Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), Addresses on Religion
(1799)
"Religion is the outcome neither
of the fear of death, nor of the fear of God. It answers a deep need in man. It
is neither a metaphysic, nor a morality, but above all and essentially an
intuition and a feeling. ... Dogmas are not, properly speaking, part of
religion: rather it is that they are derived from it. Religion is the miracle of
direct relationship with the infinite; and dogmas are the reflection of this
miracle. Similarly belief in God, and in personal immortality, are not
necessarily a part of religion; one can conceive of a religion without God, and
it would be pure contemplation of the universe; the desire for personal
immortality seems rather to show a lack of religion, since religion assumes a
desire to lose oneself in the infinite, rather than to preserve one's own finite
self."