Examines Albrecht Ritschl's presentation of the person and life-work of Christ as Prophet, Priest and King. As father of modern academic theology, Ritschl attempted to present his understanding of the Christian faith through a critical history of the development of doctrine, reexamination of the biblical evidence of belief and exposition of the positive development of doctrine which sought to avoid the critical errors of the past. This agenda proved so demanding that few scholars since Ritschl have been able to work competently in all areas of the discipline. In this work McCulloh identifies characteristic emphases in Ritschl's thought: a definition of religion as a positive historical phenomenon; a critique of the place of metaphysics in theology; an assertion of the importance of the Bible for understanding the Christian faith; a view of the earthly ministry of Jesus as the only meaningful foundation for the knowledge of God; and a claim for the active participation of human beings with God in justification and reconciliation. McCulloh traces the history of the Munus Triplex title into Jewish messianic ascriptions and finds it to be more deeply involved in the historical transmission of the Christian faith than was acknowledged by Ritschl.

The Ritschlian theology, a reaction against rationalism, was influential in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ritschl held that God could be known only through the revelation contained in the person and work of Jesus. His theology stressed ethics and the community of man and repudiated metaphysics. Ritschl's most characteristic work is presented here and has been translated as 'The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation'. In it Ritschl proposes understanding the doctrine of justification in interpersonal rather than juridical categories.

This book provides a new approach to Albrecht Ritschl’s theology. Leif Svensson argues that Ritschl’s theological project must be related to three cultural developments – historical criticism, materialism, and anti-Lutheran polemics – and understood in the context of the de-Christianization of the Bildungsbürgertum in nineteenth-century Germany. “Albrecht Ritschl remains the great unknown of nineteenth-century theology. In this important study, Leif Svensson sheds new light on Ritschl’s thought by relating it to contemporaneous social and cultural developments. Rooted in deep familiarity with German intellectual life of the time, the book convincingly illustrates the value of a history of theology that is mindful of its various contexts.” – Johannes Zachhuber University of Oxford “I confess I was hesitant to blurb a book on Ritschl, but then I read it. Svensson’s well researched presentation of Ritschl’s thought is compelling and forceful. I highly recommend this book.” – Stanley Hauerwas Duke Divinity School “Svensson’s work ably places Ritschl’s contribution to theology in the broader context of the intellectual and cultural history of the nineteenth century. Students of Protestant theology and thought and all interested in the complex relationship between Christian theology and modernity will learn something of value from this important study.” – Thomas Albert Howard Valparaiso University

Vols. 2-6 include "Theological and Semitic literature for 1898- 1901, a bibliographical supplement to the American journal of theology and the American journal of Semitic languages and literatures. By W. Muss-Arnolt." (Separately paged)

Albrecht Ritschl (1822-1889) looms large in the second half of the nineteenth century. He redirected theology from speculative idealism toward a more concrete, historical apprehension of the Bible, the church, and Christian life. Ritschl in Retrospect reassesses Ritschl's rich legacy and current import, especially on such still-pertinent topics as his attempt to reinvigorate the Reformation tradition, his reflections on the communal dimensions of church, his recognition of the centrality of the kingdom of God, his community-based Christocentric reading of the Bible, his criticisms of classical theism, and his thoughts on religion and science. Joining Darrell Jodock in this reassessment are the following leading historians and theologians: William R. Barnett Clive Marsh Richard P. Busse Hans Schwarz David W. Lotz Rich M. Wall Jr. Gerald W. McCulloh Claude Welch

Gustaf Aulen's classic work, 'Christus Victor', has long been a standard text on the atonement. Aulen applies history of ideas' methodology to historical theology in tracing the development of three views of the atonement. Aulen asserts that in traditional histories of the doctrine of the atonement only two views have usually been presented, the objective/Anselmian and the subjective/Aberlardian views. According to Aulen, however, there is another type of atonement doctrine in which Christ overcomes the hostile powers that hold humanity in subjection, at the same time that God in Christ reconciles the world to Himself. This view he calls the "classic" idea of the atonement. Because of its predominance in the New Testament, in patristic writings, and in the theology of Luther, Aulen holds that the classic type may be called the distinctively Christian idea of the atonement.

This 50th-anniversary edition, with a new foreword by the distinguished historian Martin E. Marty, who regards this book as one of the most vital books of our time, as well as an introduction by the author never before included in the book, and a new preface by James Gustafson, the premier Christian ethicist who is considered Niebuhr’s contemporary successor, poses the challenge of being true to Christ in a materialistic age to an entirely new generation of Christian readers.