TH 606 — MODERN THEOLOGY
COURSE SYLLABUS
Instructor: Peter D. Anders
GL108; ext. 4124; [email protected]
Fall 2010
M 2:00–5:00
Office Hours
Mondays 6–7:30pm, Tuesdays 2:00–5:00pm, and Fridays 9–10:30am
Course Description
From the end of the Reformation period, representative figures and movements are studied in order to better
understand current orientations to theology and to the theological task. Focus is on the development of
Protestant theology in the context of modern European thought and culture; including Protestant Orthodoxy,
Deism, Protestant Liberalism, and Neo-Orthodoxy.
Objectives
•
Reflect on what it means to think theologically in an evangelical Christian context.
•
Develop a solid foundational knowledge of the general flow of ideas, and the key issues, movements,
individuals and texts in modern Protestant Christian theological history.
•
Sharpen our perspective on the meaning, concerns, and significance of the modern period of western
intellectual history; and the place, shape, and challenges of Evangelical theology as it developed through
this time period, and as it seeks to define itself and its task in the current theological situation.
•
Gain insight concerning the key theological orientations in Protestantism through an analysis of these
theologians and theological movements; and reflect on ways the lessons learned may be applied to our
own critical evaluation of contemporary theologies, and to our own faithful fulfillment of the
contemporary theological task.
•
Cultivate a deeper appreciation of our own theological heritage and place in the community of faith that
transcends boundaries of time and location; and a clearer vision and intellectual context for a lifetime
of theological study expressed in continuing personal growth, and well-informed ministry.
Required Texts
John Locke. The Reasonableness of Christianity, and A Discourse of Miracles (Library of Modern Religious
Thought). Ed. by I. Ramsey. Stanford University Press, 1958.
Kant: Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, and Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History
of Philosophy). Trans. by Allen Wood and George Di Giovanni. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Schleiermacher: On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers (Cambridge Texts in the History of
Philosophy). Ed. by Richard Crouter. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Adolf von Harnack. What is Christianity? Book Tree Press, 2006.
Karl Barth. Dogmatics in Outline. Trans. by G. T. Thomson. Harper Torchbooks, 1959.
James C. Livingston. Modern Christian Thought: The Enlightenment and the Nineteenth Century, Fortress
Press, 2nd edition, 2006. (In addition, four chapters from the companion volume, Modern Christian
Thought: The Twentieth Century, will be posted on CAMS).
The follow ing shorter readings posted on CAM S are also required (listed in order of reading):
Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, rev. and ed. by Ernst Bizer, trans. by G. T. Thompson (Wakeman
Great Reprints, 1950), I: “Natural and Revealed Theology,” III: “The Foundation of Holy Scripture.”
Matthew Tindal, Christianity as Old as the Creation (extract), in William C. Placher (ed.), Readings in the
History of Christian Theology, Volume 2: From the Reformation to the Present (Westminster, 1988).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Creed of a Priest of Savoy (from Emile, 1762), trans. and with an introduction
by Arthur H. Beattie (Frederick Unger, 1957).
G. W. F. Hegel, “Without the World God Is Not God” (extract from Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion),
in Readings in Christian Theology, ed. by Peter C. Hodgson and Robert H. King (Fortress Press, 1985).
Gotthold Lessing, “On the Proof of the Spirit and of Power,” in Lessing’s Theological Writings. Library of
Modern Religious Thought. (Stanford University Press, 1956).
David F. Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (extract), in William C. Placher (ed.), Readings in
the History of Christian Theology, Volume 2: From the Reformation to the Present (Westminster, 1988).
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to
Wrede, trans. by W. Montgomery (MacMillan, 1961; first German edition, 1906), 398–403.
Albrecht Ritschl, The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation (extract), in Millard J. Erickson
(ed.), Readings in Christian Theology, Vol. 3: The New Life (Baker, 1979).
Ernst Troeltsch, “Christianity and the History of Religion,”in Religion in History, Essays trans. by James
Adams and Walter F. Bense (T&T Clark, 1991).
Søren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments (selection), ed. and trans. by Howard V. Hong and Edna H.
Hong (Princeton University Press, 1985).
Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity (extract), in William C. Placher, (ed.) Readings in the
History of Christian Theology, Volume 2: From the Reformation to the Present (Westminster, 1988).
Karl Marx, “Thesis on Feuerbach,” in On Religion. Classics in Religious Studies, 3 (Scholars Press, 1964).
Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans (2nd ed. 1922) (selection), in Karl Barth: Theologian of Freedom, ed.
by Clifford Green (Fortress Press, 1991).
Karl Barth, “Evangelical Theology in the 19th Century,” in The Humanity of God, trans. by Thomas Wieser
and John Thomas (Westminster, 1960).
Emil Brunner, “Nature and Grace” (selection), in A Map of Twentieth-Century Theology: Readings from Karl
Barth to Radical Pluralism, ed. by Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson (Fortress, 1995).
Karl Barth, “No! Answer to Emil Brunner” (selection), in Karl Barth: Theologian of Freedom, ed. by
Clifford Green (Fortress, 1991).
Rudolf Bultmann, “New Testament and Mythology (1941),” in New Testament and Mythology, and Other
Basic Writings, ed., and trans. by Schubert M. Ogden (SCM Press, 1984).
Karl Barth, “The Humanity of God,” in Karl Barth: Theologian of Freedom, ed. by Clifford Green (Fortress,
1991).
Helpful Optional Texts
101 Key Terms in Philosophy and Their Importance for Theology. Clark, Lints, Smith. Westminster, 2004.
Allen, Diogenes and Eric Springsted. Philosophy for Understanding Theology. 2nd ed. Westminster, 2007.
Jones, Gareth (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Modern Theology. Blackwell, 2007.
McGrath, Alister E. (ed.). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought. Blackwell, 1993.
Requirements
OPTION #1:
(Choose either OPTION #1 or OPTION #2 )
Final Exam
3,000-word max. You may use class notes and texts as you answer the questions, and you are encouraged
to engage additional research. Simply number your answers to correspond to the terms/concepts on the exam.
Answers to the take-home exam will be evaluated on: 1) thoroughness, conciseness, and clarity of thought;
2) demonstrated significant understanding of the key terms, concepts, and issues addressed in this class; and
3) the quality of writing and presentation.
PART 1 — Please choose EIGHT terms/concepts from the list below. Define each of the terms/concepts
you have chosen, and discuss their relevance in Modern Theology. Be sure to include in your answers, where
appropriate, discussions/explications of: key issues; related concepts; important representative theologians
and/or philosophers; theologies and/or movements; and clear examples that will further demonstrate their
meaning and importance. 10 points each.
1. Scholasticism
12. Vorstellung / Begriff
2. Formal principle of theology /
Material principle of theology
13. thesis, antithesis, synthesis
14. ‘kernel’ vs. ‘husk’
3. The Counter-Renaissance
15. The principle of subjectivity
4. ‘broad, ugly ditch’
16. Jesus vs. Socrates
5. Jesus of history vs. Christ of faith
17. Religion as alienation
6. ‘turn to the subject’
18. ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’
7. evidentialism
19. ‘Death of God’
8. religious a priori
20. History of Religion School
9. Romanticism
21. Dialectical Theology
10. Christology ‘from above’ vs.
Christology ‘from below’
22. ‘point of contact’
11. ‘feeling of absolute dependence’
23. ‘demythologization’
PART 2 — Please write a short response to the following: Reflecting on what you have learned about
Modern Theology from the reading, lectures, and discussions, briefly discuss a key issue, doctrine, or
theological/philosophical position or development that has surprised you, puzzled you, irritated you, changed
or confirmed your own thinking, or has found a meaningful application in your own Christian life and/or
ministry. 20 points
OPTION #2:
Research Paper
3,500-word max. Researching a topic of interest to the student that is also clearly relevant to the subject of
Modern Theology (please see the instructor if you would like suggestions for possible topics).
NOTE:
All Research Paper topics must be approved by the instructor no later than November 15.
The Research Paper should demonstrate thoughtful engagement with both primary and secondary sources.
These sources should be clearly identified in the footnotes or endnotes, and bibliography. Required course
reading may be used for the research paper as well. Research papers will be evaluated on 1) thoroughness,
conciseness, and clarity of thought; 2) demonstrated significant and thoughtful engagement with the chosen
topic, and with the primary and secondary sources; and 3) the quality of writing and presentation.
The Final Exam/Research Paper is due December 21 by 4:00pm (December 10 for December graduates).
