christ n. 131 Faith is truly dive and active in us not so much through doctrinal beliefs as through loving action. For Sdileiermacher, there is one unambiguous choice to make as a believer: Do you have faidi in Christ or do you put your faith in arternal works? 1s Christ alone sufEcient for you or do you rely on other things as "still necessary and salutary"?l32 An immediate objection to diis dichocornous position aises as follows: If &th is loving action within a living community, does it not by definition involve external works as expressions of that faich? Otherwise, we end up with an

129 G~1Cathu2:16-18 I3O smnomi p.59 13' %id. 132 Ibid. p.56 interndised, individudistic piecy which Schleiermacher consistently shuns in favour of expressive communal action. Schieiermacher would probably answer, dong with Luthu, that though works don't count, they do, nevedeless, matter in the life of &th. Works don't justify us in themselves; only Christ does. But =th in Christ only cornes alive through loving action within the fellowship He inaugurated and continues to sustain. A Merdarification is chat in this contact of a sermon dealing with the Augsbutg Confaion, Schleiermacher appears to be concerned not with works of loving communal action but rather with that "legalistic, hypocritical sanctityml33 assoùated with die excessively rinialistic devoriond practices of die Roman church at the tirne of the Reformation.134 The commercial procurement of as a ticket to or similar acrivities reflecting a ledger-book religiosity - this is the type of "works" Schleiermacher is warning us against. His point as a self-critical Reformer is that such tendencies cm surreptitiouly creep badc into religious practice under different guises - such as uncritical adherence, in his own Evangelicd church, to die lener of a doctrine or to a confessional document. Blind belief in the Augsburg Confession as a document is not an adequate mesure to appraise Christian commiunenr.135 Nor are attending pious assemblies or abscaining fiom enjoyable activities necessarily signs of "good Christiansn.136 Living, active faith in the vitd fdowship of the Redeemer - this is the only maure for "Christ gave no commandmenr other than that we should love one another with the same love that he has loved usn.'37

-- - 133 Ibid. 134 Schlcicrmachcr üm: 'pilgrimaga, fastingr and puimm, aims for the poorw.Srnom, p. 49 '35 Ibid. p.57 1% &id. '3' Ibid. p.62 from jn 1334 38 Therefore, Schleiermacher concludes, let us not be led to "the slavery to human regulations" but rather build the church upon *the foundation of faithwlaso that we can rejoice in the Spirit. Schleiermacher's ecdesid vision provides a sigruficant suuaural background to the discussion of &th and law in this tertiary sermon. Faith and law are not treated as isolated theological concepts in a cornplex cognitive-driven system of thought. Rather, these keystone notions of Christianity are contextualised within an ecclesiological matrix that searches for and succeeds in fmding die meaning of being a fàithful church that uuly and fàithfUy reflecrs and cclebrates the vital fellowship of the Redeemer. The Church that Schleiermacher preaches is not a church based on pious attendance and doctrinal adherence. Ir is rather a Church based on the living faith of a loving community committed to expanding the circle of participatory divine life to humankind. This sermon preaches the church not as institutionai assembly bowing to flickering images on a cave wd in obsequious consent to robed figures; rather it preaches the Church as the faithfd People of Cod. It is also the definition of "Church"found in the new Catechim of the Catholic Church " 'The Church' is the People that God gathers in the worldn; it is "die whole universal communiry of believers" .139 Schleiermacher could well have written these sections of the Catholic catechism.

Somon 4: On Righeoumess Bdon Faith Schleiermacher's fourth serrnoni** continues to explore the implications of the Pauline sense of justification by f~thwhereby "it is no longer I who live, but Christ

138 %id. p.63 139 Gttcrhrim of the CàthIK Ch&, paragraph # 752. English dacion,Omwr: Pubiiauon Servias of rhe CÎn& Conférenct of Gtholic Bishops, 1494. ïhis arechism is remarkably ehe &sr ncw atechism since the Council of Trent (1545-63). 140 Siknificmdy, ir is oniy in rhis sennon char the 'Augsburg Confessionn (p.65) ir cxplicidy namcd. This ir congru&r wirh Schieiemacfsefs ugumenr, nuncly, rhar we are nor concrmed wirh the document pau but with tbc fvrh rhac ir vrcmpo CO aprers. 39 who lives in me". l41 There is a dynamic quality to this process of gwecht mrzchrn, of cc becoming righteous", an attribute driven by an eschatologicdly-oriented eccIesiology. Ta begin with, faith in itself involves a dyadic movement. Firstly, God through Christ evokes it; that is, the first step of faith is itself a "graced" step. Secondly, as a person addressed by God in Christ, I respond and succumb to his influenual grace. Divine initiative precedes human action since, before 1 can respond, 1 have to be addressed. As Schieiermacher writes: "Faith is simply that surrender to his influence, and there would be no &th if he did not evoke itn.142 The Protestant doctrine of divine prevenience no doubt undergirds the opening paragraphs of this homily. Schleierrnacher however is much too aware of the ambiguity of life co be content with diis potentially passive view of f~th.The surrender of f~this not a fàlling into a cornplacent quietism. On the contrary, it is a dlto an "mer renewing processn143 of receiving the Redeemer. There is a realised righteousness and a yet-to- come righteousness implicit in Sdileiermacher's argument for the kingdom that Christ has inaugurated is also both retzksed and yet-to-cornp. Such a dyiamic eschatologid view is implied in Schleiermacher's notion of the whole and the Went. He posits that "the divine eye sees the future in the present and the part in the wholen.1" In other words, God sees in the Church now, as an embodiment of his Son, "the new Me that has come upon the human racen14s as a glimpse of the final consurnmation of His Külgdorn. In the incerim, we are calleci to surrender to Christ.

- l4I Grle2:20 142 hnr,p.68-69 '43 Ibid. p.69 144 Ibid. p.72 45 Ibid. To surrender to the Redeemer is to become "CO-workers"146 who serve and promote *the kingdom of God accordmg to our capaciry"? As Schleiermacher puts it, "our taking hold of him and our taking him into ouaelves must dso be renewed over and over againn.M8 The renewd process commands us to ensure that "the interconnection with Christ" is never sewered. Otherwise, "love will shrivel up and the kingdom of the Spirit will tall into rui.nm.l@ How do we maintain this interconnection with Christ in a post-apostolic age? We can only do so through that extension of Christ in the and space, that is, through the Church. As fiithful CO-workersin the Church, we can ensure that the kingdom of the Spirit does not fd into niin but rarher continues to bear the rorch of the Redeemer's righteousness to the world. Furdier, Christ cannot continue IO truIy live in us unless we "refer everyrhing to the universal sdvation of alln.i5o We are not really justified, we are no1 redy his Church, unless we open up the doors of our communai banquet to the inhabired earth. For Schleiermacher then, faith-righceousness is inherently, intimately and inexorably bound up with a Cburch-at-work-and-on-its-urayto a finalised righteousness, a Church both assured of 3ie Redeemer's victory and cded to ensure its uiumph as well - a Church Militant and a Church Triumphant at the same time; essentidy a Catholic Church.

Snmon 5 :On the S'$ce of Ch& Tbtzt Makes P6ect Working fiom the Hebrezus text that "Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sinsm,lSlSchleiermacher's fifdi sermon unfolds the implications of the

Ibid. p.77 14' 14' Ibid. p.74 148 Ibid. p.72 '49 Ibid. p.75 150 Ibid. p.76 =slHcbrm 10:12 Redeemer's oncefit aÜ salntic act for humankind. Christ's sacrifice is not so much a reminder of sin but a removal of sin, more a process of reconciliation rather than expiation. It is the perfect hilfdment of the WU of God throughout his life that makes the Redeemer who he is, not just the sacrifice of his body on the Cross, the latter, at bat, a symbol of a Me of ~~giving. The sacrifice that mates perfect then is the accomplishment of the WUof God at d times and in a.U places. Consequently, for Sdileiermacher, there is neither need for nor worth in the repetitive sacrificial rites of the Roman Catholic .152, for it is not the rinidistic adoration and consumption of the host that saves us but the reception of the life of Christ spirimaliy in ounelves. In some ways, this misrepresents traditional Catholic sacramental theology where the proper inner disposition to receive the Lord is a concurrent condition to the ourward recepuon of the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. The point Schleiermacher appears to be making however is to attend primarily to the spiritual rather than to the ritual cornponent of worship, as in the previous sermons he underscored the imporrance of living fith over doctrinal leaer. Does the sacrifice chat makes perfect continue to be enacted? Yes, Sdileiermacher answers, for as the will of God was accomplished through Christ's body while He dwelt among us, so too now the divine will continues to be fùlfdled through the Churdi as the body of Christ extending through Ume. Taking his cue Zrom the Corinrhian textl53 and resonating with the tradition of Carholic ecdesial theology, Schleiermacher expounds on the Church as the mysticd Body of Christ:

..we are al1 united in one body, and this body is also his because in it we likewise do the wiU of God together in that we support one another as its members in the various offices apponioned by the one ~ord.lS~ Consequently, though Christ's sacrifice was once for L& we concinue, as his Church, to embody in our daily lives the sacrifice over Ume. As the author of Hcbreurs domus, we cannot neglect to meet each other. Weneed to encourage each other and "stir up one another to love and good worksm.l5s The greater rhe work of community, *the better the work of sanctification flourishes".ls6 The measuse of sancufication, the masure of becoming good and becoming holy in the image of the Spirit, is the vitality of the fdowship of the Redeemer, the life of the Church. Instantiating Christ's sacrifice over tirne by enacting the wiU of God involves a recognition that "we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or bee - and all were made to drink of one Spiritn.1s7 In the contact of the fifi sermon, Schleiermacher attempts to guide his flodc co the practice of living within a cornmon ecdesial spirit. He does this by encouraging them noc to end communion with those who believe Uerendy but rather ro "diligently seek the uuth together widi themn.*58 We neither give up our position nor do we enforce ours on others. Rather we engage in a Spirit-filled dialogue that tolerates dissent as an integral part of ecdesid life. Schleiermacher's fifi homily is really an invitation to follow the ecumenical voice of the Redeemer calling us to become one as the Son and the Father are one. It is the tolerant voice of the renewed Caholicism of Vatican II, a century before its Ume.

