R. David Nelson discusses his introduction to one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century, found in Jüngel: A Guide for the Perplexed, one of the latest publications in Bloomsbury's Guides for the Perplexed.
How do you think your book could be described – in just one sentence?
The book is an introduction to Eberhard Jüngel’s life, intellectual and theological formation, and major works.
What drew you to researching Jüngel’s work?
I discovered Jüngel while a student in seminary, and immediately recognized the brilliance and originality of his theological contribution. But it was only a few years later and quite by accident that the possibility of pursuing a course of research on his thought presented itself. I met my doctoral supervisor, John Webster, for the first time in November of 2003, at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. On the way to the conference, I hastily cobbled together a list of topics to present to John as possibilities for my dissertation. All but two of my ideas were on Karl Barth; one of the remainders was on Wolfhart Pannenberg, the other on Jüngel’s sacramental theology. During our meeting and much to my dismay, John swiftly passed over my various suggestions on Barth’s theology, and then declared that he was not interested in supervising work on Pannenberg. But he paused long and hard on the Jüngel idea. We agreed to give it a shot, and I departed for Aberdeen the next summer with the topic firmly in hand.
Of course, I had no idea at the time that my research on Jüngel’s work would lead to a number of projects beyond the dissertation. I have continued to find Jüngel’s contribution stimulating and challenging, and also quite different from trends in anglophone theology from the same period. The research and writing on Jüngel I’ve done since the dissertation, including this book, is all an effort to hear and learn as much as I can from him, and to encourage others to read him—and to read him well.
Are there any new insights that you realised while writing your book?
The second chapter of the book addresses Jüngel’s intellectual and theological formation. Instead of taking the conventional approach to this topic by identifying a roster of Jüngel’s personal and professional influences, I tried to give my readers an overview of the key discussions and debates marking German theology during his formative period in Berlin. The task required me to assimilate a lot of material to make a unified account, and in the process I learned a great deal about both Jüngel and Christian theology at mid-century. More significantly, my work on the chapter encouraged me to better understand the formation of my own theology, such as it is, against the background of the discussions and debates of this new century. I was not expecting the study of Jüngel’s early years to arouse this sense of self-awareness regarding my own theological existence. I found the experience insightful, though also a bit unsettling.
How did you come to focus on the monographs and essays of Jüngel that are examined in your book?
In the book I make the case that Jüngel was a practitioner of what Barth called ‘irregular’ dogmatics. That is, rather than ever offering a comprehensive account of Christian theology tailored for pedagogical use, Jüngel always wrote to address certain problems, contemporaneous debates, and other immediate interests. Particular contributions, even his long, discursive monographs, often behave like extended theological sermons, using the tools of analysis, argumentation, and rhetoric to convince and defend. This means, among other things, that Jüngel’s writings are best taken in turn and topically, rather than as a group. To put it another way, it is nearly impossible to systematize Jüngel’s thought, or to make wholesale judgments about what he has to say over the course of his works concerning this or that topic. The best strategy for reading his theology, then, is to zero in on whatever text happens to be at hand, asking the critical questions essential for figuring out what he’s up to.
What do you hope this volume will contribute towards Jüngel’s theology and systematic scholarship?
Jüngel deserves to be read and studied by systematic theologians and scholars of modern Christian theology. However, his work presents a number of challenges to readers today, especially in the English-speaking world. Jüngel is notoriously difficult to translate into English. Moreover, most of his writings recall the discussions, debates, and concerns of German-language theology from the 1960s to the end of the century. My hope is that Jüngel—A Guide for the Perplexed will provide anglophone readers a reliable, accessible entrée into the careful study of Jüngel’s theological contribution. Beyond that, I sincerely hope that the book might offer beginning theologians a model for how to read another’s work patiently, charitably, and enjoyably.
Jüngel: A Guide for the Perplexed is available for pre-order now, and will be published on 14th November 2019!
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