Thursday, January 11, 2007

Best Contemporary Theology Meme

I've been tagged by Patrik:
Name three (or more) theological works from the last 25 years (1981-2006) that you consider important and worthy to be included on a list of the most important works of theology of the last 25 years (in no particular order).
To make my decision a little easier, I've decided to confine myself to Lutheran authors. Also, I won't include the very deserving Systematics of Jenson or Pannenberg because: a) many others have already included these volumes, and b) these theologians are borderline Lutherans. So here are my picks:

1) Eberhard Jüngel: God as the Mystery of the World
2) Gerhard O. Forde: Theology is for Proclamation
3) Oswald Bayer: Living by Faith - Justification and Sanctification

P.S. I've decided to add a fourth: Eberhard Jüngel's Justification: The Heart of the Christian Faith

3 comments:

Ben Myers said...

Jenson and Pannenberg are "borderline Lutherans"? Oh well, I suppose Luther himself was a bit of a borderline case as well....

;-)

Thomas Adams said...

Ben - I didn't mean for that comment to sound snarky. As I suggest in the post, I think both Pannenberg and Jenson are masterful theologians, and I would have placed their Systematics on the list had not a million people already done so. My point was simply that, over time, both theologians have become less and less Lutheran in their theologial outlooks, opting instead for a more “catholic” and ecumencial approach. One could argue that, in doing so, they’re being more faithful to Luther, although gnesio-Lutherans like Jüngel (and myself) have serious doubts about that.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I understand your point!

Jenson, at least, tends to describe himself now as "Lutheran/Anglican" -- and he has clearly thought a great deal about whether he should convert to Catholicism (but has decided not to).

Anyway, it's an excellent list -- and, as always, I'm glad to see that Jüngel hasn't been forgotten!