Smon 6:Exhortation to Co+ Our Sins With the sixth sermon, Schleiermacher plunges into Catholic sacramental waters. The very mention of confnnng sins in many consenrative Protestant &des is apt to trigger a conditioned response that Papists have infiltrated the church.

l55 Smnons, p.84, where Schkicrmachet quotes He6rrws 1054 156 Ibid. p.84 1 Cor. 12:13 Is8 ~~ p.91 43 Stereotgpically, Protestant Christians daim to have Gad's direct e-mail address - no need to go through a phtor the Pope to obtain forgiveness; that's for Catholic

Christians. For the Protestant Schleiermacher, then, CO exhort his no& to conféss their sins, based on a text which Luther considered an epistle of straw,lsg is to surf ciangesous waves. Of course, conuovusy is never a problem for Schleiermacher who thnves on didectic and diaogue in the sachfor uuth. Interwoven then within a Protestant tapesuy, Schleiermacher embroiders a Catholic sacramental theology of confession. The theologicai context of confession is set f~mlywithin the Protestant principle of sacerdotal democracy. As a universal priesthood, Christians are invired neither to confèss to the select féw nor to elders but "to one anotherm.160The making and receiving of confession then is a "calling that we then share in common."~6~ The scriptural context, however, is the Catholic letter of James wich its emphasis on good works and the efficacy of such Catholic sacrarnents as confession and the anointing of the sick. In this epistle, confession is related to healing, prayer and the power of die righteous co effect change. It is imbued with a works- righteousness ethos not norrnally conducive to Protestant thinking. Schleiermacher overcomes diis barrier by emphasizing che social nature of confession as an essential healing ingredient of church Me. Indeed true Christian confession is communal by nature and is an integral, necessary part of the Eudiarisuc meal. It is not so mu& an isolated, penitential

U enurneration of particular trespasses"'62 but more a reassurance of divine forgiveness as we corne together co share in the Lord's Supper. Although sin includes the transgression of spec6c laws, it is much more a reality of severing the relauonship of

l59 jw5: 16 16* Ibid. p.98 161 Ibid. 162 Srnnonr, p.93 trust with God and out neighbour. Confession of sins then is a public act of overcoming the breach of trust and re-establishmg a loving relationship with che fdow members of our Eudiaristic comrnunity. As Schleiermacher orpounds:

..those who share the Lord's Supper together at the same tirne aiso renew their cerîainty of the forgiveness of sin beforehand and so meet together there as those who rejoice in this divine grace with fresh remembrance. but we iink this only to a cornmon confession of sin such that no ChrMan can shun it at any lime.163 Confession then is indeed a requiremenc of Chrisuan life but wirhin a public, eccbsiial contacc. When confionted with our sinful nanise, we place ourselves in the living presence of the Redeemer who then restrains our hem so thar rather than condemnauon. there is consolarion. However, since the Redeemer is no longer widi us in the flesh but with us as the ecdesial cornmuniry of his fairhful followers, we are to conféss our sins to one anodier and pray for each ocher so that we may be healed. There is no need to stand alone in our shfd struggle. As we are all mernbers of the Body of Christ. our brothers and sisters are there to succour and supportJM Now this ecdesial nature of confession does not imply Aar private confession should be avoided dcogether. On the contrary, Schleiermacher invites his fdow Christians to the "blessings that corne from the specid confession of sins to a ated soulm.16s Working through the "sincere sympathy of an intimate spiritn*66divine Face brings consolation to our lives of suuggle. Ic is part of the work of ministers a entnisted with the care of souls" to "provide aid and cornfort to everyone in everyrhing that one is kely to encouncer in the course of one's spiritual journeymY

163 Ibid. 11.101 164 Ibid. P.97 165 Ibid. p.98 166 Ibid. '67 Ibid. p.99 Confissors need not be priests but we ail need confesson as an integral part of our Christian life to encourage us in the healing of brokemess. For Schleiermacher then, both public and private confession are necessary components of the Christian's life within an ecclesial contact. Once again as a pastoral theologian concerned with healing ecdesiological divisions, Schieiermacher places on the table a codated ProtestandCatholic view of sacramental confession as essentidy ecumenical witness. For the Moravian pastor, there is no suonger symbol of "the unifj.ing power of Christian faidin to uanxend ail barriers than "the trust of confession". 168

Srnnon 7: On the Public Minisv of the Word of God By invoking the tradition of the early Church to support the notion that a system of ordered ecdesial leadership has dways been necessary to guide the f~thfiil, Sdeiermacher establishes himself distinctively within a Cacholic ecdesiology. Indeed the seventh sermon in this collection represents Sdeiermacher's most "Carholic" sermon, ac least in its endorsing the Wtues of an officially ordered minisuy. Once again, lest we think that he has abandoned his Protestant roots, Sdileiermacher does remind us of the continuous responsibility of ail the faidiful to pastoring. Neverthdess, some members are singled out for specific leadership roles as ordained ministers within a hierarchic framework. The church community cals for "an ordered ministry of the divine Wordn.169 Anyone not called to the office of pastoring and teaching "in a firring and orderly way may not and should not interpret the Word of God in public or dispense the holy pledges of his promiseV0 Furrher, Sdileiermacher argues that "this highly important, even indispensable task of public Christian discourse and everydiing else that pertains to it mut be enrrusted only to

-- 168 Ibid. p.105 169 Md. p.108 Ibid. some and ordered in a specüic waym.l7' This advocacy of a hierardiical dergy as infrastructural support to a priesthood of dl believers establishes a synergistic ecdesiology resonant with Schleiermacher's Calvinist tradition and prolepcic to Vatican II Catholicism. The Church is indeed bath the People of God and the himurchical institution cailed to the task of sustaining, enhancing and celebrating the &Mid fellowship of the Redeemer as the Body of Christ. As Scbleiermacher prays at the end of his homily:

"So, may this blesseci Company of the body of Christ continue to be transfomed also through the faithful ministry of its pastors and teachers! Strengthened by the encouragement and love of the congregation, may they ahcontinue to advance the cause of the Church ever more! 172 Pastors and the fàithfùl are both called to work togerher to build up the body of Christ in the world, each according to their own gifts.173 In the second hdf of his sermon, Sdileiermacher underscores ac least three differences becween the rninisrry of the Reformed Church and that of the Roman Catholic Church: the mode of minisq; the modality of oversighc and the marital status of the dergy. The differences in die first two issues have become somewhac blurred in post-Vatican II Catholicism; the third issue continues to be an obvious and

For Schleiermacher working within the nineteenth cencury church, the Reformed minisuy was primarily qdhzrian in mode while the Roman minisuy was sigdcantly awhoritarian in its ecdesid &S. Inspired by the fust letter of Peter, Schleiermacher reminds us chat elders are really fellow-dders cded not to a domineuhg position over people but to an exemplary one.174 Further rhey are not

171 Ibid. p.113 172 %id. p.125 173 Epkhzsrl:ll-l2 l7* Smnonr, p.Il6 subjm to an obsequious obedience but to a critical loyalty where faithful dissent is welcome. Consequently, they are to extend a respectful tolerance to others' judgments as well as advise and assist without intufering in the domestic lives of the members of the congregation.175 A second difference for Schleiermacher centres around the modality of oversight in the Reformed Church, essentidy an cpiscopal one where elders are elected from within the congregation, thereby practicing Jesus' exhortation to remain equd to each other as fiiends for no one should be master of another. By contrast, the Roman Church relied on the papal mode1 of appointhg bishops to serve sdected communities. Although bishops in the contemporary Roman church are still ap~ointedrather than dected, the Pope as the Bishop of Rome is ecdesiologically one among equals with episcopal collegiality having priority over any pyramidal authoricy - in theologid theory, ifnot always in ecdesiai practice. The third, and in many ways die most signifiant difference, benveen Roman priests and Reformed minisrers is the way in which the latter "have been released from the prohibition chat exduded them from marital happiness and from the

Unes of domestic life". 176 For Sdileiermacher, there are two key advantages to die maritalIfamilid status for pastors. Firsdy, there is a greater understanding and empathy for the no&, most of whom are married with fadies. A celibate derg is inherend~limited in advising fmilies for their couel is not based on their own experience.ln Though they may know what it's like to be a member of a bily, they have no exoerience of beeettine and heading a family. Secondly, a rninister's family can stand as a mode1 for the fmily of others. Indeed for Sdileiermacher, family is the Bo&, die foundacional ground for sociecy

175 ibid. pl18 176 Ibid. pl20 ln Ibid. p.121 and community. As we indicated in the chapter on Speech 4 family is the ccchiola, the 'ïittle churdi" on which the larger ch& community is built. Anything that enhances hiIylife ultimately bdds up church Me. For Sdileiermacher, a married minisuy is an important part of this process. In conduding our analysis of this sermon, we can reasonably affirm that in spite of the cosmetic ciifferences between Schleiermacher's and the Roman church's nouons of minisuy, there is a common ecdesiological ground: the Church as either the vital fellowship of the Redeemer (Sdileiermacher) or the People of God (Vatican II) needs a public, ordered ministry of leadership to organize, assin, advise, admonish and dort the congregation to become what it is destined and called to become - the Body of Christ.

