Book Review: Eikrem, Alse: God as Sacrificial Love

Abstract

This book contains essays on Schleiermacher’s other writings: on the Monologen, the Weihnachtsfeier, and on his translation of Plato’s dialogues. There are short essays on Schleiermacher’s psychology, aesthetics, and ethics, and one on Schleiermacher as preacher, political thinker, and academic. There are essays devoted to church history, church statistics, church politics, and one on his family and friends. This book is truly encyclopedic; if there is a complaint, it is that the essays are often too brief. For example, there are only five pages devoted to his lectures on the state (290‒95). The fourth section covers the reception of Schleiermacher’s work from his lifetime to the present. While Schleiermacher had numerous students and advocates, he also had a number of critics. The decades after his death saw dwindling of interest until around 1900 and the beginning of a Schleiermacher renaissance. Rudolf Otto contributed to it by publishing an edition of the Reden in 1899 and Ernst Troeltsch added to it with his own contributions and with his influence on others, notably Otto Lempp, Hermann Mulert, and Hermann Süskind. Schleiermacher was subjected to severe criticism in the 1930s by Karl Barth and Emil Brunner, but since the 1960s Schleiermacher’s star has risen. Not only is the Schleiermacher Kritische Ausgabe being completed by the publishing firm Walter de Gruyter, but there have also been numerous books and conferences devoted to Schleiermacher and his works. Then, there is this impressive volume which anyone with an interest in Schleiermacher will find rewarding—regardless whether the individual is a Schleiermacher specialist or a graduate student. To repeat: this book was well worth the wait.