Language, Hermeneutic, and History

Description:James M. Robinson, together with John B. Cobb, published a series of three volumes entitled New Frontiers in Theology: The Later Heidegger and Theology (1963), The New Hermeneutic (1964), and Theology as History (1967). Here they introduced the new directions that Continental theology was taking after the break caused by the Nazi period and World War II. In each volume it was Robinson's assignment to write an extensive introduction of the new direction: The German Discussion of the Later Heidegger, Hermeneutic since Barth, and Revelation as Word and as History. Then others contributed essays. These three seminar introductions are here brought together in a single volume, which thus is the basic tool for getting into the Continental theology of the second half of the twentieth century.Endorsements:Robinson's keen and subtle mind is in full display here, both in his almost encyclopedic grasp of the broader theological issues as well as in his remarkably detailed knowledge of the thought of the German theologians featured in these essays. This book is must reading for those interested in the development of German theology in the latter half of the twentieth century.--Paul J. Achtemeier, Union Theological Seminary, EmeritusThe New Frontier Series had a particular meaning for the time the volumes were published. We live today at a very different time. But in each volume there was one long essay of enduring value, a detailed and insightful study of the history of the Continental theology out of which the theological developments of the 1960s came. Nowhere else has the theology of this period been so thoroughly explained. This volume brings these essays together. --John B. Cobb Jr., cofounder of the Center for Process StudiesAbout the Contributor(s):James M. Robinson did his doctorate under Karl Barth in Basel, Switzerland (1952). He taught again and again as Visiting Professor at Continental universities: Göttingen (1959), Zürich (1960, 1962), Strasbourg (1970-71), Tübingen (1986), Geneva (1992), and Bamberg (1997). As an expert on Continental theology, he experienced the shift from the prewar debate of the Confessing Church to the postwar focus on demythologizing (Rudolf Bultmann), language (the later Heidegger), the new hermeneutic (Ernst Fuchs and Gerhard Ebeling), and neo-conservatism (Wolfhart Pannenberg).