QUESTIONS CONCERNING V. SHEPHERD’S ESSAY
ON
FRIEDRICH SCHLEIERMACHER
- The historic Protestant churches claim that the theological progenitor after whom they are named (Luther, Calvin, Wesley, etc.) informs them and even characterizes them theologically. Nonetheless, the historic Protestant churches have, since Schleiermacher, been influenced considerably by this thinker and his school.
(a) Can as much be said about the newer, smaller,
denominations?
(a) What evidence is there of S.’s influence in your
denomination?
- How has an undervaluation of the “intense joy
to be found in the love of Jesus” precipitated
the liberalism that historic theology opposes?
- In the Faculty of Theology, University of Halle, S. taught every subject except the older testament.
(a) How did this omission affect S.’s theology?
(b) What results from such an omission?
(the plasticine Jesus)
(Christian antisemitism)
(blindness to history as the theatre of God’s activity)
(privatization of the Kingdom of God)
(undervaluation of the creaturely, the earthly,
the earthy, the human.)
- How are biblical concepts (e.g., “father”, “shepherd”, “king”, etc.) used univocally?
analogically?
(multivocally)?
5. What is the connexion between doctrine and truth?
- Why is the doctrine of the Trinity essential to Christian faith?
- What is the difference between an Economic Trinity and
an Immanent Trinity?
- How should we address “cultured despisers” today?
How are we to “adapt” even as we do not “adopt”?
- What does Kierkegaard mean by “Truth is subjectivity”?
10. What is the difference between our apprehension of God
and our (supposed) comprehension of God?
- What did Kierkegaard mean by “Immediacy is paganism”?
- What is the significance of the doctrine of the Virgin Birth?
- What is the difference between creatureliness and sinfulness?
- What is the most telling flaw in liberal theology?