By Apurva Dubey

Friedrich Schleiermacher, a German theologian, philosopher (1768-1834)

In the 18th century, there lived a family in Breslau(then Prussia). The family members were pious and the head of the family was a reformed Chaplain in the Prussian army. He was known as Gottlieb Schleiermacher. He was blessed with a son in 1768. He was named Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher. Both Daniel and his family members marvelled at his beauty and were sure that their child would bring prosperity and good luck to his family. He was being doted upon by his parents and provided with much care, love and affection. His grandfather, Daniel Schleiermacher, had a long-time association with the Zionists and wanted to inculcate the same ideas and values in his grandson. 

Wanting their child to attain quality education and being strong believers of pietic values, baby Friedrich was sent to a reputed school. But after a while, he started feeling claustrophobic. The young lad had a plethora of doubts in his mind. Neither could he easily digest everything that was taught, nor did he fathom that orthodox Christianity contained the answers to those questions that popped up in his mind every now and then. He wanted to explore the unexplored, widen his sphere of knowledge and come out of the shell that the society was confined to. He believed that Rationalism was the answer and didn't want to unwillingly pursue a school of thought, which he didn't believe in. Rationalism was the product of the era of Enlightenment and had given the scholars a chance to observe the world from a different perspective. Therefore, he mustered up the courage to convey this to his father, Daniel. Not seeing this coming, Daniel opened up the letter his son had sent him after so long. He, however, became disheartened after learning about his lack of interest in the stereotyped concepts of theology. It took him a time to allow his son to enter the University of Halle, a varsity that had long forgone its inhibitions and accepted the rationalistic ideas.  

After Friedrich entered the university for pursuing higher studies, there was no turning back. He embarked upon a new journey and explored new areas in theology and philosophy. He was deeply influenced by the Kantian philosophy and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel's ideas, of human emotions and imagination being the centre of artistic creations, literature, etc. His parents did not understand much of his perception but wanted him to excel in his life and were extremely jubilant when he became a pastor in 1802 in Stolp. He took it as his responsibility to translate Plato and soon became a Professor of theology at the University of Halle in 1806 and came across the likes of writings of Plato and Aristotle and later developed a liking for the writings of Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, both of whom were influential figures in modern philosophy. During this time, he carved a niche for himself by publishing several books based on his theological research findings. 

He gained worldwide recognition by virtue of his most renowned and well-acclaimed work, the classification of Hermeneutics or the theory of interpretation, which he had loosely derived from Plato's theory. By virtue of this theory, he created a bridge between the old biblical texts and the then prevalent religious scenario, which made it easier for the readers to understand the old religious texts. According to this theory, the interpreter must understand both- the spectrum of the language the work has been produced in,  and the thoughts and aims of the author/creator of the work. He termed them as grammatical interpretation and psychological (technical) interpretation. This is a widely known concept taught to all the students of translation studies around the world. Even now, there are researches carried out in the field of Hermeneutics. He classified translation to be of two types - Verfremdende (alienating) and Einbuergende(Nationalised). The first approach has the aim of pulling the readers to understand the perspective of the author of the original text, whereas the second approach is aimed at making the translated version of the text suitable to the tastes of the readers. For the first approach, the targeted audience must be acquainted with the culture and norms of the country/nation to which the source text belongs. In the case of grammatical interpretation, one must lay emphasis on the details of the author and his background details like social-economic situation, thoughts and perceptions on a particular subject, his emotions, his reservations or bias against certain norms or traditions, etc. Friedrich believed that 'intuition' was the key to the successful implementation of interpretation. Therefore, it becomes necessary to share a sense of understanding with the author. He started giving lectures on Hermeneutics but did not publish books on them. 

He did not just lecture intensively about hermeneutics, but his flow of creative knowledge in the field of theology never stopped too. He also explored other disciplines such as philosophy, ethics, religion, whereby he derived new theories and put into question Kant's thesis, stating that it has flaws and deficiencies. It gave a new insight to the readers about morality, which was pretty much based on Plato's ideas. He explored the concept of religion in depth and came to the conclusion that in the cosmic universe, i.e. where an individual is dependent on the universe in whole and vice-versa, religion represents a deep need of the mankind. It is not metaphysical in nature, but actually, like a feeling and an intuition. He argued that to be religious would mean to lose oneself in the infinite. One can say that one of the significant discoveries in the research that he carried out in all the disciplines would be 'intuition' because that was considered the causal body of all phenomenon. 

All these theories were alien to his parents and the society and could not be understood and digested during those times. However, his parents trusted him completely and instilled confidence in him, so that he could serve the society and give them some keys to pursue academic research. In fact,till date, his theory of Hermeneutics is considered one of the important discoveries in the field of language, translation and interpretation studies. It is taught intensively to the foreign language students and also to translators and interpreters to brush up their skills. His braveness and strengths to go out of his comfort zone made him peculiar and stand out from the crowd of the otherwise obedient and stereotypical lot of academicians who failed to quench their inner curiosity. He died in 1834 at the age of 65 due to pneumonia but was never forgotten by his fellow successors, who made it their life's mission, to carry forward his theories and research. 

There is a famous poem by William Shakespeare- 'Nor Marble, nor the gilded monuments'. The central theme is that everything that is materialistic is mortal, real glory lies in the thoughts of a person, which is immortal and can survive thousands of doomsdays. Likewise, the ideas of Friedrich Schleiermacher can never fade into oblivion and will remain intact till the doomsday arrives. He was and will remain an inspiration for the generations to come. 
 
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