In a collection of fictional letters published in 1799 Friedrich Schleiermacher makes the case that Jews are capable of being morally accountable members of civil society, without the need to convert to Christianity. This controversial position was based on Schleiermacher's division between religion and morality which he developed out of his reading of Spinoza. Schleiermacher was drawn into an ongoing debate on civil rights for Jews and rational religion by his Jewish friends Markus and Henriette Herz, the former of whom had sought a Spinozist response to the issues of the Pantheism Controversy ever since the death of Moses Mendelssohn and the disappointment of Kant's equivocations on the Controversy. Relying on a reformulation of Spinoza by his teacher J. A. Eberhard, Schleiermacher applies a principle of inherence to the existing arguments and takes rationalism beyond a simple mechanistic view of causes and effects. Schleiermacher argues that morality is more complex than Kant's transcendent pure moral realm, and that religion is not accessed in the transcendence of morality. Reforming Spinoza in this way allows Schleiermacher to reject the rationalist arguments as they existed, and permits him to separate morality and religion while still holding rational principles. Thus there is no need to be a Christian to be morally fit to be a member of civil society.

Enthalten in:
Theologische Literaturzeitung; 2001/Nr.7/8 Monatsschrift für das gesamte Gebiet der Theologie und Religionswissenschaft (2001)

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Serie / Reihe: Theologische Literaturzeitung

Personen: Foley, Peter

Schlagwörter: Recht Schleiermacher, Friedrich Juden Bürgerrechte