Description
A rich and profound contribution to the debate on the position of modern Christianity opened up Kraemer’s The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World. In Religion and the Christian Faith he deals with many of the criticisms of his position, and offers an apologia, at once luminous and massive, of the Christian religion as the revelation of God to Man and the faith for all mankind.
There is a decisive Christian finality about Kraemer’s writing, and his book is a significant contribution to the sharp discipline of faith and action under which the universal Christian community lives. All the way through his formidably marshalled arguments run the undertones of Christian involvement in a real, world – a world which, by his astonishing grasp of philosophy, Biblical theology and the claims of religion and religions, the Author brings alive to the reader.
The reading of this formative book, with its strenuous demands on the reader’s intelligence and Christian understanding, is a rewarding experience. Its significance for the Christian Church throughout the world is obvious, but it is also a monumental witness to the Christian religion for all those who ask not only for a faith ‘once delivered’ but a faith to believe in their own day and generation.
About the Author
Dr. Hendrik Kraemer received his doctor’s degree in Oriental Languages, Cultures, and Religions from Leiden University. He became Professor of the History and Phenomenology of Religions in the Theological Faculty of the University of Leiden (Netherlands). He was Director of the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches at Bossey (near Geneva) and was Fosdick Visiting Professor at the Union Theological Seminary, New York.
Contents
Author’s Preface
Introduction: Where Do We Stand?
Part One: Study of Religion
1. The Fruits of the Modern Approach
2. Varieties of the Philosophy of Religion
3. Some Conclusions from the Study
Part Two: An Investigation into Indian Religious Thinking
4. Radhakrishnan’s Philosophy of Religion
5. The Mind of Radhakrishnan
Part Three: Theological Attempts to Deal with the Problem of Religion and Religions
5. The Validity of the Theological Starting Point
6. The Early Christian Apologists
7. St. Thomas Aquinas – Past and Present
9. The Great Reformers
10. Religion and Religions in Barth and Brunner
11. European and American Studies
12. From Jerusalem 1928 to Tambaram 1938
Part Four: The Bible and the Problem of Religion and Religions
13. Biblical Religion is Theocentric
14. God, Man and Community in the Old Testament
15. God Reveals Himself by “Word” and by “Act”
16. The Logos Concept in the New Testament
17. The Righteousness and Wrath of God
18. The Life Relationship with God
Part Five: The Christian Dialogue with Religion and Religions
19. The Divine Human Drama
20. General and Special Revelation
21. Natural Theology and Alien Interpretation of the Biblical Attitude
22. Inter-Religious Co-operation and Tolerance
23. God’s Self-Disclosure in Christ and His Church
Part Six: Contemporary Questions for the Christian Faith
24. Syncretism as a Problem for Religion
25. Syncretism as a Missionary Problem
26. The Relation of Religion, Revelation and Philosophy
27. A Criticism of Paul Tillich’s “Reconciliation”
Postscript: The Alpha and the Omega
Index of Subjects
Index of Proper Names
