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HANS ERICH BÖDEKER
the full implications of the rupture. Enlightened criticism of theology was not
seen by Hegel as coming from the moderate statement in Semler’s “Freie Lehre”,
in which he explicitly recognized the legitimacy of both Enlightened criticism
and church theology as theological attitudes. Hegel asked what this criticism
could achieve for religion itself, and thus, against its own one-sidedly emanci¬
pated will, turned the Enlightenment back to Christian doctrine and tradition.
In this context the young Hegel transformed the traditional problem of the
“positivity” of the Christian religion into that of religion itself.
In this respect, Friedrich Schleiermacher’s (1768-1834) famous and far¬
reaching early work, Uber Religion. Reden an die Gebildeten unter ihren
Verächtern (1799) should also be seen not only as an inauguration of a new
approach but also as a document of an older one." In his outline of religion
in this book, Schleiermacher was clearly driving at what, in the discourse of
the late Enlightenment, was called "private religion" and defined by the fact
that it possessed its own potential, independently of official theology. In his
arguments Schleiermacher explicitly exposed a “private religion” going beyond
the church and official theology. He saw himself as a member of the educated
and cultivated classes speaking outside the discipline of theology. He was not
addressing theologians on their own ground, but was interested in a dialogue
with those who had private views on free religion.“ He turned to those who
were “capable” and “worthy” of “educated” contempt for orthodox religion. And
for this reason, the qualities which he sought,” those which allowed people
to reflect in an informed way on criticism of religion, were the ability and
freedom to pursue an individual and true religion. The declared goal of his
“Reden” was to awaken these qualities, to point those who possessed them in
the right direction, and, ultimately, to support them in differing from orthodox
religion. However, Schleiermacher also saw that church doctrine and individual
religious belief were not completely alien to each other. In fact, he attempted
to reconstruct the original connection upon which, ultimately, the difference
between theology and religion, and public and private religion rested.**
10 On this cf. RENDTORFF, Kirche und Theologie (note 26).
11 SCHLEIERMACHER, Friedrich, Uber die Religion. Reden an die Gebildeten unter ihren Verächtern,
inG.C. Pünjer (ed.), Kritische Ausgabe, Braunschweig, 1897, 4, 16; cf. BARTH, Ulrich et al.(eds),
200 Jahre “Reden über die Religion”. Akten des 1. Internationalen Kongresses der Schleiermacher¬
Gesellschaft, Berlin - New York, De Gruyter, 1999. See also HUBER, Friedrich (ed.), Reden über
die Religion - 200 Jahre nach Schleiermacher. Eine interdisziplinäre Auseinandersetzung mit
Schleiermachers Religionsverständnis, Neukirchen, Foedus/Neukirchner, 2002.
42 Ibid., 22f.
33 Cf. RENDTORFE, Kirche und Theologie (note 26), 118f, cf. Nowak, Kurt, Schleiermacher: Leb¬
en, Werk und Wirkung, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2001, and CROUTER, Richard,
+ 98 +