George Cross · 6 of 40

A. A Sketch of Schleiermacher’s Life. · STUDIES AT HALLE

Schleiermacher went to Halle in the spring of 1787 and remained there two years. He then accompanied his uncle to Drossen, where the latter had accepted a pastorate, and stayed with him a year. These three years represent an important period in our young theologian’s spiritual development, for at this time he began to get his theological bearings. It is true that in his own opinion he was seriously handicapped at the outset, for, as he says, he knew almost nothing of the outside world, was conscious of a great deficiency in suppleness of mind and outward polish, had been given a disparaging view of the moral character of his future comrades, was shy of company, and enervated by depressing circumstances. But on the other hand he was encouraged by his loving sister Lotte’s unwavering confidence in him, by the many evidences of his father’s growing desire to promote his studies, and, perhaps most of all, by the friendship and wise counsel of his considerate uncle. This thoughtful man had observed with interest and concern the change that had been taking place in his nephew’s mind and had written to him letters which were full of sympathy but also contained an admonition to beware of precipitancy in his thinking. Now he took the young man into his own home and for these three years their thoughts freely mingled.

Moreover, Schleiermacher’s desire for an unrestricted study of the questions that distressed him was now realized. At Halle he entered upon a course of reading, continued for many years, which included in its scope almost all that was of high value in ancient philosophy and theology and the most famous writers of the age of the Reformation. Plato and Aristotle; the neo-Platonists; Origen and Augustine among the church Fathers; Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin among the Reformers; Spinoza, Descartes, and Locke; and later, Lessing, Kant, Wolff, and Herder ultimately became food to the omnivorous appetite of this young; student and were made to contribute their quota to the makeup of his mature thought later on. His reading at Halle was not well connected and his thought was quite unorganized. He chose his own course of reading and paid rather indifferent attention to the regular class-work of the university. This course of action was regarded with disfavor by professors and students and was afterward regretted by himself. However, his state of mind at the time may have made inevitable the neglect of studies that did not seem to have the solution of his problem directly in view. One thing he did pursue with intense zeal--the history of human opinion, which is surely essential to a thorough grasp of theology.

We know little of his religious experiences at this time, for the subject is rarely mentioned in his letters. He mentions at times the kind Providence of God and expressed his trust in the heavenly Father. That he felt he had some sort of Christian message to give to men is evident from his application in the spring of 1790 for ordination as a licentiate in the Reformed church, to his father’s great satisfaction. In one of the father’s letters of that spring, which deprecates on the one hand the trend of the new methods of Scripture exegesis and the tendency to abolish the Augsburg confession as a standard authority, and on the other hand the compulsory acceptance of orthodoxy, we come across the curious advice to the son to imitate his own example of an earlier unbelieving period of life in not attacking the orthodox faith concerning the person of Christ, but utilizing it in the cause of morality and of love to God and man. This respect he thought was due to the belief which had been a blessing to millions. The son seemed to have acquiesced. Their correspondence at this time evinces a deep mutual affection and respect and a desire to avoid any occasion of difference. But the uncle continues to exercise the greater influence, and Schleiermacher ever afterward treasured a grateful memory of those days of quiet intercourse with the man who helped him to attain to some definiteness and coherency of theological views and to lay hold of a purpose in life.