Reader's Guide to Schleiermacher's Christian Faith

Paragraph Headings

Home Previous: §§57-61
Current: §§62-64
Next: §65
Back to Reader's Guide

Second Part of the System of Doctrine: Explication of the Facts of the Religious Self-Consciousness, as they are determined by the Antithesis of Sin and Grace

Introduction

§62 The God-consciousness described in the foregoing occurs as the actual content of a moment of experience only under the general form of self-consciousness, i.e. the antithesis of pleasure and pain.

§63 While in general the manner in which the God-consciousness takes shape in and with the stimulated self-consciousness can be traced only to the action of the individual, the distinctive feature of Christian piety lies in the fact that whatever alienation from God there is in the phases of our experience, we are conscious of it as an action originating in ourselves, which we call Sin; but whatever fellowship with God there is, we are conscious of it as resting upon a communication from the Redeemer, which we call grace.

§64 For the purpose of our exposition, it is necessary to separate the two subjects, so as to treat first of Sin and then of Grace; and of each in accordance with all the three forms of dogmatic propositions.

The information on this page is copyright ©1994 onwards, Wesley Wildman (basic information here), unless otherwise noted. If you want to use text or ideas that you find here, please be careful to acknowledge this site as your source, and remember also to credit the original author of what you use, where that is applicable. If you have corrections or want to make comments, please contact me at the feedback address for permission.