Published by BRILL in 2019
Author: Ruth Jackson Ravenscroft, Research Associate, The Bible and Antiquity in Nineteenth-Century Culture (2012 – 2017), Convenor of the Theologies of Reading Research Network (2017 – 2018).
In The Veiled God, Ruth Jackson Ravenscroft offers a detailed portrait of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s early life, ethics, and theology in its historical and social context. She also critically reflects on the enduring relevance of his work for the study of religion.
The book analyses major texts from Schleiermacher’s early work. It argues that his experiments with literary form convey his understanding that human knowledge is inherently social, and that religion is thoroughly linguistic and historical. The book contends that by making finitude (and not freedom) a universal aspect to human life, Schleiermacher offers rich conceptual resources for considering what it means to be human in this world, both in relations of difference to others, and in relation to the infinite.
Ruth Jackson Ravenscroft is a Research Fellow in Theology at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. She was previously a postdoctoral researcher on the ERC-funded project ‘Bible and Antiquity in Nineteenth-Century Culture’ at CRASSH. She received her PhD from Cambridge in 2016.
