Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century: Its Background and History [Paperback]

Karl Barth (Author), Colin E. Gunton (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2002

Introduction by Colin E. Gunton Interest in Karl Barth is running at unprecedented levels in the English-speaking world, and it is high time that his excellent survey of formative eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Protestant thinkers be made available again to theological students and general readers. Featuring an extensive introduction by Colin E. Gunton that recontextualizes and reintroduces Barths work for a new generation, this book provides a superb review of the shapers of modern Protestant thought and practice. Barth offers insightful readings of all the most significant figures of the modern period - Rousseau, Lessing, Kant, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Feuerbach, Ritschl, and others - as well as several lesser-known thinkers. Also included here are Barths preface to the original 1946 German edition and a translation of his hard-to-find essay On the Task of a History of Modern Protestant Theology. In addition to providing insight into some of the churchs seminal theologians, this volume offers an excellent look at Barth himself. In capturing Barths personal views on doctrine, the church, and intellectual history, the book also provides valuable background reading for those studying Barths own theology.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Paperback: 652 pages
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802860788
• ISBN-13: 978-0802860781
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #356,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barth and the Protestant Theology, December 12, 2008

By 

J. Juarez "G. Book Connection" (Ontario, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century: Its Background and History (Paperback)

I love this kind of literature, it is a wealth of information about XVIII and XIX century Germany's theology and philosophy as well. I do not have access to German theological literature, but in this text, I found and read some sources that I wouldn't find anywhere because I cannot read German. I liked the XVIII century profile of the culture which the book describes as a background and soil of the theologians Barth examines.

Barth shows himself as an example of how a theologian have to tackle its task. The pressure and problems that a theologian has to answer and cope with are so complex and daunting.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Protestant Theology Away From Scripture., December 21, 2009

By 

Philip S Roeda (Cook, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century: Its Background and History (Paperback)

Theosophy is a term coined to combine the thoughts of the enlightenment and the definition of God and His works. Included in this book are sketches of theological thought through several perspectives in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. A couple even argue the Bible is the main source. For the most part Biblical interpretation is irrelevant. The God as described in scripture is replaced with a god that fits ones theology or philosophy of the professor of theology or philosophy. The book contains a presentation of various ideas. Barth has a predisposition to modern thought and a preference for an understanding of God through the lenses of the academic, science, and modern thought. What the author perceives as Biblical and orthodox, I would argue to ideas polluted through the wisdom of the world.

The first 173 pages of this book are presentation of ideas Barth feel are important to understanding what follows. It is followed with philosophers and theologians of the eighteenth century starting with Rousseau. I had further comprehension when the book finally deals with the biography and philosophies of the intellects contained in this work. I had the easiest time with my comprehension while reading about Rousseau, Kant, and Schleirmacher. Since I have read the works of these three men, it is not hard to understand why. The other sketches are a lot easier to gain hold of then the first 173 pages of this work. Other eighteenth century thinkers included in this work are Lessing, Herder, Novals, and Hegel. Theses thinkers are dealt with greater detail then the nineteenth century thinkers except Scheiermacher. It is page 423 before the book deals with century that is in the title of this work.

4 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really better on the Eighteenth Century, November 2, 2002

By 

Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century: Its Background and History (Paperback)

The first Complete English Edition had almost 400 pages for Part 1 - Background, before the few hundred pages of History which cover the century mentioned in the title, including chapters on Schleiermacher, Baur, Feuerbach, and Strauss. Most of the chapters have a heavy philosophical theme, but lines of verse liven up Barth's analysis of Lessing's play, "Nathan the Wise," the poems of Herder, and much of what Barth has to say about Novalis, who proclaimed, "The secret path leads inwards. Eternity with its worlds, the past and the future, is within us, or nowhere." Most pages in this book which have footnotes start with a footnote number 1, and anyone flipping through pages might well forget where "Frag., 593" can be found. An earlier review of this book has incorrect citations on David Friedrich Strauss. Albert Schweitzer wrote about Strauss in his THE QUEST FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS, a book which covered a topic on which Struass wrote three books with varying points of view and for different audiences. The biography called D. FR. STRAUSS AND THE THEOLOGY OF HIS TIME was by Hausrath, who called him "essentially a pathological figure."

The last page on Hegel provides the kind of contrast which makes a comparison of the two parts of this book imperative. "Theology had, and still has, no occasion to throw stones at Hegel, as if it had not trodden the same path as he, only not in so firm or so logical a manner as he did. When we come to consider Schleiermacher we shall have to ask very seriously whether his secret is a different one from that of Hegel, only that with Hegel it might be a secret which was to a great extent more respectable and at all events more instructive than that of Schleiermacher."