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Calvin, Schleiermacher and Religion

The recognition of the revelation of God to the world is something that is universally possible

according to both Calvin and Schleiermacher. For Calvin, the "seed of religion" is inscribed in the

hearts of every human as a means to knowledge of God. For Schleiermacher, the "feeling of absolute

dependence" is a universally available consciousness which is also known as God consciousness. A

brief sketch of each theologians concept will allow for an explication of similarities and differences.

Calvin and the seed of religion

There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of
divinity.... God himself has implanted in all men a certain understanding of his divine
majesty.

For Calvin part of being human is to be endowed with a seed of religion. From those who "least

differ from brutes" to those who in their vanity deny that God exists, Calvin considers it "beyond

controversy" that every human has been inscribed with an awareness of divinity. This awareness of

divinity is the seed of religion that can grow into true knowledge of God. Tragically, these two means

of knowing God, God's revelation of himself in the universe and the seed of religion, have been

corrupted by the sin of Adam and humanity in his wake. This has not meant that the awareness of

divinity has been lost. Calvin states, "the seed remains which can in no wise be uprooted: that there is

some sort of divinity; but this seed is so corrupted that by itself it produces only the worst fruits" ().

For Calvin, the seed of religion is another aspect of God's graciousness that humanity has turned from

and is guilty before God for not fostering the seed within them. He asks, "what pardon will the

indolence of that man deserve who is loath to descend within himself to find God?" (). Calvin sees

evidence of the seed of religion everywhere whether it be in the misdirected devotion of idolaters, the

reality behind the ability of some to dupe others with arbitrary and false religion, or even with Grace

the very ability of true believers to know God. To Calvin, religion was a cultural given. The corruption

of the seed of religion and of the created order lead us to find access to true knowledge of God in other
quarters, Scripture.

Schleiermacher's "feeling of absolute dependence"

In The Christian Faith (CF), Schleiermacher passes through a discussion of what he might call

a description of the feeling behind "religion in general" or the "general susceptibility of individual souls

to religious emotion" (§6.postscript). At the same time, Schleiermacher is not primarily interested in

examining religious emotions as such, but insists that religious emotions must always be considered

along with their expressions. With this in mind, it seems important to recognize that the description of

"the feeling of absolute dependence" in CF takes place in the introduction to the dogmatics where the

objective is to get a "clear conception" of what the Christian Church is before elaborating the

dogmatics that pertains to it. He is not concerned so much with a proof that will legitimate the

religious emotions of humanity as he is with a description of what he experiences as the essence of

piety because piety forms the basis of the Christian Church.

The question remains though, what is this piety, or more specifically what is its self-identical

essence "the feeling of absolute dependence." Piety is first distinguished from a knowing or a doing in

that it is a feeling, and more specifically a modification of immediate self consciousness. That is to say

a feeling that is not the kind of self-consciousness that involves contemplation or representation of the

self. Schleiermacher speaks of joy and sorrow as examples of genuine states of feeling as opposed to

self-approval and self-reproach which are the results of analytic contemplation (§3.2). This piety is

distinguished from all other feelings in that its self-identical essence is the consciousness of being

absolutely dependent.

The consciousness of absolute dependence is posited as the highest order of the self

consciousness. Within the self consciousness there is the element that expresses the existence of the

subject for itself and another element that expresses its co-existence with an Other. A system of

reciprocity characterizes the system where the subject has a relationship of receptivity from the Other

and one of activity toward the Other. The affect of receptivity is characterized by a feeling of
dependence whereas activity is characterized by a feeling of freedom. Within the system there can be

no feeling of absolute freedom or dependence, but our self consciousness which is ever present in our

activity is a consciousness of our dependence on a source outside ourselves and is therefore a

consciousness of absolute dependence (§4.1-3). How is this in any way related to religion or God? For

Schleiermacher, the whence of this self consciousness, characterized by this reciprocity, is God and this

feeling of absolute dependence is the idea upon which the word God is presupposed. To quote

Schleiermacher:

The feeling of absolute dependence becomes a clear self consciousness only as this idea
comes simultaneously into being. In this sense it can indeed be said that God is given to
us in feeling in an original way; and if we speak of an original revelation of God to man
or in man, the meaning will always be just this, that along with the absolute dependence
which characterizes not only man but all temporal existence, there is given to man also
the immediate self-consciousness of it, which becomes a consciousness of God (17-18).

The degree to which the God consciousness is experienced by an individual is in direct correlation to

the degree to which that individuals can be said to be pious. In addition, generally this God

consciousness is seen by Schleiermacher to be indicative of a higher life and once one has recognizes

what piety is "every moment of a merely sensible self consciousness is a defective and imperfect state"

(21).

Similarities and Differences

The first similarity between the two theologians is that both want to posit access to God as

available to all humanity. Although different language is used they both also seem to picture God as

the reason for recognition of God either in the seed of religion or the feeling of absolute dependence.

For Calvin, God has implanted the seed as a certain understanding of God's majesty and is "ever

renewing its memory." In addition, Schleiermacher also suggests that in the feeling of absolute

dependence "God is given to us in feeling in an original way." While this is true the two theologians

have different ideas about the temporal origin of each phenomenon. Calvin believes that the seed is

something of which we are masters from the womb and is unforgettable (III.3). Schleiermacher
describes the feeling of absolute dependence as the highest state of consciousness which requires

movement through the lowest stage of consciousness.

Calvin says that the seed is corrupted by the fall and that we can not utilize it to come to true

knowledge of God. It is only through the lens of Scripture that we gain true knowledge of God.

Schleiermacher on the other hand seems to suggest that access to the feeling is always possible to those

who have developed a sensible self-consciousness, but that even if one experiences the feeling of

absolute dependence they may attach that feeling to the sensual and therefore something upon which

they can not be absolutely dependent (§33). Similar to Calvin's corrupted human mind, the feeling of

absolute dependence must be filtered through our sensible self-consciousness and will be recognized

with varying results, but contra Calvin these express some knowledge of God.

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