OPTION #1
and OPTION #2 (Required of All Students):
Reaction Papers
Five short papers (500-word max each) reacting to the required course texts. Each paper must be a response
to the reading, rather than merely a summary or explication. Students should seek to analyze each text as a
whole, reflecting especially on key themes, arguments, issues, criticisms, or significant points that are of
particular personal interest; and on how these relate to the key themes discussed in the course. Students may
use the following examples of general critical questions for the purpose of identifying and reflecting on the
main theme(s) of the reading in light of the class lecture and discussion:
•
What stood out to me?
(Reflecting on interest)
•
What surprised me?
(Reflecting on distance)
•
What puzzled me?
(Reflecting on learning opportunities)
•
What connections did I make?
(Reflecting on integration)
•
What implications are there?
(Reflecting on application)
Each essay must respond to the required text that was due for the previous class session (these texts are
marked in bold on the Course Outline and Schedule).
Reaction papers are due:
week 3:
week 5:
week 7:
week 8:
week 10:
Locke
Kant
Schleiermacher
Harnack
Barth
Participation/Reading
You are expected to be faithful to your calling as a student through preparation, attendance, and involvement
in the course. Significant learning will take place in the context of the classroom community. Assigned
reading outside of class is meant to supplement the lectures and discussions, and will provide a necessary
aid for learning the material. Students with more than four absences will not pass the course. You will have
an opportunity to account for your attendance and completed required reading by filling out and submitting
the Completed Reading Form available on CAMS.
The Completed Reading Form is due December 21 by 4:00pm (December 10 for December graduates).
Additional Information Concerning Written Assignments
•
Written assignments should be typed in 12 point, Times New Roman-type font, double spaced, 1 inch
margins, and with a cover page that clearly states your campus mailbox number. Students should make
consistent use of a style manual of their choice.
•
The preferred means of submitting assignments is in hard copy at the beginning of class, in my campus
mailbox (#223), or slipped under/deposited in the box in front of my office door (GL108). Please submit
assignments as an email attachment only when absolutely necessary, and do not assume the instructor
has received an emailed assignment until a verification is sent in response.
Final written work submitted on December 21 (December 10 for December graduates), should include
a Final Exam or Research Paper, and a Completed Reading Form.
•
Late assignments will be subject to a grade reduction penalty at the discretion of the instructor. It is the
GCTS Registrar’s policy that no written work may be accepted by the professor after 4:00 pm on
December 21 without an extension granted by the Registrar’s office.
Grading
The relative weight of the course requirements will be distributed as follows:
•
OPTION #1 — Final Exam
OR OPTION #2 — Research Paper
50%
•
Five Reaction Papers
30%
•
Completed Reading Form
20%
Plagiarism
Helpful guidelines on plagiarism can be found on the Indiana University website listed below. This document
has the official recognition of the Gordon-Conwell faculty and provides very helpful tools to guide you as
you prepare your papers/exams. In order to save paper, we have provided you with the website address:
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html.
Personal Recorders and Computers
Recording of lectures is normally not permitted. Exceptions are made on an individual basis and is generally
granted to students for whom English is a second language. It is always agreed that tape recordings are for
personal use only, will not be distributed without prior permission from the instructor, and will be erased at
the end of the course.
Students are permitted to use laptop computers during class for note-taking and course related purposes only.
Students who cause a distraction to themselves, to the instructor, and/or to fellow students by abusing this
privilege will be asked to withdraw from the course.
NOTE:
The instructor reserves the right to revise the contents of this course syllabus as necessary.
Course Outline and Schedule
W EEK 1:
Course Introduction; Protestant Orthodoxy and the ‘Counter-Renaissance’
Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics (selection) CAMS
W EEK 2:
Descartes to Deism
Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity
Rousseau, The Creed of a Priest of Savoy CAMS
Tindal, Christianity as Old as the Creation (extract) CAMS
W EEK 3:
The Enlightenm ent and Kant
Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason
Reaction Paper #1 Due (Locke)
W EEK 4:
Idealism and Hegel
Hegel, “W ithout the W orld God Is Not God” CAMS
Note: Students should read Livingston,
Modern Christian Thought (course text and
CAMS), along with the course schedule.
READING W EEK
W EEK 5:
Rom anticism and Schleierm acher
Schleiermacher, On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers
Reaction Paper #2 Due (Kant)
W EEK 6:
Moralism and Ritschl/Harnack
Harnack, What is Christianity?