Smnon 8 :On the Conrimrnation in Our Confission of Those Who Bel& DrffiktntCy Organizationdly, theologians trace the gestation of the modern ecumenical movement to the begiming of this century.178 Theologically however, as well as practically,179 this movement begins arguably with Schleiermacher's work in the early nineteenth century. One of his dearesr staternents on this subjecr comprises the theme of the eighth sermon in the Augsburg collection. Let us not, Schleiermacher advises, condemn those brothers and sisrers who believe difFerentIy. Rather than chaskg away dissenting members of die redemptive fdowship with condemnatory anathemas, let us engage in loving and forbearing dialogue with OUI fdow uavellers. We are d on the way to Emmaus. Why not help each other instead of osuacizing

17* 'The modern ecumcnid rnovemcnt may be ditcd fmm rbe Eâinburgh Conferencc of 19 1O, though rhL owcd much CO cariicr dcvelopmcnts. Ir kd ro tbe cstlblishmenr of the inounaaorill Missionary Council; its impctus w*s bchind the acation in 1925 of the Universal Chrisaan Conference on Lifi and Work and of the first Worid Confèrene on FYth and Order which met in LÎusannc in 1927. -TClcse wobodies wcrc &d in the World Coudof Churchts'. neCon& *rd Dirrionq of thr Chhhzn Churrb, p. 167 179 SchlQ-achcr9s dfom in conaibuthg to rhc Lurhe~-Reformed union of 1817 provides a good aamplc. 49 ourseIves into hermeticdy-seded diques? The Redeemer calls us to universal brotherhood and sisterhood. How can we ignore his prayer to become one as He and the Father are one? The eighth is indeed Schleiermacher's most emotionally inspired plea to remain open to the Christian no& everpvhere so that its unity can be

Significantly, this plea is a key thune in the ecdesiological section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In the paragraphs devoted to the unity of the Church, we find the following affirmation: ...one cannot charge witb the sin of separation those who at present are born into these communities [th& resulted from such separaiion] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers... Furthemore. many elements of sanctification and of tmth are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Chusch-Ail these blessings corne fiom Christ and lead to him. and are in themselves calls to "Catholic unityw. Likewise, in the eighth sermon, Schleiermacher writes: How then should we want to condemn fellow-servants of whom we might hope that their Lord will fmd them ever watchfd? Shodd we not gladly remain united with them in the community of teaching and inquiry. of love and prayer? Therefore, together to seek truth in love. to move toward saivation in undisturbed peace. richly to divide the Word of the Lord among us that it may be ever more clearly revealed to everyone, this is the excellent work of community in which we are united with one another through the gracious calling of ow God and ~avior.182 This ecumenical "desire to recover the unicy of al Christians"lB3 as a gifc of Chrisr and a cal1 of die Holy Spirit consutuces the common foundation Stone to the

- - I8O Semons, pl36137 I8 CIltdhm of the Gtbolic Church, # 81 8 18* horu,p. 139-140 183 Gmrhtjm, # 820 ecdesiologies of buth Schleiermacher and Catholicisrn. Indeed both search, pray and work for a uuly "Cathoiic" Church. In this eighth sermon, as weli as in the ninth, Schleiermacher contends with what he terms the "shortcomings and of5ensesmi84of the Augsburg Confession, thereby practicing the criticd theology he always professed. Although it is an important foundational ecclesial document, the Augsburg Confession remains a human document with "impufections and deficienciesn~85that need CO be addressed and corrected. Neither the condemnation of ohers (Sermon 8) nor the invocation of the wrath of God (Sermon 9) have any place in Christianity for Schleiermacher. The dommate lingering presence of condemnatory sentiments induded by the authors in the Augsburg Confession is "something chat we can only forgive them as a human weaknessn.is As Ignatius of Loyola advised his followers centuries before, so Schleiermacher counsels his flock not to condemn but to persuade. He exhorts thun to seek insight into the cruth of Christian faith in stillness and humility, wirh "steadfastness in

Christian piety"187 as the masure of faith. Christian piecy cals for tolerance towards those who believe differendy for to exdude others from our community is to surrender our capacity to influence them. Our work of love as a unifjing force &en

"no longer resides within our cirdem.18s In condemning others, we condemn ourselves

189 for we then abandon the work of the Spirit to which we are cded as die living fellowship of the Redeemer - namely, to embowes the inhabited earth and encide the globe with an ecumenical love.

184 Srrmonr, p.127 185 Ibid. 186 Snrnonr, pl31 lû7 Ibid. p.138 188 Ibid. p.135 189 Ibid. p.134 Smnon 9 :That We HmNonCling to Teacb Rgarding the Wrath of God If Christianity is u the ministry that proclaims reconciliationW,~9* Schleiermacher argues in the fùst pages of the ninth sermon, then we have no need to invoke the math of Godas a doctrine of fiaith. The latter is a pagan concept having no basis in Christian scripture or doctrine. In fact the more we attempt to cal1 on the wrath of God, the more we deviate fiom "the true spirit of ChrisUanity",lg1 a religion of loving enemies, not seeking vengeance. For Schleiermacher, there has been roo much use of the notion of an angsy God swing children and addts inro being faithful. The Redeemer does not frighten us into belief; rather he invites us to die living hith of a loving communicy. The Redeemer himself never spoke of the wradi of God, except in parabolic references where the lessons are meant to be metaphorical rather than categorical.1" As his followers then, what need have we to dwell on the wrath of God? Ic will only detract us fiom our ministry of reconciliation. As for the dassic motif of the zeal and wrath of God that nuis through the Old Covenant, Schleiermacher dedaims that the coming of Christ as a new creation means that the old has passed away. Old concepts and images of the anger of God have passed away and are no longer needed. The wrarh of God with its threat of belongs to the same category as the law of the flesh prescribed in Stone, or tablets or in the letter. By conuast, the New Covenant wrought by the Redeemer is written in the hem and minds.193 "The is all we needml%to deliver us from evil and guide us towards righteousness and reconciliation. The Redeerner was sent not to condemn the world but to Save it, even to the point of forgiving those who denied him. What need of divine wrath if enemies are forgiven?

ppppp- lgo Ibid. p.141 lgi Ibid. p.142 Ig2 Schieicnaader ârer Man22:11-14 as an example whue a king gcrr mgry and drrows our an unprepxed guet. Ig3 Shzuns, p.144 Ibid. p.145 52 In this sermon, Scldeiermacher appears to be retrieving the notion of a+-195 or universal restoration prevaient in the theology of such early Church

Fathers as Onpl96 and reconsidered in Our own cuitury by prominent Catholic theologians. Ham Urs von Balthasar, for example, in his seminal work, Dam We Hope 'That Al Mm Are Saved? 97redescsibes apoktmhs in the context of a theology of hope that seeks to balance divine justice with divine mercy. Although divine justice requires that the damned be lefi in torment under the wrath of God, the Creator seems to have pre-empted his own plan by offering his Son for all. As Bdthasar writes. "Christ damned for all, so that al damned arrive at sdvation*.*ga Alchough we cannot assume nor presume restoration for all, we are sfl called to live and pray in hope for the universal redemption of all humankind in Christ. So too in Schleiermacher where the "divine displeasure ar sin"199 implied in the retributory wratb of Godbecomes the "divine compassion that sent Christ to Save sinners"200 in the reconciliatory love of God Indeed, according to Schleiermacher, "the mepower of Christianity will shine ever brighterm201the more we dispel the wrath of God and the more we espouse the notion diat die only knowledge that makes for sdvation is the knowledge that "God is loveB.2O2 Once again we encounter in these Schleiermacher sermons a universal, indusivia, redemptive porrrait of what constirutes a credible and veritable "Catholic* Church.

195 'Apo&& is the Gr& word for the doctrine chat ulrimacely aii fiec morai creamres -an& men and devils - wilI be sad" Tbe Co& O+rd DiCtionq of the ChrtMn Chrrb, p37 1% For Origai, Goci's 9powrfùi love wül dtimady persuade dl rationai crames CO aapr rh offer of salvauon. 197 Ham Un von Baichasar, Dure We Hope 'Tbm AIIMrn An Sad? (San FML~o: Ignauus Press, 1988) lg8 ibid. p.154 '99 SmMnr. p.151 zoo Ibid. p.151-152 Ibid. p.154 202 Ijobn 4:8 Smnon O :On th Goal Towurci Which the Effort of the EumgeIicuI Cburcb is Direcd Appropriately, the last sermon in the Augsburg series deds with the ~~chï~tobgiccalgoal of the Church. Essentially, it is the work of a Triune G0d203 embodied and enacted "in human form and fàshionm.204, bringkig creation to its "completion at the day of Jesus Christm.20s. creates the world; takes on human form as the Word becomes flesh and dwds among us to inaugurate sdvation and the Kingdom of God. God the Holy Spirit completes the work of creation and salvation acting through the Church where in the seNice of human beings, the work of the Lord is brought to its consurnmation. Everyching is

God's work but it is ccbroughtabout through chose he has prepared to serve himn.206 The final sancufication of creation Lr the eschatological goal of the Church. What is involved in sancufying or fÙKi11ing the work of God? Essentidy, it entails becoming a blameless, sinless, grace-fdled community thar reflects the divine Me enjoyed by the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Of course, on diis side of paradise, we are never completely blameless for no marter how fu we forge ahead, we are still pilgrims on the way to the final consummation.2O7 However our goal remains one of becoming good becoming holy, to use contemporary Catholic moral theological terms or in Schleiermacher's words: "co be Christ's and present Christ so that everydiing &en is set aside and to give fidl and free course to the Spirit done so that all offense is removedm.208Only then will God be able to carry out "the creation of the new human being in one and allm209wherein the Father, Son and Spirit will dwell.

- - --

203 Noubly, Sdikiermachcr &O ends The C- Faithwih a section on rhe Trinicy whae he advoam ch Saklliuiview (p.750). Though be k aiad of the Arhanasiui docuine of rhe Triaity. ncvcnficIcss Schleicxmachcr's Gd runains a uiniruian God. 2û4 ho* pl56 2OS PM 1:6- 1 l 206 Srnnons, p.157 207 %id. p. 159 208 Ibid. 209 Ibid. Schleiermacher ends his collection of the Augsburg sermons with a consideration of the contribution of the Rcformed chuch to the Christian religion. Basically, Reformed theology for Schleiermacher recovers the Pauline justification by faith done as wdas the centrality of Christ as the only one necessary for Our sdvation. This hith however is a living experienual, expressive &th immersed and instantiated in communai love, not a theoretical, cognitive bdief obsessed with u precision of expression".210 It is a hith of the Spirit, not of the letter. Ir seeks not to separate and divide but to become one body and one spirit; to sustain and bear witness not to a superficial unity "written in codes" but to "the unity of the Spirit and rhe bond of peacem.2l1 It is the &th of an ecumenically-driven Church determined to preach and celebrate its cathdicity. It is arguably die &th of a Catholic ecdesiology.

