SOURCE: “Friedrich Schleiermacher: Theology at the Dawn of Modernity,” in Great Christian Thinkers, SCM Press, 1994, pp. 157-84.

In the following excerpt, Küng traces the development of Schleiermacher's theological philosophy and provides an overview of his major works.

1. Beyond Pietism and Rationalism

‘The first place in a history of the theology of the most recent times belongs and will always belong to Schleiermacher, and he has no rival.’ So says Schleiermacher's most vigorous opponent, who was to drive him from his pinnacle, and continues: ‘It has often been pointed out that Schleiermacher did not found any school. This assertion can be robbed of some of its force by mention of the names of his successors in Berlin, August Twesten, Karl Immanuel Nitzsch of Bremen, and Alexander Schweizer of Zürich. But it is correct in so far as Schleiermacher's significance lies beyond these beginnings of a school in...