This volume contains twenty-three essays contributed by twenty-one theologians and a religionist or two. Twelve of the authors are Lutherans; two are Anglican priests; two are Roman Catholics; and one each is Presbyterian, Church of the Brethren (formerly Roman Catholic—Nancey Murphy), American Evangelical, and Disciple of Christ. One of the authors belongs to all religions but is a member of none (Huston Smith); and there is one whose religious community affiliation is not evident in the essay (Kathryn Tanner). Many are cradle Christians; some were at one stage or another atheist (e.g., Alister McGrath and Wolfhart Pannenberg). The average length of the essays is twelve pages. The value of the volume is high indeed. It gives us a picture, more than a snapshot but less than a map, of the religious as well as the intellectual life of the contributors. Most of the authors are systematicians and historical theologians, and all have significant educational background. The spread of interests is remarkably broad, from revisiting medieval philosophy and theology to religion-and-science to ecofeminism and the theology of nature. The essays are uniformly fascinating and informative, though perhaps two are obscure in prose style or intellectually too complicated. A handful seem to me brilliant and even “deep,” and more than a few are exciting. The many influences cited by the authors include Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Jaspers, Wilhelm Dilthey, Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and Paul Tillich; and in the case of Pannenberg, Alfred North Whitehead and William James. These and dozens more are prominent as mentors, models, and foils. The University of Chicago and Yale doctoral programs and their respective scholarly ideologies receive attention, but European university theology departments predominate; in fact one could conclude that European theological education continues to be superior and that even in the American institutions, active European scholars show the way. Because of the number of Lutheran theologians and pastors chosen, the volume serves nicely to introduce the reader to what Lutheran religious scholars find important (Luther still is!). Finally, across the volume, the value placed by theologians on their theological and religious traditions and on church membership and practice jumps out at the reader. These theologians are committed religious people with Christian churches to which they feel responsible.

We are not talking, then, about a theological peep show with this volume; we are talking about serious scholars, their scholarship, and their religious life. But there is no index and no bibliography, almost unforgivable lapses in a volume of this sort. By not including them Fortress Press eliminated easy tracking of influential theologians across authors. The reader has to go page by page and count.

To boot, there is no transcendental Thomism, hardly a mention of Karl Rahner or Hans Urs von Balthasar, and no mention of Hans Küng, Edward Schillebeeckx, Yves Congar, or Henri de Lubac, no Bernard Lonergan, and only one mention of David Tracy (he directed one Catholic contributor's dissertation). These are among the most influential Roman Catholic academic theologians of the twentieth century. The point is this: if the authors are meant to be representative of theology one would be tempted to conclude that Catholic theologians have had little or no influence outside the reaches of the Catholic Church. I wonder about that. Among American Protestant influences, there is no mention of Schubert Ogden or any other Methodist. Many Catholics, myself included, would place Ogden high on the list of influences. No essay by Charles Curran or Margaret Farley or Elizabeth Johnson! This is not a criticism of the volume (the editors had their task, and they fulfilled it admirably) as much as an important point to be noted for the reader's sake. With a bit of armchair research another large source of light on and in theology can easily be discovered. What we get in the volume are essays by Protestants heavily loaded in the direction of Lutheranism.

The volume should be in every graduate-level library with holdings in theology and religion. Graduate students in these fields will learn a great deal about theological options and schools, and about how demanding and illuminating the work of a theological scholar is in the long run. The volume would especially profit American graduate students in introductory seminars in which the map of theology is drawn.