When Karl Barth first published his Commentary on Romans theologians of every color took up their position inJrelation to it. Here was an obviously learned and brilliant theologian who thought he could be "modern" and, at the same time, true to Reformation theology. Barth himself was surprised at this. He was, he says, like a boy who, climbing into the church steeple, fell down and happened to catch the rope of the church bells, causing them to ring out at an unusual time, and arousing the populace to wondering what was transpiring.

The New Hermeneutic of such men as Ernst F uchs and Gerhard Ebeling has done something similar in recent decades to what Barth 'did in the early twenties. These men seek to be both more modern and more Reformational than Barth was in his day. Theologians of various schools are taking their positions in relation to this New Hermeneutic as their forbearers did in relation to Barth.

The present volume is doing the same. In earlier publications the present writer pointed out that the synthesis between a theology based on that of the Ref'ormcrs and a theology based on the philosophy of Kant is an intellectual and spiritual monstrosity. In it Kant, not Calvin is the real victor. The result is the destruction of an intelligible basis for human predication. What is needed is a really Reformational philosophy and theology. Only if we have this can the depth of the contrast between the self-attesting Christ of the Scripture and the Christ-Event of neo-orthodoxy be seen for what it is. --Cornelius Van Til

TABLE OF CONTENTSI. Its Main RepresentativesA. Ernst Fuchs1. The New Problematics2. Beyond Bultmanna. On Demythologization and an Existential Interpretationb. On the Experience of Faithc. On Understanding the New Testamentd. Love is God3. Hermeneutika. Sprachlehre des Glaubensb. The Language Event as Saving Eventc. The Later Heidegger and the Silent Toll of Beingd. Self-Understanding(1) The Easter Faith(2) Vergangenheit des Todes(3) Christ as Our Origin and GoalB. Gerhard Ebeling.1. Justification by Faith2. Participation in the Essence of God3. God Experienced as a Question4. The Radical Questionableness of Reality5. God is Found in the Conscience6. Faith as a Vision of Totality7. The Failure of "Objectivity8. The Critical-Historical Method9. The Correlativity of the "Subject" and the "Object" of FaithII. Reaction of Some Modern TheologiansA. John Dillenberger1. On Broadening the New Hermeneutic2. On Going Beyond the New Hermeneutic3. The Supra-lapsarian Instinct4. Dillenberger's "Improvements"5. Back to the Parmenidean-Heraclitean Dilemma6. The Modern WesensschauB. Fritz Buri1. The Face of Our Time2. Is There Room for Faith Today?3. Can We Speak of God4. Deeper De-objectification5. Kant's Three Questions6. Back to the Parmenidean-Heraclitean Dilemma7. Buri's New ChristC. Schubert \Ogden1. Ogden on Barth's Criticism of Bultma2. Ogden's Own Criticism of Bultmann3. Bultmann and Parmenides4. Modern' Man's an's Self-Deceit5. On Going Beyond Bultmann6. Ogden's Aletho~d and Content7. Ogden's "Sovereign Grace"8. Ogden's "Structural Inconsistency9. Back to Fuchs and Ebeling from Ogden via Buri and DillenbergerIII. Reaction of Some Orthodox TheologiansA. A. D. R. Polman .1. Under the Spell of Hermeneutika. The Aufklarung (16,50-1780)b. Kant's General Approach(1) Kant's Ideas of Autonomy, of Abstract Rationality and of Contingency(2) Kant's Four Rules of Hermeneuticsc. Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768-1834)d. Albrecht Benjamin Ritschl (1822-1889)(1) Ritschl on the Jesus of Historye. The Christ of "Old Liberalismf. New Directions in Hermeneutics (Karl Barth)g. The Exist ential-Kerygmatic Hermeneutic of Rudolph Bultmannh. The Linguisticality of Existencei. The New Quest of the Historical Jesusj. Robert G. Collingwood on History.k. New Directions in Theology-Braatenl. New Frontiers in Theologym. Hans George Gadamern. Dietrich Bonhoeffero. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's Christ-Mystiquep. Gordon D. Kaufmann(1) Kaufmann's Dialogue with God .(2) Kaufmann's Dialogue with hIalchusB. H. M. Kuitert1. Kuitert's - Main Writings2. Kuitert's General Framework of Thoughta. Kuitert Addresses Reformed Theologians(1) The Ethical is the -Non-Intellectual(2) The Content and the Packing(3) Gerhard Ebeling on Faithb. Evaluation of Kuitert's Views(1) huitert's Great Discovery(2) Kuitert on the Liberty Train to Sartre(3) The Lights Go Out(4) Kuitert's Despair(5) Kuitert's Basic Misalignments(6) Kuitert's Frantic Search for Objectivity in the Idea of Tradition(a) Kuitert's Pro-Me Covenant Theology(b) Kuitert Cries for Help from Drowning Menc. Kuitert Calls a Summit Conference3. Kuitert's Opening Addressa. Legitimate Subjectivity-Traditionb. The Legitimacy of Critical-Historical Research4. Kuitert's Great Betrayala. Kuitert Capitulates to Modern Science on the "Origins of Historyb. Kuitert Capitulates to the "Center" of Historyc. Kuitert Capitulates to Modern Philosophy with Respect to the End of History(1) Ernst Bloch-Das Prinzip Hoffnung(2) Jurgen Moltmann-The Theology of Hoped. Kuitert's Re-evaluation of Deathe. Summarv of Kuitert's Views.(1) Kuitert's View of God(2) Kuitert's View of \lan(3) Kuitert's View of Christ(4) Kuitert's View of ScriptureC. S. U. Zuidema1. Zuidema's Starting Point2. Zuidema on Modern Humanisma. The Philosophy of Occamb. Pioneers of Humanism3. Zuidema on Modern Existentialisma. The "Christian Existentialism" of Soren Kierkegaardb. Non-Christian Existential Philosophy.(1) Karl Jaspers(2) Alartin Heideggerc. Karl Barth Existential Theologyd. The Structure of Barth's Doctrine of Creatione. From Bultmann to Fuchs4. Zuidema on the 'New Hermeneutica. Fuchs-Ebelingb. Kuitert(1) What is Metaphysic?IV. The New Hermeneutic of Holland1. Herman Wiersing2. G. Y. Hartvelt3. J. Z. Koole4. F. J. Baarda5. C. Augustijn