Ritschl, The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation (extract)
W EEK 7:
Historicism to Troeltsch
Lessing, “On the Proof of the Spirit and of Power” CAMS
Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (extract) CAMS
Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus (extract), CAMS
Troeltsch, “Christianity and the History of Religion” CAMS
Reaction Paper #3 Due (Schleiermacher)
READING W EEK
W EEK 8:
Critiques: Kähler and Kierkegaard; Feuerbach to Nietzsche
Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments (selection) CAMS
Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity (extract) CAMS
Marx, “Thesis on Feuerbach” CAMS
Reaction Paper #4 Due (Harnack)
W EEK 9:
Modern Theology and the First W orld W ar
Barth, The Epistle to the Romans (2 nd ed., selection) CAMS
Barth, “Evangelical Theology in the 19 th Century” CAMS
W EEK 10:
Neo-Orthodoxy: Developm ent and Division
Barth, Dogmatics in Outline
Brunner, “Nature and Grace” (selection) CAMS
Barth, “No! Answer to Emil Brunner” (selection) CAMS
Bultmann, “New Testament and Mythology” CAMS
Barth, “The Humanity of God” CAMS
Reaction Paper #5 Due (Barth)
Final Exam (OPTION #1) or Research Paper (OPTION #2), and the Completed Reading Form due
December 21 by 4:00pm (December 10 for December graduates).
Selected Bibliography on M odern Theology
For primary source material see the helpful Fortress Press series, The Making of Modern Theology: Nineteenth- and
Twentieth-Century Texts, volumes 1–5. For helpful secondary source material on specific modern theologians see the
series, Makers of the Modern Theological Mind, edited by Bob E. Patterson, Hendrickson Publishers.
Additional bibliographies of primary and secondary sources are in Justo L. González, A History of Christian Thought,
Volume III, 477–81,and Jaroslav Pelikan, Christian Doctrine and Modern Culture (since 1700), 337–348.
Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics. Translated by Geoffrey W . Bromiley and others. Four volumes. T. & T. Clark, 1956–75.
(Suggested: Volume I, The Doctrine of the Word of God)
_____. Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century: Its Background and History. New edition. Translated by Brian
Cozens and John Bowden. Eerdmans, 2002.
Becker, Carl L. The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1932.
The Beginnings of Dialectic Theology, Volume I. Edited by James M. Robinson. Part I translated by Keith R. Crim. Part
II translated by Louis De Grazia and Keith R. Crim. John Knox Press, 1968.
Berkhof, Hendrikus. Two Hundred Years of Theology: Report of a Personal Journey. Translated by John Vriend.
Eerdmans, 1989.
Bouwsma, W illiam J. The Waning of the Renaissance, 1550–1640. Yale University Press, 2000.
Brown, Colin. Jesus in European Protestant Thought, 1778–1860. Baker, 1985.
_____. Philosophy and the Christian Faith: A Historical Sketch from the Middle Ages to the Present Day. InterVarsity
Press, 1968.
Brown, James. Subject and Object in Modern Theology. London: SCM Press, 1955.
Buckley, Michael J. At the Origins of Modern Atheism. Yale University Press, 1987.
Bultmann, Rudolf. Theology of the New Testament. Second edition. Translated by Kendrick Grobel, introduction by
Robert Morgan. Baylor, 2007.
Busch, Eberhard. Karl Barth: His Life From Letters and Autobiographical Texts. Translated by John Bowden. Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.
Byrne, James M. Religion and the Enlightenment: From Descartes to Kant. W estminster John Knox Press, 1996.
Cragg, Gerald R. The Church and the Age of Reason, 1648–1789. Penguin History of the Church 4. Penguin Books,
1970.
Dorrien, Gary. The Barthian Revolt in Modern Theology: Theology without Weapons. W estminster John Knox Press,
2000.
_____. The Word as True Myth: Interpreting Modern Theology. W estminster John Knox Press, 1997.
Dupré, Louis. Passage to Modernity: An Essay in the Hermeneutics of Nature and Culture. Yale University Press, 1993.
. Religion and the Rise of Modern Culture. University of Notre Dame Press, 2008.
Frei, Hans W. The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics. Yale
University Press, 1974.
_____. Types of Christian Theology. Edited by George Hunsinger and W illiam C. Placher. Yale University Press, 1992.
Gillespie, Michael Allen. The Theological Origins of Modernity. University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Gerrish, B. A. The Old Protestantism and the New: Essays on the Reformation Heritage. University of Chicago, 1982.
González, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought, Volume III: From the Protestant Reformation to the Twentieth
Century. Rev. ed. Abingdon Press, 1987.
