The Constructive Promise of Schleiermacher's Theology

243 Pages·2021·14.176 MB·English

by  Shelli M. Poe

THE CONSTRUCTIVE PROMISE OF

SCHLEIERMACHER’S THEOLOGY
Rethinking Theologies: Constructing
Alternatives in History and Doctrine
Edited by
Marion Grau
Susannah Cornwall
Steed Davidson
Volume 4
THE CONSTRUCTIVE PROMISE OF

SCHLEIERMACHER’S THEOLOGY
Shelli M. Poe
T&T CLARK
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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First published in Great Britain 2021
Copyright © Shelli M. Poe, 2021
Shelli M. Poe has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p. ix constitute an extension
of this copyright page.
Cover design: Terry Woodley
Cover image: Piotr Malinowski / Alamy Stock Photo
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Poe, Shelli M., author.
Title: The constructive promise of Schleiermacher’s theology / Shelli M. Poe.
Description: London; New York: T&T Clark, 2021. | Series: Rethinking theologies:
constructing alternatives in history and doctrine |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2020044059 (print) | LCCN 2020044060 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780567691682 (hb) | ISBN 9780567691705 (epub) | ISBN 9780567691699 (epdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Schleiermacher, Friedrich, 1768–1834. | Theology, Doctrinal.
Classification: LCC BX4827.S3 P639 2021 (print) | LCC BX4827.S3 (ebook) |
DDC 230/.044–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044059
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044060
ISBN: HB: 978-0-5676-9168-2
ePDF: 978-0-5676-9169-9
ePUB: 978-0-5676-9170-5
Series: Rethinking Theologies: Constructing Alternatives in History and Doctrine
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To Jody and Sofia,
my love and my very heart
vi
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xi
INTRODUCTION 1
Schleiermacher and Constructive Forms of Theology 2
Schleiermacher’s Contributions to Constructive Conversations 2
Methods and Motivations 5
A Brief Introduction to Schleiermacher’s Thought on Religion
and Theology 8
Religion 10
Theology 13
The Approach of This Volume 16
Constructive Forms of Theology 16
Schleiermacher and Sexism, Colonialism, and Racism 17
Initial Motivations 26
Chapter Overview 33
Chapter 1
TRINITY 39
Schleiermacher and the Doctrine of the Trinity 42
Problematic Features of Trinitarian Doctrine 47
Subordination, Oscillation, and Speculation 47
Sexism and Idolatry, Death-Centrism, and Kyriarchy 50
Essential Trinitarianism 53
Schleiermacher’s Beginnings 53
Constructive Interpretation and Development 57
Chapter 2
CHRIST AND REDEMPTION 79
Contemporary Challenges to Christology 82
Schleiermacher’s Christology 90
Avoiding the Chalcedonian Formula 90
The Person of Christ: Divine Indwelling and the Completion
of Creation 92
The Work of Christ 96
Womanist Atonement Theories and Schleiermacher’s Soteriology 101
Womanist Critiques of Substitutionary Atonement 102
Engaging Schleiermacher’s Soteriology: Comparison and Evaluation 108
viii Contents
Further Benefits of Schleiermacher’s Soteriology 130
Sin 131
Body and Affect 136
Natality and Joy 138
Chapter 3
CHURCH AND SPIRIT 143
Joy and Laughter as Ecclesial Practices 144
Schleiermacher’s Ecclesial Imagination 146
Schleiermacher’s Christological Pneumatology 151
Feminist Laughter 152
Expanding the Imaginary: A Queer Community of Woman 156
Lilith 161
Eve 165
Hagar 168
Mary 172
Schleiermacher and a Queer Community of Woman 175
Chapter 4
GOD AND CREATION 179
Absolute Causality and Divine Sovereignty 180
Divine Aseity, Human Self-Initiated Activity, and Divine
Omnipotence 182
Radical Monotheism and Sin and Evil 187
Divine Sovereignty and Prayerful Submission 194
Feminist Ecumenism and Purgative Submission 195
Incarnational Submission 202
CONCLUSION 211
Bibliography 217
Index 229
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A number of colleagues have devoted their time and expertise to reading drafts
of some of the material that follows and/or talking with me about material for
other projects that has come to shape what I have offered here. I would like to
thank Paul DeHart, Andrew Dole, Christine Helmer, Cathie Kelsey, Paul Nimmo,
Kevin Vander Schel, Mary Streufert, and Ed Waggoner for their invaluable
suggestions, conversations, and questions. My gratitude also goes to my colleagues
at Millsaps College’s Works in Progress faculty cohort, especially Tamar Shirinian,
Steven Smith, Elise Smith, Elizabeth Egan, and Charles S. Preston, who read and
commented on early drafts of some of the book’s chapters. I also want to thank
Susannah Cornwall and Marion Grau, whose skillful editorial feedback on the
manuscript helped bring the work to its final form. Anna Turton has been a
pleasure to work with as an acquisitions editor, and I am honored that she has
been as enthusiastic about my second monograph with T&T Clark as she was with
the first.
It is with a heavy and full heart that I express my gratitude to the late Terrence
Tice for his comments on the manuscript as well. He was in the process of reading
and commenting on its chapters when he unexpectedly passed away. I am honored
and grateful to have been engaged in conversation with Terry. He has influenced
so many scholars’ lives and work, and I am grateful to be counted among them. His
legacy will live on in the Schleiermacher Digital Archive at Iliff School of Theology
and in the generations of Schleiermacher scholars to come. I hope to become just
half as generous and kindhearted as he was, both as a scholar and as a person.
Some of the following material was first published or presented in other
venues:  Chapter  3 includes material first published in “Lilith, Christianity,”
Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, vol. 16, edited by Christine Helmer
(Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 665–6). A brief version of a portion of Chapter 3 was
presented to the Women, Gender, and Religion Group at the Southeastern
Commission for the Study of Religion, a regional branch of the American Academy
of Religion, under the title, “Expanding the Imaginary: A Queer Community for
Feminist Ecumenism,” in Raleigh, NC, on March 6, 2017. Thank you to those in
attendance for your encouragement and questions. Chapter 4 includes revised
versions of material first published in “Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Theology as
a Resource for Ecological Economics,” Theology Today 73/1 (2016): 9–23 and
in “Locating Prayerful Submission for Feminist Ecumenism: Holy Saturday or
Incarnate Life?” Feminist Theology 26/2 (2018): 171–84.
Between writing early chapter drafts and bringing the manuscript to its final
stage, I gave birth to a beautiful baby, Sofia Marie. Her presence has brought more
depth and urgency to this book project than I could have imagined it would.