Theology of experience

With theology of experience , in the broader sense, any evangelical theology that is understood as being practicable only " from within ", because where "[...] the experience of salvation is missing, the theologian profession comes to an end " ( J.Chr.K. Hofmann ) .

In a narrower sense, the theology of experience then describes a theology that "[...] wants to base certainty and Christian truth entirely and exclusively on religious experience " ( P. Althaus ). For the theologian, this then meant that "[...] I am the Christian to myself, the theologian, the very material of my science " (Hofmann). Experience thus means the " heartfelt consent " to the topic dealt with, so that theology is always understood in the church as the "[...] restoration of the original communion between [...] God and man through Christ [...]" ( Harless ) .

This above all dogmatic approach can be clearly found in Friedrich Schleiermacher , then in Erlangen theology and here in particular in Franz Hermann Reinhold Frank . Conversely, the theology of experience is primarily criticized for its empirically incomprehensible subjectivity and its causal relationship. Because " Faith in Christ is the relationship of the state to Christ as cause " (Schleiermacher). But so he misses "the whole reality of God's saving action [...], because this does not keep within the boundaries of causality", since God also acts with man in the word - " This is how [...]" is then according to the critics " [...] the justification of [theology of experience] shadows " (Althaus).