263 - Tradition and the Modern World Reformed Theology in the Nineteenth Century

Tradition and the Modern World Reformed Theology in the Nineteenth Century
By Brian A. Gerrish
Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1978 263 pp. $15.00

Christian theology since the Enlightenment increasingly has had to face questions about the ways and the extent to which it should adapt itself to modern thought and incorporate modern philosophical, scientific, and historical ideas into itself. That is to say, "tradition" has become a problem for theology to what extent should theology understand itself as charged with the responsibility simply of setting everything down "faithfully and without addition" (Heppe). To what extent is the theologian's task a critical one of assessing. revising, even radically reconstructing, received conceptions?

Frequent experimentation with this issue in the nineteenth century makes it an ideal historical laboratory for exploring various aspects, of the problem. In this book Brian Gerrish, professor of historical theology at the University of Chicago, has demonstrated how illuminating such an approach to the problem of tradition can be. The book is a published version of the Zenos Lectures for 1977, delivered at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

In order to give his study some unity and coherence, Gerrish confines it to Reformed theologians. But the five figures to whom he devotes detailed investigation are dealing with problems of such general theological interest that this narrowing of focus is no real limitation on the book's usefulness. As might be expected, he begins with a chapter on Schleiermacher's attempt to reconceive the tasks and methods of theology. From there he moves to John W. Nevin's reinterpretation of the Reformed conceptions of church and Eucharist and then cites John McLeod Campbell's arguments for using personalistic and moral, rather than legal, language to interpret the atonement. He then discusses Alexander Schweizer's movement from an emphasis on the importance of the doctrine of predestination to his ultimate dissolution of that doctrine in the idea of grace. And finally, he presents the radical criticism and rejection of traditional Christian notions of immortality in the work of A.E. Biedermann.

In the context of his consideration of these focal figures, there are brief discussions of other notable nineteenth-century figures such as Hodge, on the one side, and Feuerbach on the other. Of course, there are frequent references to Calvin. Throughout his exposition Gerrish keeps before the reader Schleiermacher's pioneering work on each of the material doctrines being considered, so one can see both how

264 - Tradition and the Modern World Reformed Theology in the Nineteenth Century

innovative Schleiermacher really was at many points in his interpretation of the Christian faith and also how his suggestions were picked up and elaborated, or transformed, by his successors. In this respect, despite confining his attention to relatively few figures, Gerrish has presented a very suggestive study of the impact of Schleiermacher on nineteenth-century Reformed thinking.

Tradition and the Modern World is historical study of a very useful sort for contemporary theological reflection, and all too rare. The questions A which Gerrish asks of his historical figures are today's, but he poses them in ways that allow his respondents to speak in their own terms and with their own accents. His exegetical work is done with great care, and his wide-ranging historical learning is always illuminating. Thus, we gain not only new understanding of the history of some of the major issues with which the contemporary church must struggle, but also insights to directly enrich and deepen contemporary reflection. With his eye always on the problem of tradition and its proper definition and use, Gerrish has shown that the discussion of particular historical questions can be made to bear directly on the present preoccupation with the methodological problem of theological foundations.

Pastors, theologians, reflective Christians of every sort, must always work with "tradition," with inherited ideas, values and practices, but the question is "how?" What does one appropriate? What does one criticize and reformulate? What does one reject? How does one decide these issues? Professor Gerrish's careful study of several nineteenth-century figures, sets before us a number of models well worth contemplating as we try to work our own way through these questions.

Gordon D. Kaufman
Harvard Divinity School
Cambridge, Massachusetts