Thursday, June 29, 2006

Round of 16: Pannenberg vs. Frei



(Sorry, I coukdn't find a picture of Frei)

The last game of the Round of 16 sees German Lutheran Pannenberg face American (German-born) Baptist, Hans Frei.

Panneberg (b. 1928) is a very academic theologian: one of his motivations is to show that theology can be a academic discipline as any other, and this has lead him to icorporate a lot of philosphy and natural science in his theology. Panneberg rose to fame because of the "Revelation as History"- discussion in the 60:s, and history has remained a important notion in his theology since. His three-volume Systematic theology is an excellent overview of the academic discussion on theology throughout the centuries.

Frei (1922-1988) fame as a theologian is based mostly on his work The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative, a cornerstone of the Narrative theology. He is one of the central names in the Yale "post-liberal" school of theology. He also, towards the end of his life, wrote on Christology, and more works on Hermeneutics.



Note: The provider of the polls have been a bit shaky today. I hope they get their act together, but if you have trouble voting, come back in an hour or so and try agian.

6 comments:

Patrick McManus said...

Poor Frei...I'm happy to see him make it this far, but he must conceed to Pannenberg who, no doubt, has been far more influential (although not necessarily the better theologian!).

Patrick McManus said...

ps. you can find a picture of Frei at Mike Higton's website dedicated to Frei scholarship.
http://www.people.ex.ac.uk/mahigton/Frei.html

Patrick McManus said...

BTW,

Frei was, at one time a Baptist minister, but ended up an Anglican!

"He found himself drawn towards Anglicanism, towards its more obviously 'generous' orthodoxy - to such an extent that in later life he was to say that Baptist ministry had always felt like a staging post on the way to somewhere else. At the same time, he developed a yearning for more academic work." (Mike Higton's short biography)

Patrik said...

Thanks for the info Patrick. Maybe I should have said that I was unable to find a decent picture of Frei...

Patrick McManus said...

touché!

byron smith said...

The polls have been down all day for me.
:-(