210Ibid. p.171 21 l ibid p. 175; Eph.42 4) Th Critics :S&ming with Scbbe~m~t~hm The response to Schleiermacher's theology down to our present day is cypid of the human reaction to innovative, ground-breaking thought. The Moravian pastor has indeed had his supporters and detractors. Praised as the saviour of modern Christian theology by some, he has also been denounced by others as having sold Christianity's birrhright to the "cultured despisers" of modernity. We shall now consider a range of critical responses co Sdeiermacher's theolow first, a nineteenth century Catholic vie-represented by Johann Sebastian Drey of the Tübingen school; secondly, mentieth century Protestant reactions exemplified by Karl Barth, Brian Gerrish, Hans Frei and othen; lady, a mentieth century Catholic conversation with Schleiermacherian ecclesiology as articulaced by Charlotte Joy Martin, representative of the curent Catholic theological inrerest in Schleiesmacher studies.

johunn Sebustzan Drg (1777-1853) : Vatican II Cathoiicism Brfore Its The? Although we have no evidence that Schleiermacher was familiar with Drey's writings, scholars have long recognized that Drey had boch read and been influenced by Sdileierrnacher's major works.212 The Catholic Tübingen response ro Protestant Berlin theology was for the most part quite favourable co judge from Drey's own publications. Although a staunch institutional Catholic loyal to Rome, Drey advocated a developmental theology resonant with Schleiermacher's and anticipating a century before in the the theological rediscoveries of Vatican II Carholicism. Drey's pioneering notion of doctrinal development based on a dynamic radier than static theology of history was apparently buried by the magisteriurn of the nineteenth

212 I am indcbud in this section ro rhe erdcnr compararive rtudy of Sdikiermachcr and Drey by Bndford E. Hinzt in bis book, Nurratiirg -7, Deuchping Domine(Atlanca: Scholvs Prw, 1993). part of the Amcrican Aademy of Religion Series. 56 century Catholic Church only to resurface in our own times in the work of contemporary Catholic theologians,213 who then set the stage for the Vatican II

Drey and Sdeiermacher stand on common theological and ecumenical ground in their mutual espousal of a theology of history as developmend, sacramental and ecdesial. Our understanding of revelation evolves and develops within an evolutionary historid process. Within this process, the Church has a mediating role to play as the agency that continues Christ's work of uansforming history into the Kingdom of God. In the tradition of Augustine, Aqullias and Caivin, both Drey and Sdeiermacher advocate a sacramental vision of history where, as Bdord Hinze writes, "the Spirit-aled Chur& becornes the primary sacrament of Christ in history, the body of Christ, the earthly extension of die risen Lordn.214 In this view, the time from Christ ro the eschaton is "the tirne of the Churchm.2~5In post-apostolic times, as Sdeiermacher underlines in The Christian Fuith, Christ can be met only in and through the Church. This sacramental and ecdesidly-grounded cheology is the key motif thac bonds Drey and Schleiermacher together within an ecurnenical spirit of inquiry. For both, ecdesiology is and yet, pnematologicdly-driven. The Church is inherently inclusive of all humanity because of the presence of the Holy Spirit as the common spirit of the community. Both retrieve a scriptural theology of the Spirit as a holy and common force which "qualifies and limits the hierarchical nature of the Churchm.216 It is a theology of the Spirit which supports a democratic mode1 of leadership "more receptive and responsive to the community of the faithfül"217 dian the authoritarian one ofien practiced by the instituuonal Church. Although for Drey

213 Ku1 Rahncr, Ham Küng. Bernard Loncrgan m name a fou. 2i4Hinzc, p.7 215 Ibid. 216 iid., p.277 2i7 Ibid.. p279 not al1 are equal in the Church according to fiinaion, thue is "a cornmon spiritual priesthood in whidi ali participatem.21aLikewise for Schleiermacher, although there is a universal prieshood, there is also a public ordered minisuy guiding the fàithfûl. Apa~from similar ecclesiologies, Drey and Schleiermacher also share a common approach to theology as essentidy pastoral, mediationai and communal. Paztorally, boboth interpret Christ's Great Commission2ig to baptize all nations as offixing to their contemporaries the Christian taich as a credible dioice for the critical mind, where faithhfulness to ecclesial traditions indudes creative reformulations of those traditions for our times. Both insist on theology's mediatngfuncuon. To the extent that Christian f~th is incarnational, then theology as the articulation of that faith dso has to be incarnational or mediacional. In responding to contemporary historicallculturd situations, theology is not just a marrer of retelling but "entails critical assessrnent and

Lady, theology is communal in providing that kind of organic leadership that will adiiwe three interrelated goals: one, "foscer the life of the believing cornmunity through discourse and dialoguen"1; two, "afirm and clarify the identity of the Christian Churchnn as the vitai fdowship of the Redeemer; three, expand the cirde of thïs cornmunity beyond the visible chuch to all of humankind. To condude then, we can reasonabiy srace that Schleiermacher in his own day wasn't done in his reformed notions of ecdesiology. Unknown to him, he had a theological soulmate in the Catholic facdty at Tübingen, the beginnings perhaps of an ecumenid dialogue that took a century or more to corne to its miition in the Catholic Church at Vatican II.

218 Ibid., p.281 219 MO# 28:16-20 220 Ht,p.293 221 Ibid. $97 U2 Ibid. As the shadow of Beethoven hovered over Brahms most of his musid life, likcwise the spirit of Schleiermadier haunted Kari Barth most of his theologid Me. Barth appeared to live in a dialectically ambivalent relationship with his predecessor. We cannot ignore his intamous dedaration that the Rdomed tradition ninning back to Calvin and Paul "does not inciid SchIn'mkd.223 Nevezthdess, in spite of this blatant anathematizing of a fdow chwchman, Barth maintained a distant admiration for the Berlin pastor. In the forcword to his Dogrnatics In Outfine, Barth shares a somewhat touching anecdote in the context of the post-war ruins of the Kurfümen Schloss in Bonn: About eight o'clock the rebrrilding in the quadrangIe bepto advertise itself in the male of an engine for breaking up the ruins. (1 may say that with my inquisitive ways. among the rubbish I came upon an wzdamaged bus; of Schleiermacher, which wes rescued and somhat restored ro honour again.)*4 the severe criticism of whac he felt was Schleiermacher's of theologyn~s,Barth conrinued to admire his antagonist's sermonic output. He considered Schleiermacher's sermons as the key to understanding his theology. Indeed Schleiermacher saw himself primarily as a preacher and only secondarily as an academic rheologian, as he States in his BriEf Ou& on the Sdyof Theology: 1 raîher consi&r the position of the preacher as the matnoble. capable of king wmdiily fiiied onfy by a mly religious, Wnious and senous nahne: never of rny oam wiil would 1exchange it faan~ther.~

223 iGI Bad, 'The Word of God and rhc Tuk ofthe Minisay," in Buth, The Word of Cod and the Word of Man, mm. Dougias Honon (1928; reprd, New York,1957), p. 195. Bath's cmphk. 224 Kul Bad, 'Forcwordm. Dogwmiis In crans. G.T. Thompron (Ncw York Hlrper & Roar. 1959), p. 7 Empbvis aàdcd. 2îS Kari Bd.Tkr ThmkofSh-bm tmrmar Cüningm I92K24,mns. Geofky Bromily, cd. Dietrich Riochl (Grand Rapids: Eerdmurs, 1982), p. 269 Zî6 BWOudinc III p. 376. quo~din Manin Rrdtker ,SrhCrvrmrrchc~: Lij5 nnd Tbmght, mnr. John Waühwsscr, (Philadciphi= Fomcss Press, 1973) p. 199 59 Theology is meant to serve the pastoral needs of the Chur&, contributing to the Church's understanding of its distinctive nature and mission in the world. On this notion of the eccksialpuspose of theology, Barth and Schleiermacher appear to be in agreement. Lest, as we mol their implicit camaraderie, we inadvertently gloss over the significant clifferences between thcse wo gants of Christian theology, we shd now consider Barth's fundamental objections to Schleiermacher's theologid enterprise as articdated in the Gottbgen Lmures of 1923/24. Firstly, Barth objects to Schleiermacher's integrationist tendency, his predilection for making theology a "part of the cosmic interconnection of spirit and nanueS.*7 For Barth, theology ddswith the Word as radicaily different from the world and supreme over it. Its tendency is primady discontinuour as a way to ensure thar the Word of God maintains its priority over the word of humanity. A second related objection cenues on Schleiermacher's notion of the continuiv of hurnan and divine history so that revelation is construed as a nacural organic outgrowth of creation. By conuasr, revelation for Barth is a radical intervention of the divine into human history. Once again Barth's penchant for discontinuiry surfaces as the key presupposition for his cheologizing . As a counter-objection to these firsr two points, we wonder whether Barth's insistence on discontinuity could perhaps engender a docetist view of Chrisuanity that leaves God in his heaven in spite of the mediation of the Word. While Sdileiermacher sees the Redeemer as annding the distance berween the narural and the supernamal, Barth insists on mainmining the distance. Whereas Schleiermacher builds a bridge across the great divide, Bardi erects a drawbridge and cames a moat around the supernanual. Transcendent life remains radidy other and ultimately unanainable in spite of the Incarnation. For Schleiermacher, on the contrary, die Raieunu br+ God-consciousness to humanity so that we can now participate in divine life. Radical otherness is overthrown as Father, Son and Spirit corne to hell within the hean of the believer. Barth's third objection questions Sdeiermacher's tthics-bmed theology with ics emphasis on feeling, piety and fdowship. Barth prefers an ontoCogy-bd theoiogy underlining truth, the dyadic relauonship to God and assent to revelation as prioriries. What Barth could possibly be concemed with here is the Jarnesian theology ofworks implied in Schleiermadier's ecdesiology. The Church as che vital fdowship of the Redeemer is called to continue his ethical work in building up the Kingdom of God. 1s Sdileiermadier sounding phpstoo "Catholic"for Barth? In his critical review of Barth's Gottingen Lectures,2= Richard Niebuhr draws an insightfùl condusion to the radical difference between these two theologians. While Schleiermacher xeks absolute communiry, Barth leans towards absolute uuth. Schleiermacher is concerned with the actudizing of well-being on earth as the cal1 of the Church and a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. Barth is consumed with the establishment of theological certitude, "a quest for the supremacy of biblicdly warranted uuth over lifen.ug Su& obsessive quests inevitably fdfor human dlc and divine talk are ineluctably interwoven. Barth hirnself reminds us in his cornmencary on Romans that we can't speak abour God without speaking about ourselves. To theologize is to anthropologize. To speak abour God is ro speak about humaniry. Christ as the redemptive Word made flesh makes this conversarion continuously possible in the context of the fdowship of a Church which seeks not a radical transformation of the world but a regenerative reconciliation of the world wich the Word. The Redeemer came not to condemri the world as radically different fiom its Creator but to Save it as an integral part of irs original life. The Chuch as the

