As maurice mandelbaum has noted, the conventional view that hostility prevailed between religion and science in the nineteenth century is often overstated. Although many intellectuals criticized traditional interpretations of Christian doctrines, the vast majority defended the legitimacy of religion in general and celebrated its emotional and aesthetic value. Quite often, attacks on Christian orthodoxy were carried out in the name not of science but of religion itself. Orthodox dogmas were not attacked for “the sake of undercutting religious faith” but rather as “a means of freeing that faith for … nobler and more adequate forms in which it could find expression.” In their efforts to “free up” religion, many intellectuals repeatedly raised an important question: what is the relationship of traditional Christian orthodoxy to this modern, nondoctrinal understanding of religion? Few theologians were willing to put Christianity on a plane with other world religions (as Ernst Troeltsch did later in the century); but defining Christian belief to guarantee its cultural supremacy, while simultaneously disavowing its orthodox formulation, required unprecedented theological maneuvering.

Because of the dominance of his legacy, Friedrich Schleiermacher is normally associated with the liberal reformulation of Christian belief in the early nineteenth century.