. The Story of Christianity: Volume 2: The Reformation to the Present Day. HarperSanFrancisco,
1985.
Grenz, Stanley J. and Roger E. Olson. 20 th-Century Theology: God & the World in a Transitional Age. InterVarsity
Press, 1992.
Gunton, Colin E. The One, The Three and the Many: God, Creation and the Culture of Modernity, The Bampton
Lectures 1992. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Harrisville, Roy A. and W alter Sundberg. The Bible in Modern Culture: Baruch Spinoza to Brevard Childs. Second
edition. Eerdmans, 2002.
Hegel, G. W . F. Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, 1827. Edited by Peter Hodgson, translated by Brown, Hodgson,
and Stewart. University of California Press, 1985. (Suggested: “Part III: The Consummate Religion”)
Heppe, Heinrich. Reformed Dogmatics: Set Out and Illustrated from the Sources, Foreword by Karl Barth. Revised and
edited by Ernst Bizer, translated by G. T. Thomson. Baker, 1978.
Heron, Alisdair. A Century of Protestant Theology. W estminster Press, 1980.
Hodge, Charles. Systematic Theology, 3 volumes. N.p.: Charles Scribner, 1871; reprint, Eerdmans, 1952.
Howard, Thomas Albert. Religion and the Rise of Historicism. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Jüngel, Eberhard. God as the M ystery of the World: On the Foundation of the Theology of the Crucified One in the
Dispute between Theism and Atheism. Translated by Darrell L. Guder. Eerdmans, 1983.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity, Volume II: Reformation to the Present. Rev. ed. Harper Collins,
1953, 1975.
Machen, J. Gresham. Christianity and Liberalism. Eerdmans, 1923, reprint 1992.
Mackintosh, Hugh R. Types of Modern Theology: Schleiermacher to Barth. Nisbet and Co., 1947.
Macquarrie, John. Twentieth-Century Religious Thought. Philadelphia: Trinity Press, 1963.
Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism and American Culture, The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism:
1870–1925. Oxford University Press, 1980.
McGrath, Alister E. The Making of Modern German Christology, 1750–1990. Zondervan, 1994.
Michalson, Gordon E., Jr. Lessing’s “Ugly Ditch”: A Study of Theology and History. The Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1985.
Newbigin, Leslie. Truth and Authority in Modernity. Trinity Press International, 1996.
Nineteenth Century Religious Thought in the West. Edited by Ninian Smart, John Clayton, Steven Katz and Patrick
Sherry. Three volumes. Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Oden, Thomas C. After Modernity... What? Agenda for Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990.
Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the non-rational factor in the idea of the divine and its relation to
the rational. Translated by John W . Harvey. Oxford University Press, 1950.
Pinnock, Clark H. Tracking the Maze: Finding Our Way Through Modern Theology from an Evangelical Perspective.
Harper & Row, 1990.
Placher, W illiam C. The Domestication of Transcendence: How Modern Thinking about God Went Wrong. W estminster
John Knox Press, 1996.
. Unapologetic Theology: A Christian Voice in a Pluralistic Conversation. W estminster/ John Knox, 1989.
Ramm, Bernard. After Fundamentalism: The Future of Evangelical Theology. Harper & Row, 1983.
. The Evangelical Heritage: A Study in Historical Theology. Foreword by Kevin Vanhoozer. Baker Books 1973.
Rasor, Paul. Faith Without Certainty: Liberal Theology in the 21st Century. Boston: Skinner House, 2005.
Reardon, Bernard M. G. Religious Thought in the Nineteenth Century: Illustrated from Writers of the Period. Cambridge
University Press, 1966.
. Religion in the Age of Romanticism: Studies in Early Nineteenth Century Thought. Cambridge
University Press, 1985.
Schaeffer, Francis A. A Christian View of Philosophy and Culture. The Complete W orks of Francis A. Schaeffer.
Volume 1. Second edition. Crossway, 1991. (This volume includes: The God Who Is There; Escape From Reason;
He Is There and He Is Not Silent; and Back to Freedom and Dignity.)
_____. How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture. Crossway, 1976.
Schleiermacher, Friedrich . The Christian Faith, English translation from the second German edition. Edited by H. R.
Mackintosh and J. S. Stewart. T. & T. Clark, 1989.
Schweitzer, Albert. The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede.
Introduction by James M. Robinson. MacMillan Publishing Co., 1968.
Smart, James D. The Divided Mind of Modern Theology: Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann 1908–1933. W estminster
Press, 1967.