228 Richd Niebuhr. 'KYI Bd'r'Schlù-ocha': A RMm Essayu. UnMt Snimvy Qumafi RNim 39.129-1 36 229 Xbid. p.135 61 continual embodicd presence of the Redeemer is calleci to the same agenda - bringing the world back to fdowship with its Creator. As commicted Christian pastors and theologians, both Barth and Schleiumacher would no doubt agree to this calling. It seems to us however that Schleiermaches would probably be a more tolerant fellow uavelier on the way to Emmaus than Barth. Schleiermacher calls us to cdebrate the world as gifi of God; Barth appears to be obsessed with judging it. He would do well to listen ro Schleiermacher's puorarion fiom the eighth sermon in the Augsburg collection: When we consider from this viewpoint the human, often so arbitrary and poorly grounded divisions in matters of salvation, how tme will we not ben fmd the saying of the Redeemer that whoever condemns others also condemns oneself! 230 Therefore, let us not oursdves condemn Barth for what Richard Niebuhr ded"the Barthian captivig of the history of modern Christian thoughc".23i Let's not "demonize Barth"232 as we attempt to resurrect Schleiermacher frorn the ashes of the neo-orthodox critique. In the lasr few decades, a number of prominent Protestant theologians have aaempred to re-instate Schleiermacher within the pantheon of die Evangelid diurch tradition. Probably no one has been more successful or enrhusiastic about diis work of retrievd than Brian A. Gerrish of the University of Divinicy School. In a number of seminal essays and books,233 Gerrish has restored Schleiermacher's rightfd place in modern theology by re-establishing his links with Calvin. In diis process, ir is primarily the resonant ecdesiological components in Caivin that surface in Sdileiermacher's work, features redolent with a "Catholic" view of the Church. In the introduction to his collection of essays, The OU Protrstantim and the Nnu, Gerrish highlights a number of key Cavinist notions that can be consuued as "Catholic" in spirit, notions that reappear centuries Iater in Schleiermacher's work. Firstly, there is the principle that scriptural interpretation is ecdesiaily-based. Thue is a "diaracteri~tid~'catholic' insistence that the Bible is the church > book."^ Christian bdievers are not called to read scripwes in isolation but in communiry. Reading the Word, as well as preaching it, is an ecclesial activity. Secondly, sacraments are also ecclesially-centred. They are efficacious communal activities not merely didactic signs. The Eudiarisr, for example, is a gifi ro be cherished in an ecdesid contex not an insular devotionai exercise or sequestered good work.235 Lady, for both Calvin and Schleiermacher, the concept of piery is "the hermeneutic rde"a6 with which al1 things Christian are decided. Piety as Christian faith lived in a Christ-centred fellowship becomes the norm of a truly practicing catholic church - for Calvin, for Schleierrnacher and for the contemporary Catholic Church. As we examine these diverse Christian cheologies, we begin to discern a greater continuicy between the Protestant and Catholic positions. In Gerrish's view of Schleiermacher for example, the Reformation was not so much a radical break from the Catholicism but more an overdue corrective to the errors and abuses of the Roman church. Gerrish reminds us that in Sdeiermacher's lectures on Reformation hiscory, it is not the Protestant voices of Luther or Zwuigli that earn hû highest praise but the Catholic voice of Erasmus advocacing a tolerant approach to the diversity of doctrine. For Schleiermacher, both Cacholicism and are "distinctive

- 234 Brian Gurish. The OU Protcrtantirm Md the Nm: hpson the RtfOmaion Hnitge (Edinburgh: T.&T. Cluk Limitcd, 1982), p. 4 Ibid. p.5 236 Ibid. p.7 63 expressions of the Christian idea, joint& necessary to the historid manifestation of Christianity".a7 It would seem in hindsight that what Erasmus and Schleiermacher were attempting to achieve in rheir own times to maintain a unified catholic church, Vatican II leadership attempted in our own century to renew and revive the Roman Church so that it would uuly reflm the spirit of catholicity to which it is cded by its redemptive founder. Vatican II documents on the Church reveal a recovered spiritual/democratic ecdesiology resonating in many ways with the spirit of the Augsburg Confession and other Reformed symbolic books. namely, giving the Church back to the people and the Spirit that guides it to the end of time. We shall condude this section on the Protestant reaction to Schleiermacher's perspective with reference to Ham Frei's typology of Christian theology.238 Frei suggests that most Christian theologies can be placed widiin a spectrum or cyde of five mes. The key criterion for deciding a theology' s type is the relative importance given to the "communal religious self-descriptionn239 vis-à-vis the ambient cultural description. In Barthian terms, ir is a matter of deciding die extent to which the Word of God cakes precedence over the word of humanity. In Types Iand II, the ambient philosophical culture takes a prior hold over the Christian theological ethos.240 Theology concerns itself with construction or convmtztio?P while biblical reduces Jesus to a type or symbol. Type IIIposits an equilibrium becween the dominant culture and the Chrisrian community; cheology is primarily mpression of religious feeling. In Type N the Christian

237 Brian A. GcMh, 'Schleiamuher and

- - 242 Frei, p-5 243 For Frei. hlBad is the prime aexnplar of chir type. 244 Frei cim du work of rh contunporuy philosopher of religion. D.Z. Phiiiipr. as repacntacivc of 7jpe K 24Ibid. p.6 246 Ibid. 247 CFp.33 65 Godm.24 Indeed for Schleiermacher as for Paul or Aquinas, the Word is not necessarily in opposition to the world for the Word incarnated in the Redeemer has come to bring the world badc into the bosom of the Father. Lest we surmise wrongly that Sdileiermacher puts the world before the Word, we need to renirn to the foundation Stone of Sdileiermacher's entire theologid universe, the Christo-soteriologicd principle of paragraph 1 1 in The ChtXrtian Faith: Christianity is a monotheistic faith. belonging to the teleologiml type of reiigion. and is essentially distinguished hmother such faiths by îhe fact that in it everyrhing is related ro the redem@on accomplished by Jesus of j oz are th. 249 Christ the Redeemer is the absolute against which all human experience is to be evaluated; He is the centre who relativises al1 human effort. Possibly, this presuppositiond kernd rises and sets premawely in Schleiermacher's output, like the Arctic sun at the dawn of winrer. Unforrunately, critics can easily lose sight of Schleiermacher's Christocentric theology while engaging his philosophicd

In Sermon 4 of the Augsburg collection, Schleiermacher reminds his congregation that Christocentric cime is the only tirne worthy of consideration. As the Church, our commdself-description is defmed by it: The the of the One who is to come is the fuial time. If you turn away hmhim with the notion that you can bnng about yet another time, a more beautiful time of greater autonomy and thus also of greater rejoicing in the achievements of the human spirit. you are mistaken. for there is no such tfiing as any new time to corne. Everything is fuifiiied in hh;eveqthing is to develop hmh.250 The thne of the Redeemer is the final time and plays second fiddle to no one. We rejoice in the adiievements of rhe Spirit, noc the human spirit. The Word Mfills

248 Ibid. p34 249 Ibid. p.52 Ernphvis added. 250 Srnnonr, p. 76 everyching, not the world. Contrary to Frei's typologid judgment, Sdileiermacher dtimately stands under Tjpe IV theology responding to the call of the Redeemer revuberating through ecdesid fellowship as the prima1 value for divinising human Me.

Charlottr Joy Martin :Sch~~ha and a Rcconstnated Catbolic EkcIfsiolOgy Charlotte Joy Martin is one of a number of contemporary Catholic theologians who have found an amicable and inspirational conversation partner in Sdeiermacher. The common ground for this dialogue is the domine of the Ch&. Martin writes that "it is in the area of ecdesiology that Schleiermacher is most amenable to Catholic sensibilities, while at the same tirne ecdesiology is the area where most voices of dissent within Catholicism would be looking for amendment"-25 1 Within the task of developing a reconstructed Catholic ecdesiology that attends co diversified voices, Martin finds a resonant foundationd principle in Schleiermacher's egalitarian notion of the Chu& "as a relationship of people seeing each other as equals by virtue of God's willingness co forgive their sinsn.2s2 The Church as the Christ-cenued fdowship of die forgiving and the forgiven becomes the platform upon which any subsequent ecclesial polity or policy WUbe based. Martin suggests at least three parallels benveen Schleiermacher's ecdesiology and the dieologica pictue of the Church delineated in the Catecbùm of the C~zthoZic Church, an affinity suongly supporting the thesis that Schleiermacher's Protestant fiaith lives widiin a Catholic ecdesial framework.

