Emil Brunner – A Reappraisal

My friend Norman Cockburn gave me a couple of books by the Protestant theologian Emil Brunner from his extensive library the 1970s. He also offered me the complete works of Brunner's better-known contemporary Karl Barth, which I declined on the grounds that I did not find his outlook congenial. This new and authoritative study brings Brunner back from comparative obscurity after his death nearly 50 years ago. The book is both thematic and chronological, dealing with his life as well as themes such as a theology of crisis, dialectical theology and natural theology. It also comments on his role as a preacher and public intellectual and gives an assessment of his legacy. Brunner explores the limits of reason, affirming its critical role while denying its foundational role in relation to revelation. There is considerable interesting discussion of the personal and theological relationship between Brunner and Barth, especially their different understandings of natural theology and the communication of insights to ordinary people. For Brunner natural theology can only exist within the standpoint of faith. In a discussion of objectivity and subjectivity in truth as encounter, McGrath brings in angles from Kierkegaard and Buber. The book is aimed at the scholarly community and succeeds admirably in its aim of recovering Brunner's significance and a major theologian.