Solomon, Robert C. Continental Philosophy since 1750: The Rise and Fall of the Self. A History of W estern Philosophy:
7. Oxford University Press, 1988.
Stout, Jeffrey. The Flight from Authority: Religion, Morality, and the Quest for Autonomy. Notre Dame: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1981.
Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.
Thielicke, Helmut. Modern Faith and Thought. Trans. by Geoffrey W . Bromiley. Eerdmans, 1990.
Tillich, Paul. A History of Christian Thought: From Its Judaic and Hellenistic Origins to Existentialism. Edited by Carl
E. Braaten. Simon and Schuster, 1968.
Toulmin, Stephen. Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity. University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Troeltsch, Ernst. Protestantism and Progress: A Historical Study of the Relation of Protestantism to the Modern World.
Translated by W . Montgomery. Beacon Press (1912), 1958.
W eber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Talcott Parsons. New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1958.
W elch, Claude. Protestant Thought in the Nineteenth Century. Two volumes. Yale University Press, 1972.
W ells, David F. No Place for Truth: Or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? Eerdmans, 1993.
W estphal, Merold. Suspicion and Faith: The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism. Eerdmans, 1993.
W ilkins, Steve and Alan G. Padgett. Christianity and Western Thought, Volume 2: Faith & Reason in the 19 th Century.
InterVarsity Press, 2000.
W ilson, John E. Introduction to Modern Theology: Trajectories in the German Tradition. W estminster John Knox Press,
2007.
Vidler, Alec R. The Church in an Age of Revolution. Penguin History of the Church 5. Penguin Books, 1974.
Biographical Notes
Altizer, Thomas J. J. (1927– ). Professor of English and leading figure in the ‘Death of God’ movement in theology.
Barth, Karl (1886–1968). Swiss Reformed theologian widely regarded as the most important Protestant theologian of
the twentieth century, and a key figure in the movement known as ‘neo-orthodoxy.’
Baur, Ferdinand Christian (1792–1860). German Protestant Liberal theologian, key figure in ‘the Historical Jesus
Movement,’ and founder of the ‘Tübingen School.’
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich (1906–45). German theologian and pastor in the persecuted German Confessional Church,
conspired against Hitler and executed by the Nazis in 1945.
Brunner, Emil (1889–1966). Swiss ‘neo-orthodox’ theologian who engaged in a confrontation with Karl Barth in the
1930s concerning the issue of natural theology.
Bultmann, Rudolf (1884–1976). German Lutheran New Testament scholar and existentialist ‘neo-orthodox’ theologian.
Noted chiefly for his program of ‘demythologization.’
Calvin, John (1509–64). French theologian and leading second generation Protestant reformer in the city of Geneva.
Cobb, John B. (1925– ). American theologian and leading figure in the development of Process Theology.
Cone, James H. (1939– ). Liberation theologian and key figure in the development of the Black Liberation Theology
movement in America.
Derrida, Jacques (1930–2004). French literary theorist, and founder of deconstructionism.
Descartes, René (1596–1650). Founder of Continental rationalism and regarded as ‘the father of modern philosophy.’
Feuerbach, Ludwig (1804–72). German philosopher and critic of religion.
Foucault, M ichel (1926–84). French social theorist, historian, and key figure in the development of postmodernism.
Freud, Sigmund (1856–1939). Austrian physician and psychologist, founder of psychoanalysis.
Galilei, Galileo (1564–1642). Mathematician, astronomer, and physicist who defended the theories of Copernicus and
laid the foundation for the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo (1928– ). Peruvian Roman Catholic priest considered to be ‘the father of liberation theology.’
Harnack, Adolf von (1851–1930). German Protestant Liberal theologian who used methods of historical science to
differentiate between the ‘kernel’ and ‘husk’ of the Christian message.
Hegel, G. F. W . (1770–1831). German philosopher who sought to define and integrate the processes of nature and
history, religion, politics and culture into a single vision of truth.
Henry, Carl F. H. (1913–2003). A representative theologian of the new-evangelicalism that sought to distinguish itself
from fundamentalism as it rediscovered the vitality of evangelical theology.
Hick, John (1922– ). English theologian and leading figure in the theological movement of Religious Pluralism.
Hume, David (1711–76). Scottish empiricist philosopher, skeptical critic of religion and rationalism.
Kähler, M artin (1835–1912). German theologian, author of a devastating critique of the ‘Historical Jesus Movement.’
Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804). Founder of the tradition of modern German philosophy, and credited with what has been
referred to as a ‘Copernican revolution’ in epistemology.
Kierkegaard, Søren (1813–55). Danish philosopher, critic of Christendom, and founding figure of existentialism.
Leibniz, Gottfried W ilhelm (1646–1716). German philosopher and mathematician known especially for his ‘best of
all possible worlds’ theodicy.
Lessing, Gotthold (1729–81). German Deist and literary critic who used the phrase ‘ugly, broad ditch’ in regard to the
problem of historical revelation.
Lindbeck, George A. (1923– ). American theologian and a leading voice of postliberalism or the “New Yale School”
of theology.
Locke, John (1632–1704). Founder of the British empiricist tradition in philosophy.
Luther, M artin (1483–1546). German monk, professor, and theologian commonly regarded as the leading figure of the
Protestant Reformation.
M arx, Karl (1818–83). German political philosopher, economist, and critic of religion.
M oltmann, Jürgen (1926– ). German theologian who first became widely known for his ‘Theology of Hope.’
Newton, Isaac (1642–1727). English mathematician and scientist, founder of modern physics.
Niebuhr, H. Richard (1894–1962). American ‘neo-orthodox’ theologian and critic of Protestant Liberal Theology.
Niebuhr, Reinhold (1892–1971). American theologian who addressed social and political issues from the perspective
of ‘Christian Realism’ (older brother of H. Richard Niebuhr).
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844–1900). German philosopher, critic of Christianity and morality, and the metaphysical
tradition of philosophy stemming from Plato.
Pannenberg, W olfhart (1928– ). German theologian who reasserted the importance of historicity in revelation of God.
Pascal, Blaise (1623–62). French mathematician and Jansenist theologian who criticized Jesuit theology from a
viewpoint referred to as ‘fideism.’
Reimarus, Hermann (1694–1768). German Deist who was the first to assert a division between the Jesus of history and
the Christ of faith.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford (1936– ). Pioneer American Christian feminist theologian.
Ritschl, Albrecht (1822–89). German Liberal Protestant theologian who founded the influential ‘Ritschlian school’ that
stressed the ethical character of Christianity.
Rorty, Richard (1931– ). Pragmatist philosopher and a leading figure in the development of postmodern thought.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712–78). Deist philosopher, author, and leading figure in the movement of ‘Romanticism.’
Schleiermacher, F. D. E. (1768–1834). German theologian and founding figure of Protestant Liberal theology who
sought to base religion on intuition and feeling.
Schweitzer, Albert (1875–1965). German Protestant physician and theologian who challenged the presuppositions of
the ‘Historical Jesus Movement.’
Spener, Philip Jakob (1635–1705). German Lutheran theologian and founder of German Pietism.
Spinoza, Benedict de (1632–77). Dutch philosopher (of Jewish background), devised a system of metaphysical
pantheism that became highly influential in the period of German philosophy after Kant.
Strauss, David Friedrich (1808–1874). German theologian associated with the Tübingen School of historical criticism
who was a pioneer in the historical ‘searches’ or investigations of Jesus.
Tillich, Paul (1886–1965). German Lutheran existentialist ‘neo-orthodox’ theologian, sought to bridge the gap between
Christian faith and modern culture by employing the ‘method of correlation.’
Tindal, M atthew (1655–1733). Leading English Deist who sought to develop a rational and universal Natural Religion.
Troeltsch, Ernst (1865–1923). Theologian and sociologist involved in the founding of the ‘History of Religions School.’
Turrettini, François (1623–87). Regarded as one of the most important Protestant Scholastic theologians and influential
in the development of American evangelical theology, most notably through old Princeton where he was read by leaders
such as Charles Hodge and B. B. W arfield.
Voltaire (1694–1798). Pseudonym of Francois Marie Arouet, French Enlightenment philosopher and Deist.
W esley, John (1703–91). English theologian, evangelist, pastor, and founder of Methodism.
Timeline
1517 .................... Martin Luther posts his Ninety-five Theses.
1526 .................... W illiam Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament is published.
1530 .................... The Augsburg Confession is presented.
1536 .................... John Calvin publishes the first (Latin) edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion.
1545–63 .............. The Council of Trent.
1577 .................... The Formula of Concord is published.
1611 .................... The King James Bible is completed.
1618 .................... The Thirty Years’ W ar begins.
