Myth, History, and the Resurrection in German Protestant Theology

Brent A. R. Hege

Oct 2017 · Wipf and Stock Publishers

About this ebook

The Christian faith stands or falls with the confession that Jesus Christ is risen. While that assertion itself is perhaps uncontroversial, precisely what this confession means has been a subject of profound significance and immense controversy for centuries. Central to this discussion is the role of myth and history in the biblical witness and in the church's theological engagement with the confession that Jesus Christ is risen. This book traces key trajectories of German Protestant discussions of myth, history, and the resurrection from its earliest critical analysis in the work of Hermann Samuel Reimarus and David Friedrich Strauss to contemporary appraisals by Eberhard Jungel and Ingolf Ulrich Dalferth. At the center of this discussion stands Rudolf Bultmann, whose work on the resurrection sparked fierce debates that left a lasting impact on Protestant theology in Germany and beyond. The questions raised by these theologians continue to resonate in contemporary discussions of the nature and status of biblical texts, the integrity and truth of the Christian confession, and the meaning and significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for Christian faith and life at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

About the author

Brent A. R. Hege is the Center for Faith and Vocation Scholar in Residence and Instructor of Religion at Butler University in Indianapolis. He is the author of Faith at the Intersection of History and Experience: The Theology of Georg Wobbermin (Wipf and Stock, 2009), winner of the 2010 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, administered by the Forschungszentrum Internationale und Interdisziplinäre Theologie at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He is a graduate of Gettysburg College, the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, and Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.