Brunner's dialectical encounter

About this book

The emergence of Neo-orthodoxy in the 1920s was a protest against several widely-held theological viewpoints. Among these were the romantic idealism of Schleiermacher, the Neo-Kantianism of Ritschl, an immanentistic Hegelian pantheism, the "comparative religions school" of Troeltsch, and Biblical Orthodoxy. The two theologians who spearheaded this new theological expression were Karl Barth and Emil Brunner. And though Emil Brunner is regarded as the secondary figure, it was he, through his visits to America, and not Karl Barth who introduced Neo-orthodox thought to the American student. Furthermore, in comparison with Barth's still unfinished Church Dogmatics, Brunner's writings are a model of brevity and clarity. For these reasons, as John B. Cobb, Jr. observes, "... when [the American] undertakes to state the position in question, it is more likely to sound like that of Emil Brunner." A knowledge of Brunner's basic theological thought is absolutely essential, therefore, to an intelligent understanding of the contemporary theological scene in America, for even though his ideas have lost much of the excitement they fostered 30 years ago simply because of the Church's familiarity with them, they have done much to determine the direction of American theology today. - p. 1.