Fortress texts in modern theology

From 1926 to 1936 Rudolf Bultmann offered an introductory course in theology, the so-called theological encyclopedia, which he continually revised and refined. The work, finally published posthumously, shows the early, combative Bultmann struggling with inherited tradition and critical of Schleiermacher, Brunner, and Troeltsch. Yet it also presents "as useful a prolegomenon to his principal works as anything he subsequently offered," says translator Roy A. Harrisville, and discusses fully the relationship of biblical interpretation and systematic theology.

The figure of Johann Gottfried Herder looms increasingly important not only for his prescient contributions to many fields - biblical criticism, philosophy of language, literary criticism, philosophy of history - but also for his pivotal position between the impulses of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Many of Herder's questions and concerns are more pressing at the end of the modern era than they were at its inception. Bunge's lucid and engaging translations of signal texts from Herder - most appearing here for the first time in English - are arranged thematically: human nature, language, and history; myth and religion; God and nature; literature and the Bible; and Christianity and theology. Along with her extensive Introduction and Bibliography, they constitute an essential resource for coming to terms with the checkered legacy of the Enlightenment. -- Back cover.