Friedrich Schleiermacher

Jesus' Life in Dying Friedrich Schleiermacher

Schleiermacher's preaching constituted a substantive part of his academic and pastoral life, and provides a foray into his thought that is both accessible and inspiring. In the form of the sermon, we discover Schleiermacher's theology at work in the context of the worship life of the community--especially important for this progenitor of liberal theology. Schleiermacher's Passion sermons are especially interesting, given that contemporary interpreters of his thought generally assume that his interest in the cross is attenuated, at best. Yet, in these sermons we discover him thinking through his theology of community, atonement, history, creation, and Scripture in the face of the death of the Redeemer. The sermon, in sum, is the principal means by which the God-consciousness of the Redeemer is communicated to the community to the end that we come to believe in the One who died for the sake of the world. Jesus' Life in Dying contains nine sermons preached on the topic of the cross and suffering of Jesus, as well as an extended introduction by the editors, locating these pastoral labors within Schleiermacher's larger theological project.