Abstract
Cynthia B. Brown’s book is intended to use Brunner’s theology as a pattern to explore how God’s revelation of the Holy Scripture can be explicated and applied to faith and life (p. ix–x). By so doing, she attests that ‘Emil Brunner’s theology is thoroughly biblical (if non-biblicist), warmly pastoral, carefully intellectual, and insistently Christocentric, offering an exposition of the Christian faith that is truly worth our time’ (p. x).
Part I (chapters 2–3) delineates Brunner’s theology as believing thinking (p. 11). This indicates that Brunner views theology as relational and intent upon exploring the truth consisting in the divine-human encounter. This encounter is grounded in God’s self-revelation, which is conveyed through the apostolic witness, and preconditioned by the faith in God (pp. 14–16). Hence, theological inquiry should be undertaken within the context of faith, which reflects the relational nature of theology (p. 28). Moreover, theological inquiry as the relational event begins and ends with God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ (pp. 35–73).
Part II (chapters 4–5) begins with the four aspects of Brunner’s conception of revelation: incarnation, I–Thou encounter (Kyrios Christos), the cross-resurrection and the kingdom of God (pp. 78–84). Brown obverses that Brunner’s purpose ‘is to show that the content of theology must be sourced in the self-unveiling of God in Jesus Christ as testified to in the witness of the apostles, the church, and the Holy Spirit’ (p. 85). This Christocentric revelation reflects God’s intention to encounter His creatures, and requires human ethical response to this encounter, that is, human-human encounter (pp. 95–102). In the fifth chapter, Brown moves on to making comparison between Brunner’s and Barth’s theologies. By so doing, Brown proves that Brunner is more faithful than Barth to the biblical narrative, which sets forth Jesus Christ as God’s revelation (pp. 136–8).
Part III (chapters 6–7) investigates the effect of theology on human existence. According to Brown, Brunner is heavily influenced by Kierkegaard. Both of them stress faith, reject ‘all proofs for the divine being’ and ‘the doctrine of infallibility’ (pp. 170–4). Moreover, Brown discerns the similarity between Brunner’s ‘truth as encounter’ and Kierkegaard’s ‘truth as subjectivity’, both of which focus on God’s revelation in Christ and the divine-human encounter (pp. 179–81). Finally, Brown concludes with Brunner’s theological contributions to today’s Church: the reminder that dogmatics serves proclamation, God as the Lord of revelation, the proclamation of human existence (pp. 186–7).
By focusing on Brunner’s theological methodology, Brown proves the significance of Brunner’s theology to the articulation of today’s Christian faith. Moreover, Brown demonstrates the evangelistic nature of Brunner’s theology, that is, the emphasis on the divine–human relation. Nonetheless, Brown’s book could be strengthened by a detailed analysis on the influence of Ferdinand Ebner on Brunner. Ebner’s philosophy of I–Thou relationship holds sway on Brunner’s theology, especially his anthropology.