Friedrich schleiermacher and the postsecular: "Pacemaker for the Consciousness of a Postsecular Society"?

The secular and the postsecular refer to sociopolitical challenges arising simultaneously due to the functional differentiation of modern societies and the co-presence of different religious groups in a single body politic. Friedrich Schleiermacher conducted groundbreaking empirical research on quite similar challenges in his own day, documented in his lectures on church geography and statistics. Furthermore, in both his early Letters on the Occasion and his mature lectures on a theory of the state, he outlined his views on peoplehood, religion, and the state in relation to social solidarity as well the consequences of this understanding for managing pluralism. If Schleiermacher’s empirical work is markedly innovative, his theory of the state leaves largely unclear how governance might adapt to shifting demographics and religious diversification.