Abstract:
The German systematic theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher has shaped Western Christian
theological thinking in many ways. One such influential way has been his formulation and
exposition of religious experience, and specifically the concept of the ‘feeling of absolute
dependence’ (Gefühl der schlechthinnigen Abhängigkeit). From a brief account of his understanding
of the ‘feeling of absolute independence’, a few critical remarks are made from the broader
context of contemporary hermeneutical discourses, focusing on the constitutive role of
affectivity and narrative identity in religious experiences of embodied personhood. It is argued
that these two themes in revisiting Schleiermacher’s understanding of the ‘feeling of absolute
dependence’ can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of religious experience.
