Bill's Comments

I have been watching a DVD course from The Teaching Company, called "Skeptics and Believers." This is a historical study of the various versions and criticisms of Christianity since the Enlightenment. I also am doing all the readings that go with the lectures. We are currently on the early 19th century, and specifically Friedrich Schleiermacher. He is considered the founding of the Romantic school of theology, and has influence still today. In Claude Welch's book, "Protestant Thought in the Nineteenth Century", Vol 1, on p. 63, is this quote from Schleiermacher:

"...to create an eternal covenant between the living Christian faith and an independent and freely working science, a covenant by the terms of which science is not hindered and faith not excluded."

With the exception that I have no pretensions of creating something eternal, this is the most concise statement of my aims with my religious studies and writings that I have seen.

What I am doing is even in keeping with his ideas. He believed that religious ideas had to be restated with succeeding generations to keep their meaning. So I am working to restate them to have meaning for our times.