Fichte’s chief contribution to German thought was the Wissenschaftslehre, Schelling’s the Naturphilosophie, and Schleiermacher’s the philosophy of religion.  All these thinkers took account of the prevailing tendencies of the times—­Aufklaerung, Kantian criticism, faith-philosophy, Romanticism, and Spinozism—­and were more or less affected by them.  Schleiermacher also came under the influence of Fichte, Schelling, and Greek idealism, particularly of Plato’s philosophy; many were the sources from which he drew his material for the construction of a great system of Protestant theology that exercised a profound influence far beyond the boundaries of his country and won for him the title of the founder of the New Theology.

Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, the son of a clergyman of the reformed church, was born at Breslau, November 21, 1768, and was educated at the Moravian schools at Niesky and Barby.  Made sceptical by the newer criticism, he left the Moravian brotherhood and entered the University of Halle (1787), where he devoted himself with equal zeal to the study of theology and philosophy.  After his ordination in 1794 he occupied various pulpits until 1803, when he was made a professor and university preacher at Halle.  In 1806 he removed from Halle to Berlin, becoming the preacher of Trinity Church in 1809 and professor of theology at the newly founded University in 1810, positions which he filled with marked ability until his death, February 12, 1834.  It was in Berlin that he came into friendly touch with the leaders of the Romantic school, Tieck, Friedrich Schlegel, and Novalis, but he did not allow himself to be carried away by their extravagances.  He distinguished himself as a preacher, theologian, philosopher, and philologist, and, by his study of the sources of philosophy, added much to the knowledge of its history.  Among the books published during his life-time are:  Addresses on Religion, 1799; Monologues, 1800; Principles of a Criticism of Previous Systems of Ethics, 1803; translations of Plato’s Dialogues, with introductions and notes, 1804-28; The Christian Faith, 1821-22.  Complete Works, 1834-64.

Schleiermacher’s conception of religion is opposed to the rationalistic theology of the eighteenth century, as well as to the Kantian moral theology which has remained popular in Germany to this day.  For him religion is not science or philosophy; it does not consist in theoretical dogmas or rationalistic proofs; neither theories about religion nor virtuous conduct nor acts of worship are religion itself; nor is religion based upon a rational moral faith, as Kant had taught.  He bravely took the part of Fichte in the atheism-controversy, when the great leaders of German culture, Kant, Herder, and even Goethe, abandoned him to his fate.  He rejected the shallow proofs of the Aufklaerung, as well as the orthodox utilitarian view of God as the dispenser of rewards