2s1 Chylom Joy Manin, 'Scblciermachefs Rdormcd Docuine of the Chur&: A Raourcc for Gntempomy Grholic Thcology'. Papa prcruiud ac the 1995 annuai meeting of the Inumauonai Schlcicrmvhcr Society (North Caroliril: Elon Colicgt, 1995) 252 Ibid. p26 67 To begin with, for both Schleiermacher and the Catechism, the Church is a missionary community called "to incorporate ail within die riches of Christ's communion with Godm.2s3 In the Catecbism, the Church is by iu very nature "the 'convocation' of aU men (sic) br salvation".~In Schleiermacher, "ail belonging to the human race are evendy taken up into living fdowship with Christw.2ss Secondly, although we are a gathering of sinners "still on the way to holiness"P6 the Church, according to the Catecbism, is a sancti3ing presence in the world rransforrning it into the "holy People of GodW.257Likewise for Schleiermacher, it is within the Church that we become holy, "akin to His perfection and blessednessn.258 Sanctification is a process of "striving for holiness"259 with the assurance that "sin can win no new groundm.260as we engage in the ëver self-renewed willing of the Kingdom of Godn.261 A third common feawe tying Schleiermacher with the Ciztechism is that both espouse a Euchutr.stic view of the Church. The Catechism ciearly teaches that the Church is "made rd" as a linirgical, Eudiaristic assembly.262 The Church manifests its charactes most Mywhen it cdebrates the fellowship of the Lord's Supper. For Schleiermacher as weil, the Lord's Supper is the "climax of public worshipn,263 confirming ourwardly our inward fellowship with Christ. It is a reminder that the individual's "is unrhinkable apart from his union with believersn,264 a union best exempEed in the Eucharistie celebration.

253 Ibid. 254 Gttech;mt, # 767 25s § 119, p.549 2% Grteckum, # 827 257 Ibid. para. 823 2% CF. 5 I IO, p.505 259 Ibid. p.506 26û Ibid. p.508 Mi Ibid. p.509 262 CouchXmr, # 752 263 CE,p.640 264 %id. p.65 1 It is primarily within this Eudiaristic view of the Church that Martin offen a reconstructed ecclesiology for die Catholic Church, an ecdesiology suggested in Sdileiermacher's work. It is an ecdesiology that fosters incerhuman relationships based on our equality as forgiven simers. In Smnon 6of the Augsburg collection, Schleiermacher &med the importance of rdiung that the Lord's Supper indudes the sacrament of forgiveness of sins - d sins, not just vuiid sins as suggested in the Ci~t;cch~~~~So too in Martin's reconstructed ecclesiology, the Eucharist is itself the sacrament of fbrgiveness. In renirning to table fdowship with Christ, we are forgiven and re-enter his vital fdowship. We become equals because of the catholicity of divine forgiveness. This vision of equality =tends not only to fellow believers but tu all of humankind, levelling not only the pulpit and the pew, but the Church and the world. A Church construed as the vital fdowship of the universally forgiving and forgiven carries a regenerative and uansformative power. As Martin points out, such an ecclesiology relativizes "any of the nondivine things which we mi+ be inclined to see as absolute determiners of a person's worthn266 - wealth, beauty, intelligence, ecclesid posirion or moral superioriry. It relarivizes any human artifacrs that seek to rend the vital fellowshi~asunder - civic laws, confessional symbols, ecclesiastical dogmas. It difises any weapons chat seek to undermine the Redeemer's farewell prayer to his friends that they may become one with die One who loves us all. The Church as the forgiven fdowship of humankind is meanin@ divine life here and now. The sweer hereafier is already upon us and in Our midst, ofien in places we least expect. Indeed, according to the Catechism itsdf, the presence of grace lies beyond the "visible confines of the Catholic Churchn.267 A truly 'Catholic" ecdesiology then indudes both a visible and an invisible church. In effect, it is a vision of the Ch& preached and practiced by Schleiermacher whose spirit animates many of the pages of the Ciztechh of the GztboIic Chutch. Chqtw 4 Sdileiermacher's "Fugal" Ecdesiology: An Integation of the Protestant and Gtholic Visions "1 saw that of the two natures that contendad in the field of my consciousness, even if 1 could rightly said to be Uther, it was only becaw I was radicaily both." Dr. Jekyll's dysis of bis dual pcrsonality in Robert Louis Stevenson's dassic story could well be applied to Sdeiermachtr's approach to theologicai discourse - radidy both: both fàithful and critical, both sacreci and secular, both Protestant and Catholic - at the same tirne, in a kind of cognitive-emotive "fugd" state. As a Bach fugue interweaves many voices to produce a euphonious musical score, so does Schleiermacher's ecdesiology integrare many influences to produce a mcllifluous unified and unifLing theology of what it means to be the Church in the world, Ye= not of the world, to be a Church called co carry creation to its consummation as the Kingdom of God. In this concluding chapter, we shdl review the salient attribues of Sdileiermacher's "fùgd" ecdesiology as die outcome of a fusion of the Protestant and Catholic viewpoints. These aaribures will then be placed within a quincuncid structure that undereirds and inteerates the diverse feanues inco an ecdesiologically unified field. Firsdy, as described in our thesis statement, Schleiermacher's ecdesiology is essentidy "Catholic" in spirit yet arising out of the Protestant spirit that lies at the kernel of his theological vision. The Cadiolic metaphor ddares that weger to Chrisr through the Church, while the Protestant view is that we get co the Church through Christ. Schleiermacher wodd appear to espouse the former position, namely, the Church cornes first. The Church is the ddcchanne1 tkough which we encoumu the Redeemer and corne to share in the same God-consciousness that Jesus' contemporaries were blessed with. In fia there is an equation implied in Speech 4 which fin& its "Catholic" expression in The Christian Faitha Speech 4 dedares: "Outside human fdowship, there is no religionw. In ThChristian Faith, this equation becomes: "Outside the Church, there is no salvationw. Sdileiumacher makes this explicitly dear in paragraph 113 of Thr Christian Fkth "..sdvation or blessedness is in the Church alone.. the Church abne savesn."8 This view, as srated previously in our introduction, is a redescription of the dassic Carholic Church soteriological position epitomized in St. Cyprian's famous adage: IEXtra e~~linam, ndh saltls. In adopting this ecdesioumued soteriology, Sdeiermacher reveals that he is essentidy, at lem in his ecdesiology, a Catholic theologian. The next logicd question to ask however is: Whax is the Church for Schleiermacher?1s it the spirinia community bonded to the Redeemer consiSung of members who may or may not be aware of their desuned election? Yes, for the Church is Spirit on die way to the final consummation in the Kingdom of God. But is it also a clerico-bureaucratic institution immersed in the world? Yes,

Schleiermacher answen, for the Church is doMatter set in human history to instantiate the presence of Christ the Redeemer in overt insricuciond activities. For Schleiermacher, as for , these activities of Redeemer-presence are primarily sacramental, namely, the beliwer encounters die Redeemer and enters the viral fdowship embraced by him in and &ou& Baptism and the Eucharist. A second salient characteriscic of Schleiermacher's ecclesiology is that it is mharidcaThe Church is best mdesced and bears wiuiess to the Redeemer ac its best within the conrext of the Lord's Supper. Here within communal celebraüon, the "vital fellowship with Christn269 shares a med rogether as a living surcharged symbol of sharing God-consciousness, that is, participaring in divine life. Intereshgly, for Schleiumadier, forgiveness of sins arises out of this vital fdowship with Christ, not out of his suffèring. Schleiermacher considers the language of atonement and divine wrath out of place in a love-centred Christian vision.270 Indeed the su)fesing of Calvary is peripherd to the fdowship of the . This me of fellowship-centred theology anticipates the work of the contemporary radical Catholic theologian, John Dominic Crossan. In his infamous book, The H~oriculJiem,~~Crossan underscores what he considers distinctively

radiai about Jesus of Nazareth, namely, his "open commensaiity".272 Crossan uses this term to indicate the way in which Jesus invites everyone to table fdowship with him - maie or femde, rich or poor, or sinner. Al1 are accepted; none are rejected. If, for Sdeiermacher, Jesus was the ultimace "virtuoso of holiness", for Crossan, Jesus was the ultimate "virtuoso of table fellowship". For borh Schleiermadier, as nineteenth century German Protestant theologian and Crossan, as twentieth century American Catholic theologian, the life-sustaining open fellowship of believers in Jesus is the core of the Christian faith as eucharistically- cenued. Schleiermacherian ecdesiology is also ecumenicui and inclusive in nature. This tendency arises from the invitation to religious tolerance championed in Speech 4. The religious feeling exists in all of us and we are all called ro seek understanding of this feeling in a tolerant spirit of conversation with die inhabited earth. Although there is no saivation outside the Church for Schleiermacher, this doesn't necessarily exdude anyone for ail are potentially elected to enter and become Church. In paragraph 11 8, he dearly writes: 'hveryone still outside this fdowship will some theor anothes be laid hold of by the divine operations of grace and brought within icn.273 Each human person is

270 Schicierrnachcr devclopr'chl rhme in rhc CF. § 1O 1. pp.434-437 ;wc &O cnaounrcred ir in S-on 9 of the Augsburg collection: 'Thar WCHave Nothing to Tcach Rtgarding the Wmrh of Goci". 271 John Dominic Crossan. The HritmiraiJ~~~(San Francisco: Harpa Colins. 199 1) 272 Ibid., 261-264 273 CFp.WO 73 regenerated in his own time. AU individds will pass 'inco the full enjoyment of rdempuonwfor it is "the inevitable condition of aIi activiry in Ume " that results ftom "the Word made fleshm.274If divinity enrers humanity, then all are ultimately saved through the redemption accomplished by Jesus of Nazareth. Schleiermacher devdops an incIusive lioctrine of election in the latter part of Tb Christian Faith. Election doesn't mean that some are saved while others are damned. Rather some members of the human race are &edy elected while others are yct-to-6e elected. Schleiermacher at chis point appears to borrow from eschatologicd notions of the Kingdom of God as bot. re&d and still-a>-corn His position here harkens back, as we saw in Somon 9, to the soteriology of Origen with its emphasis on qoRatlLtkZStj, the recondiation of al1 creation in Christ. The task of the Church is not to use the eleaion doctrine to exdude any member of the race. Rather its goal is to awaken within each individual the "longing for the KUigdom of Godn,*75 the yearning to be induded widiin the vital fdowship of the Redeemer. Consideration of the relationship of the Kingdom of God to the Church brings us to yet another feanire of Schleiermacher's ecclesiology, namely, chat it is escha~ologicaI~~dritlen.For Schleiermacher, rhere is a "realized" component co eschatology. The Redeemer has already inaugurated the Kingdom of God so that die Church membership has a foretaste of die final Kingdom. As he wrices in The Chn'stian F&: "The Kingdom of God is actudiy present in the fdowship of believers".276 However it is a deuelopmentzzi tfch/~tofogywhereby the building of the Kingdom of God involves the progressive emergence of the whole out of the fragments - "less and less of fragmentary details and more and more to be a wholen.* The Church organization has received a guarantee by the Redeemer thac

