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                                                            Schleiermacher on the Difference between Protestantism and Catholicism

According to Schleiermacher, the difference – -- indeed, the opposition – -- between Protestantism and Catholicism is the difference between an understanding of Christianity according to which the relation of the individual to the church is made to depend on her or his relation to Christ and an understanding of Christianity according to which, conversely, the relation of the individual to Christ is made to depend on her or his relation to the church (Der christliche Glaube: § 24).

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Of course, if this interpretation of Schleiermacher's main point is correct, his formulation of it can be notably improved. It can be improved, first of all, by rejecting the contrast between "relation to Christ" and "relation to the church" as too simple, because any relation to Christ is eo ipso a relation to the church – -- namely, the apostolic church through whose witness alone Jesus is to be encountered as the Christ; and then, secondly, by replacing talk about "the individual" and "the church" with talk about the present generation, on the one hand, and any and all earlier generations subsequent to the first, apostolic generation, on the other.

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