The rejection of liberal theology may have been the lowest common denominator uniting the various theological schools that sprang up in the wake of World War I. In the century that has since elapsed, the case against theological liberalism has been variously reiterated; it still resonates in some of today's most influential theological movements. One might then be surprised that, after the amount of criticism directed against it, a book can still be filled with essays describing and discussing liberal theology today. By the same token, however, one may equally surmise that the apparent need to reiterate the case against liberal theology into our own time is in itself proof that the case about it is far from closed.

Thus far, the present volume originating in a conference held in Munich in July 2018 and consisting of thirty chapters written in English and German should be able to entice readers’ curiosity. Topics range widely from engagements with historical figures to contemporary debates. Chapters are written by those with sympathies for the liberal cause but also by some of their critics. Inevitably perhaps, the main focus is on German Protestant theology, then as now arguably the epicentre of the liberal theological project. The reader suspects that the editors sought to deflect from this fact by opening the volume with a section on ‘Liberal Theology in International Perspective’. Yet whatever its purpose, this first part of the book is highly instructive as it illustrates the utter and bewildering plurality of liberal theologies in various, mostly Western, countries. Gary Dorrien, for example, writes about the proximity of liberal and political theologies in the US, whereas Mark Chapman shows how liberalism in England was fundamentally predicated on the idea of a national Church. It therefore ran out of steam when it finally became clear that the project of Anglicanism as embracing the British population as a whole had run its course.

The tension between liberal theology as a conservative ideology underwriting a synthesis of Christianity and culture on the one hand, and a more progressive form aligning with the similarly named liberation theology on the other, is one of the intriguing axes around which the book can be read. Another is the contentious potential of liberal theology in pluralising societies. Unsurprisingly perhaps, the proponents of liberal theology cite today's religious diversity as one of the main attractions of their approach. Christian Danz, for example, proposes a pneumatologically focused liberal theology for the twenty-first century in response to increasing religious individualism. Yet the contention that religions, in order to operate peacefully in a pluralistic environment, have to be reconstructed as personal decisions informed by critically reflected knowledge of one's tradition does not remain uncontested in the present volume. From the perspective of comparative theology, Klaus von Stosch argues that this form of theological liberalism is, in fact, incurably supersessionist and not dialogical insofar as it operates with theoretical norms that are not in fact shared by the vast majority of religious believers. In other words, the tolerance of liberal theology may not extend beyond those willing to accept the liberal creed.

It is to be regretted that these and other tensions that could enliven today's debates about liberal theology have to be mostly reconstructed by the reader who carefully combs through the many chapters of the book. There is disappointingly little dialogue between the different versions of liberal theology presented or presupposed by the authors. There is also little engagement between proponents and critics of liberal theology. The former in particular make little effort, by and large, to indicate how their defence of liberal theology can respond to the criticisms directed against their project for such a long time. Many seem rather content with the facile notion that theological liberalism is a necessary remedy against the threat of unenlightened religious fundamentalism without entering into the more problematic entanglement liberals themselves have had with political and cultural establishments of their own time. Thus, while the editors are to be congratulated for their inclusion in the volume of a chapter on the liberal Nazi theologian, Emanuel Hirsch, the text by Arne Lademann offers little more than an acknowledgement of a personal paradox in Hirsch's theological and political orientation (p. 152). Careful readers of the present book will easily be able to conjecture that things were somewhat less personal and less paradoxical than this conclusion suggests, but they will also feel rather left alone in their attempt to disentangle the many strands present in the volume's contributions.

Some of these problems could arguably have been addressed through a synthetic introduction, and it is therefore unfortunate that the book offers little in that regard. A brief preface written by only one of the three editors gives the slimmest possible introduction to the book's topic and some of the contributions, but without an attempt to tie together some of the tantalising insights which, for the present reader at least, the book contains over its sprawling chapters.

For those interested in the historical vicissitudes of liberal theology, its contemporary potential, but also its enduring problems, this book is an impressive and welcome resource. It does, however, need careful and patient readers willing to establish a dialogue between the diverse contributors which in the volume itself is implicit at best. It remains to be hoped that the book will find many such readers. Liberal theology may well be ready for a twenty-first century re-evaluation, but any such attempt must be based on solid and critical stocktaking. The present volume offers ample material for this task, but it also leaves much further work to be done.