The “Theology of Crisis”: Remarks on a Recent Movement in German Theology

Abstract

The following lectures were delivered in March, 1926, at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. Only the opening sentences have been slightly altered. I had originally intended to give a general survey of the numerous tendencies and movements in present-day German theology, but the situation is so complicated that such a survey would necessarily have been superficial. I therefore preferred to follow a single trend of thought and direct attention to a movement which seems most characteristic of the present situation, and which is likely to command the interest if not the assent of American theologians. I must say at the outset that this movement is entirely opposed to what we older men have been taught and have ourselves been teaching. Yet it is only fair to acknowledge that the leaders of the movement have something to tell us, and that they know how to impress the younger generation. At this moment we are actually speaking of a “Theology of Crisis.” That is the subject which I have attempted to elucidate in these lectures. And since the subject has not hitherto been treated in English, I have thought fit to append a complete bibliography. In that bibliography works or papers mentioned in the course of the lectures are marked with an asterisk.