396-

The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli

The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli
By W.P. Stephens
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1986. 348 pp. $52.00.

Stephens has written the first thorough introduction in English to Zwingli's thought in the twentieth century. Until this book appeared, English-speaking students of Zwingli's theology were restricted to J. Courvoisier's lectures (Zwingli: A Reformed Theologian, London, 1964) or G.W. Locher's essays (Zwingli's Thought, Leiden, 1981) for an overview of Zwingli's thought. Stephens has incorporated their insights into his own work, which rests on his own independent reading of secondary and primary literature. Anyone who has read Zwingli's

397-

The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli

sometimes difficult Latin and often puzzling German knows how daunting this task can be.

Some unsolved problems in Zwingli research remain unsolved. Stephens does not attempt to resolve the difficult issue of Zwingli's relationship to scholastic theology, though he does address the problem and tries to bring the reader up to date on the current state of research. Stephens can leave some difficult problems unresolved, because he has not so much written a monograph that attempts to push forward the frontiers of our knowledge of Zwingli as a synthesis that conserves the gains already achieved. That is not to say that he does not take sides or offer evidence and interpretation on disputed issues. Indeed, many chapters end with a section called "Additional Notes" in which Stephens enters vigorously into scholarly debates with the secondary literature.

Unlike many historical surveys that lump materials from earlier and later periods together, Stephens is careful to trace the evolution of Zwingli's thought on each theological topic. In order to do so, of course, he must show how Zwingli interacted with his theological critics and opponents, Lutheran, Catholic, and Anabaptist. This historical context is essential for the correct understanding of Zwingli's thought. That Stephens has provided this context and provided it with such great care is, I think, the single greatest virtue of his study and ensures that it will become a standard reference work in Reformation history.

I have one reservation about the book, which I hesitate to mention, since there may be no satisfactory way to avoid the problem in a synthetic study of this kind. Zwingli is not a balanced thinker who gives equal attention to all theological topics, as a modern systematic theologian is expected to do. His theology, like Luther's, is contextual and veers radically in sometimes unpredictable directions. He gives enormous attention to some subjects and relatively little to others. A synthetic treatment of Zwingli's thought tends by its very nature to flatten out the uneven landscape of his mind and, by doing so, to lose a good deal of the intellectual excitement Zwingli stimulates in his readers. Stephens tries to overcome this problem by giving the reader generous quotations from Zwingli, but the problem still remains.

This one reservation aside, I wish to confess myself an admirer of Stephens' achievement. He traces the development of Zwingli's thought from writing to writing and from controversy to controversy with great care and precision. If at the end of the day he concludes that there is continuity in thought between the earlier and the later Zwingli, his conclusion rests on his own mastery of the evidence. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Swiss Reformation or the origins of Reformed theology.

David C. Steinmetz

The Divinity School
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina