Philosophy of Religion Research

the Legacy of Kant in Schleiermacher's Religious Experience: a Critique of Current Interpretations

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Ph.D. student of philosophy of religion, the department of Philosophy of Religion, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant professor at Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran

3 assistant professor at Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran

4 Assistant professor at Philosophy and Theology department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Schleiermacher's concept of feeling of absolute dependence was the starting point for discussions about religious experience among modern scholars. As the purpose of the religious experience debates in the contemporary, analytic philosophy of religion is to provide an empirical argument for the existence of God, many scholars have expected the feeling of absolute dependence in Schleiermacher’s Christian Faith had to serve the same metaphysical or onto-theological purpose. Are this expectation and its respective interpretations consistent with what we read in Schleiermacher’s Christian Faith? To clarify this, we have used a historical and hermeneutical method in this study. The application of our historical method guides us to Kant’s influence on Schleiermacher, and we will see that most of his concepts are actually Kantian. The application of the hermeneutic method also allows us to consider the feeling of absolute dependence in the light of Schleiermacher's theology as a whole, as well as the concept of religion in the Kant's philosophical system as a whole. Criticizing the dominant understanding of the concept of religious experience in Schleiermacher, this paper will suggest, instead of an ontotheological reading, that the feeling of absolute dependence is only a description of self-consciousness, which does not provide us with any proof for the existence of God.

Keywords

اسماعیلی، مسعود، و محسن جوادی. 1394. «بررسی و ارزیابی دیدگاه شلایرماخر در باب ماهیت تجربه و معرفت عرفانی.» فصلنامۀ علمی‌ـ‌پژوهشی دانشگاه قم 63: 7-28.
پازوکی، شهرام، و علی شیروانی. 1379. «عینیت تجربۀ دینی از دیدگاه رودلف اُتو.» مدرس علوم انسانی 17: 123-131.
پناهی‌آزاد، حسن. 1395. «تبیین و بررسی هستی و چیستی ادراک امر متعالی در تجربۀ دینی.» اندیشۀ نوین دینی 45: 59-72.
جوی، مورنی (سرویراستار). 1397. فلسفۀ قاره‌ای و فلسفۀ دین. ترجمۀ محمدابراهیم باسط. قم: کتاب طه.
دیباجی، سید محمدعلی، و هانیه السادات رجبی. 1396. «رابطۀ تجربۀ زیبایی‌شناختی با تجربۀ دینی به روایت آلفرد مارتین و شلایرماخر.» پژوهش‌های علم و دین 8 (2): 45-65.
صمیمی، نادر، و رضا گندمی نصرآبادی. 1396. «بررسی انتقادات هگل از تجربۀ دینی شلایرماخر.» فلسفه دین 14 (2): 287-309.
سفیدخوش، میثم. 1396. «احیای شناخت‌شناسانۀ ایمان در روشن‌اندیشی کانتی با تمرکز بر نسبت ایمان و دانش». پژهش‌های علم و دین ۸ (۲) (در دست انتشار).
عباسی، بابک. 1390. «قول به اصالت تجربۀ دینی چیست؟» پژوهش‌های فلسفی 19: 59-86.
کامرانی، سمیه، و علیرضا قائمی‌نیا، و ولی‌الله عباسی. 1390. «شلایرماخر و گوهر دین.» قبسات 62: 121-132.
کانت، ایمانوئل. 1383. سنجش خرد ناب. ترجمۀ میرشمس‌الدین ادیب‌سلطانی. تهران: امیرکبیر.
Forster, Michael. 2017. "Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/schleiermacher/>.
Giovanni, George di. 2001. "Translator’s Introduction," in Religion and Rational Theology, by Immanuel Kant. Cambridge University Press.
Kant, Immanuel. 1996. Practical philosophy. Translated and edited by Mary J. Gregor. Cambridge University Press.
Kant, Immanuel. 1998. Critique of Pure Reason. Translated and edited by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. Cambridge University Press.
Kant, Immanuel. 1999. Correspondence. Translated and edited by Arnulf Zweig. Cambridge University Press.
Kant, Immanuel. 2001. Religion and Rational Theology. Translated and edited by Allen Wood and George di Giovanni. Cambridge University Press.
Kant, Immanuel. 2007. Anthropology, History, and Education. Edited by Gunter Zoller and Robert b. Louden. Cambridge University Press.
Nimmo, Paul T. 2016. "Introduction to the Third Edition," in The Christian Faith, by Friedrich Schleiermacher, 3rd edition. Bloomsbury T&T Clark.
Schleiermacher, Friedrich. 1990. Brief Outline of Theology as a Field of Study, Translation of the 1811 and 1830 editions With Essays and Notes by Terrence N. Tice. The Edwin Mellen Press.
Schleiermacher, Friedrich. 1996. On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers. Translated and edited by Richard Crouter. Cambridge University Press.
Schleiermacher, Friedrich. 2016. The Christian Faith. 3rd edition with an introduction by Paul T. Nimmo. Bloomsbury T&T Clark.
Wrathall, Mark A. (ed.). 2003. Religion after Metaphysics. Cambridge University Press.
Philosophy of Religion Research
Volume 16, Issue 2 - Serial Number 32
November 2019
Pages 37-61