For Herrmann, this means that the accessible community, the church,
applies the historical image of the Redeemer which mediates between
the historical and the truly religious perspective. For the purposes of
our study, the quote shows that the‘free recognition’has the medi-
ating capacity of connecting the historical with the moral dimension.
This recognition transforms the historical fact about Jesus into a
religious and moral reality.
The moral dimension gives the perspective that enables the Chris-
tians‘to recognize his [Christ’s] will as the highest value and therefore
as the content of the will of God’.^203 Herrmann wants to place religion
in the realm of morality in a somewhat neo-Kantian manner. In
addition to morals, however, a genuinely religious emotional power
is needed:‘When we recognize our own ideal in this activity [of
Christ] and become conscious of the moral necessity of this recogni-
tion, we nevertheless lack the power to equip our will with the full
power of our self-regarding emotion (Selbstgefühl).’^204 Like Schleier-
macher, Herrmann wants to outline a picture of religious self-
consciousness that is not merely based on morality but is also
grounded in emotions and love.‘The moral law obliges us to recog-
nize that the God of Jesus Christ is omnipotent. But this is not yet a
proof of divine love that would give us life.’^205
In spite of their theological differences, Spalding, Schleiermacher,
and Herrmann employ the concept of religious recognition in a
manner that is functionally similar. They do not regardAnerkennung
as rational consent but as a primary appropriation and a condition of
potentiality that moves the subject to a genuinely religious sphere of
life. While this sphere is closely related to morality and emotions, it is
nevertheless a category that cannot be reduced to either of these.
Conversion and subjective appropriation are aspects of this event of
religious recognition. The sphere of religion is beyond the‘knowledge
of the world’and therefore not vulnerable to the Kantian critique of
reason. These modern theologians thus have an apologetic aim. At
the same time, they continue the old tradition ofRecognitions, ascrib-
ing religion to an elevated realm that is not accessible to philosophers.
In Herrmann’sinfluential later studyDer Verkehr des Christen
mit Gott(seven editions between 1886 and 1921,‘The communica-
tion of the Christian with God’), the distinctive realm of religion is
(^203) Religion, 391. (^204) Religion, 394. (^205) Religion, 395.
156 Recognition and Religion