Schleiermacher, Friedrich Ernst Daniel (1768–1834)

German theologian and philosopher. In Berlin, Germany, in 1796 he joined the Romantic circle of Friedrich Schlegel and after reading Plato, Spinoza, and Kant, published Reden über die Religion/Lectures on Religion (1799), in opposition to the prevailing rationalism and as an attempt to establish a new form of Christianity in which Kant and Spinoza should be reconciled. He founded the Sentimentalist School, teaching that the truths of religion and ethics are perceived by the heart, not by the intellect: religion is feeling. His chief work, Der Christliche Glaube/The Christian Faith, appeared in 1821.

Schleiermacher was born in Breslau, Germany. He was court preacher at Stolpe, Pomerania (1802–04). After lecturing at Halle University (1803–06), he returned to Berlin, where he and Johann Fichte led the formation, in 1810, of the university. Here Schleiermacher became professor of theology.