1641 .................... René Descartes publishes his Meditations on First Philosophy.
1646 .................... The W estminster Confession is completed (it is approved by Parliament in June 1648).
1675 .................... Publication of Philip Jakob Spener’s Pia Desideria.
1677 .................... Baruch Spinoza’s Ethics, his most important work, is published posthumously.
1687 .................... Publication of Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica.
1689 .................... Publication of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
1695 .................... Locke publishes The Reasonableness of Christianity as Delivered in the Scriptures.
1714 .................... Gottfried Leibniz publishes Monadology, one of his best known works.
1730 .................... Matthew Tindal publishes Christianity as old as the Creation, or the Gospel a
Republication of the Religion of Nature, which became known as the ‘Bible’ of Deism.
1748 .................... Publication of David Hume’s Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding,
which contained his famous ‘Essay upon Miracles.’
1774–8 ................ Hermann Reimarus’ W olfenbüttel Fragments are published in seven parts by G. E. Lessing.
1762 .....................Jean-Jacques Rousseau publishes The Social Contract and Emile.
1779 .................... Posthumous publication of Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
1781 ....................Immanuel Kant publishes the first of his three great philosophical works, Critique of Pure
Reason (Critique of Practical Reason was published in 1788, Critique of Judgment in 1790).
1789 .................... French Revolution.
1793 .................... Kant publishes Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, his last major philosophical
work.
1799 .................... F. D. E. Schleiermacher publishes his On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers.
1807 .................... Publication of Phenomenology of Mind, G. F. W . Hegel’s first great philosophical work.
1821 .................... Schleiermacher publishes his systematic theology, The Christian Faith (Glaubenslehre).
1835 .................... David Friedrich Strauss publishes The Life of Jesus Critically Examined.
1841 .................... Ludwig Feuerbach’s The Essence of Christianity is published.
1848 .................... Publication of Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto.
1859 .................... Darwin’s Origin of the Species becomes the founding document of modern evolutionary biology.
1869–70 .............. The First Vatican Council.
1887 .................... Genealogy of Morals is one of the last published works of Friedrich Nietzsche.
1892 .................... Martin Kähler publishes The So-Called Historical Jesus and the Historic, Biblical Christ.
1899 .....................Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams, his first major work on
psychoanalysis and the theory of the unconscious.
1899–1900 .......... Adolf von Harnack delivers public lectures on “The Essence of Christianity” during the
winter semester at the University of Berlin (published in English in 1901 as What is
Christianity?)
1906 .................... The Quest of the Historical Jesus is published by Albert Schweitzer.
1914–18 .............. W orld W ar I
1919 .................... Publication of Karl Barth’s commentary, The Epistle to the Romans.
1932 .................... Publication of the first-part volume of Barth’s multi-volume systematic theology, Church
Dogmatics, which he worked on until his death in 1968.
1934 .................... Barth publishes his pamphlet, No! Answer to Emil Brunner in response to Brunner’s Nature
and Grace published the same year.
The Barmen Declaration is published.
1939 .................... W orld W ar II begins.
1941 .................... Publication of Rudolf Bultmann’s essay on demythologization, “New Testament and
Mythology.” Reinhold Niebuhr publishes the first volume of his most important work, The
Nature and Destiny of Man; the second volume is published in 1943.
1945 .................... The Nazis execute Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
1947 .................... Carl F. H. Henry publishes The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism.
1951 .................... Paul Tillich publishes the first of three volumes of his Systematic Theology.
1961 .................... W olfhart Pannenberg and ‘the Pannenberg circle’ publish Revelation as History.
1962–65 .............. The Second Vatican Council.
1964 .................... Jürgen Moltmann publishes his widely read Theology of Hope.
1966 .................... The lecture, “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences,” is
delivered by Jacques Derrida, marking the beginning of the era of poststructuralism or
postmodernism in America.
1970 .................... James Cone publishes the seminal work, A Black Theology of Liberation.
1971 .................... A Theology of Liberation is published for the first time by Gustavo Gutiérrez in Lima, Peru.
1973 ....................The Center for Process Studies is founded by John Cobb and David Griffin at the School of
Theology at Claremont.
1983 .................... Sexism and God-Talk, a pioneering work in American Christian feminist theology by Rosemary
Radford Ruether is published.
1984 .................... George Lindbeck’s The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age is published.
1989 .................... John Hick sets out his theory of Religious Pluralism in, An Interpretation of Religion: Human
Responses to the Transcendent.