Actualism and Incarnation: The High Christology of Friedrich Schleiermacher

Abstract

Defining Schleiermacher's Christology simply as 'low' is inadequate, and based on a neglect of the crucial role that actualism plays in his theology. However, accounts that see his Christology as so high as to be docetic are equally unhappy. This article shows that there is a different way to read Schleiermacher's theology, one that avoids both views. By looking at how Schleiermacher's Christology proceeds in both 'vertical' and 'horizontal' directions, it shows that through correctly understanding Schleiermacher's actualism we are able to see that, for Schleiermacher, Christ is the one who reproduces God's pure act of love through his own God-consciousness. Christ, then, exists as pure activity and so, for Schleiermacher, is God incarnate. The article then addresses two common objections to Schleiermacher's Christology: that Schleiermacher's Christ is not fully human; and that, if Christ is pure act, what of the passion? The piece closes with an account of the relationship of Christology and Trinity.

Ethics and Christology - Rediscovering Jesus in Evolutionary History

“…In this way Jesus exists as deeply embedded in embodied, relational activity and so, for Schleiermacher, is God truly incarnate. On this view, therefore, Schleiermacher's Christology is not 'low' at all, but in fact quite 'high' -in some respects even higher than traditional Chalcedonianism (Hector 2006:308), if we mean by 'high' the unequivocal recognition that Jesus the man is God incarnate, and that he is uniquely so. In addition, Schleiermacher's graded notion of consciousness offers an intriguing parallel trajectory to positions in contemporary evolutionary biology and neuroscience.…”

“…In an intriguing essay, Kevin Hector (2006) has argued the exact opposite. Hector argues that any attempt to define Schleiermacher's Christology as 'low' would be seriously inadequate because it would neglect the important role that actualism plays in his theology.…”

Schleiermacher’s Transcendental Reasoning: Toward a Feminist Affirmation of Divine Personhood

“…The determination of every moment according to the God-consciousness’s ‘vital receptivity’ is what might more aptly be called the existence of God in Christ (Schleiermacher, 1999: 387). As Hector (2006: 312) puts it,“perfect God-consciousness” can be equated with “divinity” precisely because Christ’s God-consciousness is the human organ through which God’s activity becomes incarnate. The important thing about Christ, then, is not his God-consciousness per se , but the fact that this consciousness is the means through which God’s being is incarnated.…”

Bridging the gap between social and existential-mystical interpretations of Schleiermacher's ‘feeling’

“…Hector seems to accept this solution by positing that Christ's complete attunement with God preceded the founding of a community where this attunement circulates (Hector (2010), 230; cf. Hector (2006), 318–319).…”