274 Ibid. 275 %id., p.542 276 Ibid., p.528 addcd) 277 Ibid. it will overpower 'the unorganized masses to which it is opposedn.n8 This is Sdileierrnacher's Johannine fith in the light that shines in the darkness and ovucomes the world.rg A fi& aspect of Sdiieiermacher's ecdesiology is that it is confrznonal in nature. In other words, you have to be a player on the field, a participant within the organization, to be able to make valid statements about the Church. You cannot really "understand" the believer's lifé unless you become a believer yourself and "feeln the presence of the Redeemer within ecdesial fdowship. Schleiermacher writes: IC .. aiTumations concerning the Christian Church can be rightly made only by those who know its inner life thr~ughpersonal participation in itm.280Only in the context of "being Church" can we really be Christians and have any valid Christian theology. A last feature to be considered regarding Schleiermacher's ecdesiology is that it is a Nèw Testummt/loannine/Spirit-cnttredthcology of the Church. It is New Testament-barcd in that the Church for Schleiermacher has little or noching to learn from die . A neo-Marcionire tendency is unmistakably present in Schleierrnacher's theology. In his postscript to the doctrine on Scriptures.2al Sdeiermacher s taces categorically: "..the Old Testament Scriptures du nor on that accounr share the normative digniry or the inspiration of the Newm.282The New Tescarnent Scripmres alone are the authentic and sufkient norm for Christian doctrine. Christianity doesn'r complete Judaism; rather as the religion of the Redeemer, Christianity represents a radical depanure fiom any other religion. Schleiermacher has ohen been criticized for this la& of recognizing the continuity between the Old and the New Testaments. Unfortunately, this criticism has O fien turned into scathing accusations of ami-Semitism against Schleiermacher.

27* Ibid. 279 job~1:s 280 CE p.529 281 Ibid., 5 132 282 %id, p.608 This is a rather udGr and erroneous judgment of a theologian who went out of his way to indude al1 membea of the human race in his vision of a Redeemer-cenued religion. Two things can be said about Schleiermacher's New Testament bias. Firsdy, he did not know the Hebrew language as he so proficiently knew Greek. From his own hermeneutid principle that we can't get to really undentand an author unless we read and encounter him or her in his or her own language, we can perhaps suggest that Schleierrnacher never really encountesed the Yahweh of the Hebrews, the Suffiering Servant of Isaiah, the God of Love in the Song of Songs. Secondly, what Schleiermacher opposes in the Old Testament is the God of Wrath. We've seen how he mhthis parricularly dear in Smn9 of the Augsburg collection where he writes that we have nothing to teach about the wrath of God, a pagan legacy based on primitive judicial systems. Radier Chrisuanity is a religion of reconciliation, not vengeance; love, not wrath. To invoke the wrath of God as a technique to scare people into a forced fairhfulness is an "offensive imperfection" in any Christian confession. The Redeemer embraces and saves; he does noc judge and desuoy. He creates a New Testament, a new way ro God-consciousness. He doesn't arise out of the Old Testament. The Hebrew scriptures are husks thar have fden away. The Christian scripnues alone hold sway. And within these scripcures, John's gospel alone epitomizes the essence of Chrisuanity. Ir is quite a sign$canr presupposition in Sdeiermacher's body of work chat Johannine theology has centre stage. Even in his Lifc ofjessur, Schleiermacher dismisses the Synoptics as less historical than John's version. The history of biblical scholarship has of course proven him wrong. The "hi$ in John's story is no doubt history re-created and elevared into theologid vision. But, one can dso argue that the Synoptics are theologically-biased re-creations as wd. It's jusc that the theology differs. While the lana focuses on Jesus' humanity, the former concenuates 76 on his divinity, on his power to bring us eternal life - in Schleierma&er7s terminology. God-consciousness; in current Catholic mord theology, theosiz or . Schleiermacher obviously acknowledges that the Redeemer was a man born into human history, Jesus of Nazareth. Once this is established however, he drops the humanity and builds his entire theologicai opus on the Redeemer as the Way, the Tmth and the Life,m3 as the one who brings humanicy into divinized fdowship. In spite of this predominance of the Redeemer in Schleiermacher's ecdesiology, he does noc forget the pneumatologid basis that has made possible the sustaining of the Christian fellowship across history. This fdowship is Spirit-cenued taking iû guide from John 4:24: "God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and cruthW.Schleierrnacher devdops this theme in paragraph 12 1 of The Ch&zizn Faith where the "cornmon CO-operativeactivig" of the Church is perceived as "the common Spirit of the new corporate life founded by Christn*84. This common spirit instantiated in the Christian's universal love for al1 citizens of the Kingdom of Cod is "the same One Holy Spiritn.285 Our last remaining cask in this thesis is to suggest how a quincuncial suurne286 inregrates the Protestant and Catholic fcatures of Schleierrnacher's "fugaln ecclesiology. Unarguably, at the centre of this geometric arrangement lies Schleiermacher's kernel of Protestant principles -sula fidc, sukz sm)tara and the priesthood of ail believers. Semons 2, 3, 4 and 7 of the Augsburg collection dearly substantiate this trilithic are. As we move out to each of the four corners however, the Protestant core undergoes, arguably, a metamorphosis inco more of a Catholic manifestation of the same Christian spirit. The ecdesiology becomes significandy

283 j,6,14:6 CE.p.510 uis ibid. p.565 286 A graphic visduliraion of hir ruggaccd mcnue is provided in Appdix 3. 77 more wramoitd ministrrurl rwhawlogical and emnttnical as Smnonr 5 through to IOcan anest. It is more smammdin that a greater emphasis is placed on the role of the Lord's Supper as an &cacious sign of the living presence of the Redeemer. It is more ministcnrrl in its advocacy of a publidy ordered institution as an essential condition of Church life. It is more eschmdogicaI in that it calls us to the works- righteousness-related task of becoming "CO-workers"in building up the Kingdom of God. Findy, it is more emmenical in that its notion of catholicity artends not only to Christian believers of diverse denominations but to all humans everywhere. In short, the Protestant spirit thon a Catholic mande in a sacramentally-cenued and community-&va ecclesiology. In this "hplwecdesiology, both the Protestant spirit and the Catholic spirit are ùiexuicably linked across the landscape of the life of pietYsof the Chrisuan life of vital fellowship with the Redeemer. To eliminate one is co silence the other. In Schleiermacher's theological vision, light is the lefi hand of darkness, the sacred lies within the profane, Jesus is found in the eyes of the suanger and - the Prorestant and the Catholic shall lie down togedier like the calf and the lion waiting for the lide child who shall lead them.287 Bibliognphy A) Primary Sources Sdileiermachet, Friedrich 1997. RcfOnnrd But Evw Rrfonning :Smom in Rekztion to the Ce&brution of the Hclnding Ove of the Augsburg Confrson (1830), trans. Iain Nicol. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press. 1989. Thc Cht.r';rtianFaith, eds. H.R Mackintosh and J.S. Stewart. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. . 1 988. On Rrligion: Speeches to ia Cultuml Desp Lrm. uans. and ed. Richard Crouter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . 1966. BncfOutCine on the Sdyof Thcology, tram. Terrence N. Tice. Richmond: John Knox Press.

B) Secondary Sources Barth, Karl c 1 982. The Theubgy of SchIpimacher: Lectures at G~ttingm1923-24. crans. Geoffrey Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdrnans. Clements, K W. 1987. Friedrich Scbi~inmabm:Pioneer ofModern ThPolog. San Francisco: Collins. Corduan, WiAied 1983. "Schleiermacher's Test for Tmth: Didogue in the Chuch".Journal of the EvangeIicaI Theologicd Society 26:321 -328 S. Crouter, Richard 1992. "Friedrich Sdileiermacher: A Critical Edition, New Work and Perspectivesn in kiigiour Sdies Review 18. DeVries, Dawn 1996. ]esus Christ in the Preaching of Calvin and Schkimcher. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. Dding, Dennis 1982. "The -dom of God in the Teaching of Jesusn. Wordand Wodd2:117-126 Spr. Fiorenza, F.S. 1996. "Schleiermacher and the Consuuction of a Contemporary Roman Catholic Foundatiod Theology" Harvard TheohgicaI RPView 89:175- 194. Frei, Ham 1992. Typa of ChWnTbeology , George Hwinger & William Placher, eds. New York: OUP. . 1 993. Theolgy and Namztive, George Hunsinger & Wiam Plder, eds. New York: OUP. Funk, Robert ed. 1970. Schlrim~cheras Cuntrporary. New York: Herder & Herder. Gerrish, B h 1980. "Sdileiermacher and the Reformation: A Quesrion of Doctrinal Development", Church Histoly 49: 147- 1 59. 1982. Th OldProt~zktntirmand the Nmhys on the RPfomation Hmtage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

