Liberalism: an Introductory Survey

Protestant theological Liberalism arose in the early nineteenth century as a “salvage movement” attempting to save something of Christianity from the ravages of the Enlightenment. In light of the Enlightenment denial that cognitive knowledge of God was possible German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher posited the heart of religion as a “feeling of absolute dependence,” thus moving the center of Christianity from history to internal feeling. As a result of this shift virtually all of the historic doctrines of the Christian were either denied outright of attenuated. The trinity was denied, as was the deity of Christ and his sacrificial death and resurrection. His stature was reduced to that of a perfectly god-conscious man who became the example for the rest of humanity. Man was sinful but perfectible by moral effort.This essay surveys the Enlightenment and its effects as well as the development of theological Liberalism in Germany and later in America and its expression in the “Social Gospel.”