Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2007, Side 55

2. Practical Theology as the Crown of University Study
The foundation of the University of Berlin in 1809 was a notable turning
point in the development of the modern university.10 Berlin became a model
for other German universities, and increasingly for higher education outside
Germany on both sides of the Atlantic as well. In this tradition the univer-
sity is properly concerned only with Wissenschaft, a scientific commitment to
relate everything to universal rational principles. Theology had to justify its
place in such a university. And the scholar who did this most effectively was
the eminent theologian, Schleiermacher.
Theology, Schleiermacher taught, is both scientific and has a practical task
which should be pursued within the university - the preparation of leader-
ship for the Church. In justifying the place of theology within the university,
Schleiermacher suggested that there were three levels in theological study.
The foundation was philosophical theology, which established and examined
the first principles of Christian theology, on the unquestioned assumption
that Protestant Christianity was the crown and epitome of all religion. Then
comes historical theology, which examines the development of the Christian
tradition. Finally, as the ‘crown of theological study’ comes practical theology,
which is the ‘technique’ of church leadership. Ministers and church leaders
should combine a ‘scientific spirit’ and what is called ‘ecclesial interest’, or a
commitment to serve the Church. Those who are most successful in combin-
ing ecclesial interest and the scientific spirit are aptly to be called ‘princes of
the Church’! The scientific and the practical endeavours interpenetrate, for
[e]ven the especially scientific work of the theologian must aim at promoting
the Church’s welfare and is thereby clerical; and even those technical prescrip-
tions for essentially clerical activities belong within the circle of the theologi-
cal sciences.’* 11 Theology, for Schleiermacher, is a function of church leaders,
not of the whole people of God. Accordingly, it is equipment for clergy, just as
medicine or jurisprudence are the studies necessary for physicians or lawyers.
Schleiermacher tends to take as a given the existing structures of Church
10 On this see Hans Frei, Types of Christian Theology. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992, pp. 95-116.
11 F. Schleiermacher, Brief Outline ofTheology as a Field of Study. Trans T.T.Tice. Lewiston, NJ: E.Mellen Press,
1990, p. 8.
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