Emil Brunner - A Reappraisal

In Emil Brunner: A Reappraisal, renowned theologian Alister E. McGrath presents a comprehensive intellectual history of Emil Brunner, the highly influential Swiss theologian who was instrumental in shaping modern Protestant theology.
* Explores Brunner's theological development and offers a critical engagement of his theology
* Examines the role that Brunner played in shaping the characteristics of dialectical theology
* Reveals the complex and shifting personal and professional relationship between Brunner and Barth
* Delves into the reasons for Brunner's contemporary neglect in theological scholarship
* Represents the only book-length study of Brunner's works and significance in the English language

List of contents

Preface ix
 
A Note on Translations and Editions xiii
 
1 Emil Brunner: The Origins of a Theological Mind, 1914-1924 1
 
Theological Studies at Zurich 2
 
Pastoral Ministry and Contacts in England 4
 
The Swiss Crisis of Identity, 1914-1919 6
 
Brunner and Dialectical Theology: The Origins of an Ambivalent Relationship 9
 
Brunner in America, 1919-1920 12
 
Brunner, Barth, and Thurneysen: Continuing Debate 13
 
The Quest for Recognition: Erlebnis, Erkenntnis und Glaube (1921-2) 16
 
Brunner and American Psychology of Religion 18
 
The Limits of Humanity: Reflections on Revelation and Reason (1922) 22
 
The Critique of Schleiermacher: Die Mystik und das Wort (1924) 25
 
Part I The Making of a Dialectical Theologian 29
 
2 Brunner's Theology of Crisis: Critique and Construction, 1924-1929 31
 
The 1925 Inaugural Lecture at Zurich: Revelation and Theology 32
 
Reason and Theology: An Ecclesial Engagement (1927) 34
 
The Mediator: A Manifesto for Dialectical Theology (1927) 39
 
The Trinity: Dogma, not Kerygma 50
 
The American Reception of the "Theology of Crisis" (1928) 54
 
3 Reflections on the Tasks of Theology, 1929-1933 61
 
Crisis: The Rise of Ideology in Western Europe, 1920-1935 62
 
Brunner's Challenge to Ideology: The "Other Task of Theology" (1929) 66
 
Presenting Dialectical Theology in Britain: The Word and the World (1931) 74
 
A Theological Ethics: The Divine Imperative (1932) 78
 
A Problematic Liaison: Brunner and the Oxford Group 85
 
The Work of the Holy Spirit: The Copenhagen Lectures (1934) 87
 
4 Natural Theology? The Barth-Brunner Debate of 1934 90
 
Natural Theology: A Contested Notion 94
 
Karl Barth's Views on Natural Theology, 1918-1933 101
 
A Game-Changer: The Nazi Power Grab of 1933 105
 
Brunner's Public Criticism of Barth: Nature and Grace (1934) 113
 
Brunner's Later Views on Natural Theology: Revelation and Reason (1941) 121
 
Barth's Response: No! (1934) 127
 
5 Brunner's Theological Anthropology: Man in Revolt (1937) 133
 
The Need for a Theological Anthropology 134
 
The Impossibility of an "Objective" Anthropology 136
 
The Dependence of Humanity on God 140
 
The "Contradiction" within Humanity 142
 
The Image of God and Human Identity 145
 
Humanity and Evolution: The Limits of Darwinism 148
 
6 Objectivity and Subjectivity in Theology: Truth as Encounter (1937) 154
 
Object and Subject in Theology: The Context to Brunner's Thought 155
 
Objectivity and Subjectivity: Brunner's Criticism of Existing Paradigms 161
 
Overcoming the Object-Subject Impasse: Brunner's Strategy 166
 
The Implications of Brunner's Notion of "Truth as Encounter" 169
 
America: The Call to Princeton Theological Seminary, 1937-1939 172
 
Part II Consolidation: Brunner's Vision for Post-War Theological Reconstruction 179
 
7 Brunner's Vision for the Christian Community: The Church, State, and Culture 181
 
The Ideological Origins of Totalitarianism 182
 
An Antidote to Totalitarianism: The Renewal of Natural Law 185
 
The Need for Theological Reconstruction: Revelation and Reason (1941) 190
 
The Christian State: A Modest Theological Proposal 195
 
Rediscovering the Church as Community: Brunner's Ecclesiology 199
 
8 Teacher and Preacher: Brunner as a Public Intellectual 205
 
Rector of the University of Zurich, 1942-1943 206
 
The Catechist: Our Faith (1935) 207
 
The Fraumünster Sermons: Brunner as Prea

About the author

Alister E. McGrath is Professor of Theology, Ministry and Education at King's College London, UK, and head of its Centre for Theology, Religion, and Culture. One of the world's leading theologians, McGrath is the author of some of the most widely used textbooks on theology, including Christian Theology: An Introduction (2010) and Historical Theology (2012).

Summary

Emil Brunner: A Reappraisal presents a comprehensive intellectual history and appraisal of Emil Brunner, the highly influential Swiss theologian who was instrumental in shaping modern Protestant theology. Renowned theologian Alister E.

Report

"McGrath's consummate skills as both a theologian and an historian are masterfully at work in this penetrating and highly illuminating study arguing for the importance and continuing vital relevance to current theological and cultural debates of one of the 20th century's largely forgotten major theological voices. Exhibiting the same sagacious understanding, balanced discernment and astute critical insight that we have come to admire and value so highly in McGrath, this intensively researched and captivating book brings together for the first time an enormous wealth of original source material yielding important new insights and contexts for a compelling reassessment and reappropriation of Brunner's legacy. The book as such will serve not only as an inspired catalyst for renewed attention to Brunner but also as an indispensable resource base for further research, whether on Brunner himself or on the doctrinal and cultural issues that animated him and to which he continues to contribute so richly and relevantly."
Paul Janz, King's College London
 
"Professor McGrath offers us a brilliant reassessment of a theologian who has for long languished in the shadow of Karl Barth. It needs no less than an author with the wide-ranging skills of a theologian, intellectual historian and expert in the interface between science and religion to bring to light the neglected contribution of Emil Brunner to the theology of the twentieth century. Brunner's comprehensive vision for doctrine, theology of nature, missiology, ethics, practical theology and apologetics is exposed by an author who has himself produced formative work in all these areas. Neither simply a biography nor a mere introduction to Brunner's theology, this deeply-researched and engaging study traces the emergence of Brunner's thought in its cultural context, recognizes its flaws and yet recovers a challenge for the involvement of theology in the culture of our present time."
Paul S. Fiddes, University of Oxford
 
"McGrath's meticulously researched and lucid exposition and assessment of Emil Brunner's legacy is a landmark publishing event not only for the better understanding of modern Reformed theology but also of twentieth-century theology at large."
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Fuller Theological Seminary and University of Helsinki

Product details

• Authors: Ae Mcgrath, Alister E McGrath, Alister E. McGrath, Alister E. (Oxford University Mcgrath
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 05.08.2016
• EAN: 9781119283416
• ISBN: 978-1-119-28341-6
• No. of pages: 264
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Christianity; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous; Brunner, Emil, Systematische Theologie, Religion & Theology, Religion u. Theologie, Systematic Theology