An Analysis of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers

On Religion is a major text for the development of modern religious thought in the West and its author, German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, is remembered as the Father of Modern Protestant Theology, as well as for his contributions to philosophy, ethics and hermeneutics. Comprising five lively speeches, which defend religion as a universal element of human life, the text was addressed to the young intellectual elite of early nineteenth-century Berlin. It demonstrates Schleiermacher’s critique of Kant’s religious and moral thought, while also showing his indebtedness to the divergent movements of Enlightenment rationalism and Romanticism.