SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY

—Volume 1—

Wolfhart Pannenberg

Translated by

Geoffrey W. Bromiley

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Originally published as Systematische Theologie, band 1

© 1988 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, Germany

English translation copyright © 1991 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503

All rights reserved

Reprinted 2001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pannenberg, Wolfhart, 1928–

[Systematische Theologie. English]

Systematic theology / Wolfhart Pannenberg; translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley.

p. cm.

Translation of: Systematische Theologie.

Includes indexes.

ISBN 0-8028-3656-9 (v. 1)

1. Theology, Doctrinal. I. Title.

BT75.2.P2613 1991

230’.044—dc2091–26339

CIP

The Biblical quotations in this publication are for the most part from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952 © 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission.

CONTENTS

Abbreviations

Foreword

CHAPTER 1 The Truth of Christian Doctrine as the Theme of Systematic Theology

§ 1 Theology

§ 2 The Truth of Dogma

§ 3 Dogmatics as Systematic Theology

§ 4 The Development and Problem of So-called Prolegomena to Dogmatics

§ 5 The Truth of Christian Doctrine as the Theme of Systematic Theology

CHAPTER 2 The Concept of God and the Question of Its Truth

§ 1 The Word “God”

§ 2 Natural Knowledge of God and Natural Theology

§ 3 The Proofs of God and Philosophical Criticism of Natural Theology

§ 4 Theological Criticism of Natural Theology

§ 5 The “Natural” Knowledge of God

CHAPTER 3 The Reality of God and the Gods in the Experience of the Religions

§ 1 The Concept of Religion and Its Function in Theology

a. Religion and the Knowledge of God

b. The Concept of Religion, the Plurality of Religions, and the “Absoluteness” of Christianity

§ 2 The Anthropological and Theological Nature of Religion

§ 3 The Question of the Truth of Religion and the History of Religion

§ 4 The Religious Relation

CHAPTER 4 The Revelation of God

§ 1 The Theological Function of the Concept of Revelation

§ 2 The Multiplicity of Biblical Ideas of Revelation

§ 3 The Function of the Concept of Revelation in the History of Theology

§ 4 Revelation as History and as Word of God

CHAPTER 5 The Trinitarian God

§ 1 The God of Jesus and the Beginnings of the Doctrine of the Trinity

§ 2 The Place of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the Dogmatic Structure and the Problem of Finding a Basis for Trinitarian Statements

§ 3 Distinction and Unity of the Divine Persons

a. The Revelation of God in Jesus Christ as the Starting Point, and the Traditional Terminology of the Doctrine of the Trinity

b. The Reciprocal Self-Distinction of Father, Son, and Spirit as the Concrete Form of Trinitarian Relations

c. Three Persons but Only One God

§ 4 The World as the History of God and the Unity of the Divine Essence

CHAPTER ...