On Religion Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers

Schleiermacher's addresses on religion to the cultured critics of his time comprise one of those rare works of literature that masterfully initiate an epoch but long continue to realize an influence far transcending their original effect. They comprise a masterpiece not only of personal testimony but of intelligent witness to that which is most lasting and fundamental, though often most elusive and difficult to achieve, in human life and culture. Religion presumable constitutes the most important set of relationships that can be cultivated in a person. Yet religion is often the most readily misunderstood and maligned. Schleiermacher's aim in these addresses is to penetrate the excrescences and the corruptions of so-called religion to reach its vital heart so as to clarify what religion essentially is, to suggest how it is to be found, to consider how it may be cultivated, and perhaps also to stimulate a responding chord of sensitively and devotion among his hearers. He is not trying to put something over on anyone. In tolerant, open-hearted response to familiar attitudes he is simply replying, again and again: "Is the situation really what you say? Consider this!" Or: "Yes, you are entirely correct, but that is not religion. You are looking in the wrong place." Or: "You are moving in the right direction but in the wrong way."