The Appeal to Experience in the Christologies of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Karl Rahner

Book excerpt: Despite its controversy, experience remains a perdurable category for contemporary theology. This book explores the appeal to experience in the Christologies of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Karl Rahner, two theologians often accused of reducing theology to anthropology by allowing apologetic concerns to dictate their method in their appeal to experience. This work demonstrates that both theologians develop their hermeneutics under the tutelage of theology even while using «experience» as a category by which to provide leverage in apprehending Jesus. Both the perils and possibilities of their Christologies are explored in preparation for an account of experience construed sacramentally.