essence, was the approach of Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), the acknowledged father of modern liberal theology. Schleiermacher’s theology can be seen as an attempt to circumvent the problems created by Kant’s philosophy for Christian faith. According to Schleiermacher, the essence of religion is not to be sought in dogma or in a commitment to certain propositional truths, but in inward experience, in man’s deepest feelings or intuitions of the divine. This feeling, described by Schleiermacher