The concept of the Practical Theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher in the context of his outline of theological studies. Translation of the theses pertaining to the Practical Theology According to the First Edition of Schleiermacher's Book: The Brief Outline on the Study of Theology
Abstract
Friedrich Schleiermacher, known for being the father of liberal theology, is also responsible for creating and unfolding Practical Theology and raising it to the status of a theological discipline with its own methods and tasks. In this article, the author describes and analyzes Schleiermacher's overall concept of Practical Theology, which received little attention (as did his theological works as a whole) within contemporary Czech Protestant theological discourse, with a few exceptions.
The main source of this article is Schleiermacher's theological encyclopedia, The Brief Outline on the Study of Theology. In this book, Schleiermacher tried to innovatively define the whole of theology (divided into "Philosopical Theology", "Historical Theology" and "Practical Theology") and he prescribes its tasks, methods and interdependencies.
Part 1 of the article is introductory and in Part 2, I will pay closer attention to the whole of Schleiermacher's concept of theology as depicted in the Brief Outline. It will be shown that this concept is characterised by its practical orientation, which means, that all theology is purposed for leading the church.
In Part 3 I will examine specifics to support this design in Schleiermacher's Practial theology. Part 4 closes off my paper with critical and conclusive remarks.
I conclude that Schleiermacher's concept of theology and moreover, of practial theology, is for us today, still substantial despite some of its shortcomings, for its attempt to mediate between the Gospel and the actual church praxis, in its multi-facetted, ecclesial, religious and cultural contexts, and to as well serve as a mediater within and between theological disciplines.