- . 1984. A Prince of the Church: SchIeiennacber 6 the Beginnings of MohTbeo&. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. .1993. Continuing the Rcfodon: hyson Modern Re1iigioz.u Thougbt Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hinze, Bradford E. 1993. Nawating History, Ddoping Docm'ne. Adanta: Scholars Press Mackintosh, H. R 1 937. Typa ofMoh Tbeoiogy. London:Nisber & Co. Marcin, Charlotte Jay 1989. "The Media- Function of the Church in Schleiermacher's Glaubenslehre" in Nnu Athmaeum 1. . 1995. "Schleiermacher's Reformed Doctrine of the Church: A Resource for Contemporary Catholic Theology" in Sch&ennachm i Wod Doctrtene & Ek&a and His Contributions to Libnïrtion/Feminist Tbeology To&y. Phildelphia: Schleiermacher Group & International Sdileiermacher Society. McNd, John Thomas 19&Q.MaCm of the ChtXrtitzn Traditioon: Fwm &fierd thc Great to Sch/nnmachm. New York: Harper & Row. Niebuhr, Richard 1964. ~chkmMcherun Chrifiand Rrligion: A Nnu Introddn New York Suibner. . 1984. "hlBd's 'Schleiennacher': A Review Essayw.Union Sm*nu?yQwm/u hictu 39 No. 1-2: 129- 136 Pd,Klaus 1964. "A Chapcer in the History of the Ecumenicd Quest: Schekg and Sdileiermacher" Chutch Histoty 33:322-337 S. Redeku, Martin 1 973. Scblk~nnrzcher:Lifr and Tborrght. Philadelphia: Foruess Press. SA&, Philip 1877. A Hktog~of the Creedr of ChrXstmdom London: Hodder & Stoughton. . 187% Tbr Crcedr of the EvangcLcd Protert;c2nt Churcbes. London: Hodder & Stoughron. - - -. Crz~ch~of Th ClaSolic Church 1994. Ottawa: Publicarion Senices ot the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Schleiermacher's Augsburg Confession Sermons of 1830

Sermon Text

.c I Cor: 7.23 I) Christian vocation to "the noble, spiritual servitude in Christ", not to l "You were bought at a Admonition Concerning iny human servitude, institution or confessional document. Iprice; do not become Self-Induceû Servitude !) The price we have to pay for a disunited, divided Church: "loving for- l 4slaves of men". Karance and aching compassion", perseverance, patience and frcedom fiom iny imposed human regdation or document, for we bclong to Christ and Lhrist's word alone is the only norm of hith. 5) The ecumenical call: "Al1 of us arc his servants and arc brethren among ~ursclves";"the unity of the Spirit and of îàith".

Im

I Peîm 3:15 I) Thc "trilithic corc of the Protestant spirit": ; ; the On the Handing Over of the "Always be prcpared to priesthood of al1 believers. Confession as Giving an Account for make a defense to any- 2) Schleiermacher's ecumcnical spirit: a unified church informed by scrip the Ground of Hope one who calls you to ture, freedom and tolerance. account for the hop 3) Contrast between the Protestant and Roman Catholic spirit. that is in you". 4) The "text or document" vs. the "deed or act". 5) The event thnt in 1530 and the cvent now in 1830.

3p

Guhtiuns 2: 16-18 I) The priority of faith over works of the law. "..that a man is not jus- The Relationship of Evangelical 2) ~endenc~for Law and "works-righteourness" mentdiry to tified by the works of Faith to the Law seep back into our church through idolatry to "doctrine". the law but through 3) Distinction between "living fàith" and "doctrinal letter", with fàith in Jesuc Christ.." caution against- reducing hith to doctrine. 4) The truc and valid universal and eternai elements in a confes- b sion vs. the transient historically-conditioned changeable ele- 'O ments. 3 Schleiermacher's Augsburg Confession Sermons of 1830

Sermon Text Toplc

Galacians 2: IWO I) Christ lives in us and in fàith we forcvcr renew the proccss of receiving .,I have bcen crucified On Righteousness Based on Faith he Lord. vith Christ; it is no !) The whole lies in the fragment - God sees the future in the present and onger 1 who live, but ;O do we in faith as Christ reveals this eschatological hop to W. 2hrist livcs in me.." 3) We need rcly on nothing else but that Christ lives in us; the sufficiency ~f Christ's love within us, 4) Righteousness as a dynamic proccss of constant rcniwal; complacency is :O be avoided.

Hebrnur 10:12,14 1) The once for all nature of Christ's sacrifice as obedience to God and 'But whcn Christ had On the Sacrifice of Christ that iource of our salvation; the eternal and universal cfficacy of this sacrifice for iftircd for al1 timc a Makes Perfect dl hurnans and for dl time, ;ingle sacrifice for sins. 2) The htility and repudiation of Christ's sacrifice represented in the repet- ie sat down at the itivc sacrificial rites of the Roman Catholic Mass. ight hand of God.." 3) The cal1 for tolerance and the ecumenid spirit.

James 5: 16 1) The blessingsl benefits of confession in an egditarian mode as part of the 'Confcss your sins to priesttiood of all believers. Exhortation to Confess Our Sins Jnc anothcr and pray 2) The distinction between private and common confcssion and relation of lor one anothcr, that confession to the Lord's Supper. you may LK healtd." 3) Why it is unnecessary to enurnerate "lists of sins" as in the traditional Roman Catholic practice. 4) Ecurnenism as the ultimate effect of confession; the ultimate value of confessional trust among brcthren = "the unifying power of Christian faith". Confession as "ecumcnical wit ness". 5) Confession as reassurancc of divine forgiveness rather than a lcgalistic "enurneration of particular trcspasses". Sin is severance of rclationship with God* Schleiermacher's Augsburg Confession Sermons of 1830

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Epbesiunr 4~11-12 I) The bencfits of an ordaincd ministry for its congregation: And his gifis wcre that On the Public Ministry of the i) reminder of the "unbroken continuum of rcsponsibility lrom dl the ome should bc apos- Word of God iithfùl" to pastoring i.e. the "Protestant" spirit. les, some prophets, ii) Yet, some members are singled out for specific leadership as ordained ome evangelists, some ministen within a hierarchic fnrnework i.e. the "Catholic" spirit. ustors and teachers, to 2) How the spirit of the Reformed ministry differs from the Roman lquip the saints for the Catholic ministry: vork of ministry, for i) egalitarian ii) range of rnodalities of ovcrsight iii) a married clergy & dding up the body its benefi ts: "fàmily life as foundation (Boden) for state and the place of ~fChrist," virtue (1 38). 3) Pastoral vocation as parity and sanctification.

Lukt 637 1) The plea for tolerance and loving forbeannce towards those who belicvc On the Condemnation in Our 'Judge not and you differently; (compare with paragraph # 818 in the Catbulic Catechism) uill not be judged; Confession of Those Who Believe Differently 2) To condemn others is to "wantonly constrict the circlc of Christian love" :ondemn not and you and the work of the Spirit ; in effect, it is to condemn oursclves. uiIl not be con- 3) No hurnan letter exhausrs the truth; we can never presume to be privi- kmncd; forgivc and leged holders of truth; therefore, WC cannot condemn others. fou will be forgiven." 4) Priority of liturgical practice over doctrinal beliefi The world will come to know who you are by the love you have for cach other, not by the com- mon beliek you happen to have in common. 5) Thc confession as a human document contains "offensive imperfec- tions": i) the condemnation of others ii) the wrath of God (in Sermon 9). Schleiermacher's Augsburg Confession Sermons of 1830

Sermon

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11 Cor: 5: t Z18 1) Christianity is a religion of reconciliation, not vengeance; love, not wrath "If anyone is in Christ, That We have Nothing to Tach 2) The power of the love of Christ replaces the wnth of God as our guiding he is a ncw crcation: Regading the Wmth of God iymbol and spirit. the old hapassed 3) ~chleierrni&er neo-Marcionite tendcncy in npudiating the wrathhil away, behold the new images of Cod from both Old Testament and New Tatament. has come, Al1 this is 4) Further implications of "the canon within the canon". from God, who 5) To use the wrath of God as a technique to scare people into king hith- through Christ remn- fil is an "offensive imperfection" in thc confession, a vestige of prc- ciled us to himself and Christian paganism. gave us the ministry of reconciliation."

PM. 1:G- J 1 On the Goal Toward Which The I) Schleiermacher's ecclesiology bved on the consciousness of a Triune "And 1 arri sure that he God in Sabellian mode, who began a good Effort of the Evangelical Church is Diiiected 2) The Goal of the Church:To cornpletc the work of sanctification begun work in you will bnng by God in the penon of the Rcdeemer and continuing now through the presence of the Spirit in the community of the fàithful. 3) The divine completion of sanctification is enacted in human form and fashion, through the service of human beings. 4) The Chu~his Cod's work of continuou sanctification enacted through human action guided by t hc Spirit. 5) We are not here to be passive spectators "cxpccting something from beyond"; we are called to bc active participants; "WC ourselves nced to get involv~d". 6) True unity lies not in wrinen codes but in the Spirit and bond of peace. Hans Frei's Typology of Christian Theology

AC.= Ambient Culture. C.C.S.D.- Chriath Community Self -Descriptbn. \ > u takes prbrity over Theology as + not connecteci whh Response: Christological Exegesis C.C.S.D.>A.C

(Karl Barth) _I VP~5 Jesus as the Ascrlptlve Unsubstitutable Subjecl _t b Theology as Expression: Psychic Exegesis C.C.S.D.= AC Christological Bias .11111) C.C.S.D.+A.C - (D.Z. Phillips) (Schleierrnacher)

Theology as Conversation: Construction: Symbolic Exegesis Jesus as or ~yrnbot 4 Reductionist Exegesis AC.> C*CmS,Dm AC.> C.C.S.D. a (David Tracy) (Gordon Kauf man) R 1 Ir) Schleiermacher's "FugalwEcclesiology

CATHOLIC SPIRIT SamoHnentaIl:

' LarCrs Supper as Llvlng Presence of the Redeèmer

O

PROTESTANT

Trilithic Cam: Sola Fide. Sola Scrf ptura, o...

SPIRIT

MInIsterlak Ecum8nlc611~ Publlcly Ordered Catholidty: Insthution as A Church for All Essential Condition & of Ali for the Church CATHOLIC SPIRIT