CO-SPONSORSHIP: Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture Unit and Schleiermacher Unit

“Is there such a thing as a Christian Nation?” Cultural Christianity and Historical Progress

The idea of “cultural Christianity” as a social good has seen a resurgence among contemporary nationalists who see the active promotion of Christian culture or society as an important aspect of social progress. This notion of a culturally normative Christianity, together with the idea of Christian society in advancing historical progress, also plays a prominent role in the works of both Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Schleiermacher. Kierkegaard’s penetrating criticism of cultural Christianity aims to reintroduce Christianity into Christendom and nominally Christian society. And while Schleiermacher is often described as founding the cultural Protestantism (Kulturprotestantismus) that dominated late nineteenth-century theology, his own writings recognize the inescapable tensions and dangers in the concept of the modern Christian nation-state.

This session calls for proposals, for individual papers or panels, that engage these complex themes in the writings of Kierkegaard and/or Schleiermacher. Topics for proposals might include (but are not limited to) the following:

• The notion of historical progress in the writings of Kierkegaard and Schleiermacher
• The theme of ‘Christian society’ in the work of Kierkegaard and Schleiermacher
• The role of subjectivity in the life of faith
• Kierkegaard’s critique of ‘Christendom’
• Schleiermacher on the ‘Christian state’
• The influence of Luther on Kierkegaard and Schleiermacher in their responses to questions of church, society, and state
• Kierkegaard and Schleiermacher on Hegel’s treatment of religion and the Christian state
• Cultural Protestantism and the comparative study of religion
• Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard as resources for critiquing contemporary expressions of cultural Christianity and Christian nationalism