Logos Staff
Which theologians are people searching for online? Here are sixteen of the most searched theologians (in no particular order) from all traditions—along with a few comments about each and a few books each has written.
1. Karl Barth
First is Karl Barth, twentieth-century Swiss theologian of the Reformed tradition. A vigorous opponent of theological liberalism and modernism, he is nonetheless commonly considered the father of neo-orthodoxy.
Barth gained theological fame initially for his commentary on Romans, and then for his massive Church Dogmatics. Barth had a live-in mistress for most of his married life, and she assisted him with the latter work.
2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian, pastor, and ecumenist. Bonhoeffer was also a professor in Berlin, an uncompromising teacher in the Confessing Church, and a consistent opponent of National Socialism. Executed by Hitler at the end of World War II, his influence continues today. Bonhoeffer penned countless letters, portions of fiction, and several works on theology and ethics that have shaped modern religious thought.
The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together are Bonhoeffer’s best-known works.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 5: Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible
Regular price: $18.99
3. John B. Webster
John Webster was a distinguished British theologian and member of the Anglican Communion. He co-founded the International Journal of Systematic Theology and co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology.
Webster’s Christ Our Salvation: Expositions and Proclamations is a collection of homilies and a good place to start with Webster. In this Lexham Press book, Webster explores the various contours of the salvation accomplished for us in Christ and displays for preachers a model of theological exegesis that understands the gospel as the heart of holy Scripture.
4. Paul Tillich
Exiled to America upon Hitler’s rise to power, Paul Tillich lived in earth-shaking times and wrote works that shook the foundations of Christian theology. As both a German-American theologian and an existentialist philosopher, Tillich’s influence still lives on today. Tillich, like Barth, was a fairly open adulterer.
His autobiography, On the Boundary, provides insight into Tillich’s life and thought.
5. Hans Urs von Balthasar
Hans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss Roman Catholic theologian. In Love Alone Is Credible, von Balthasar delves deeper into the exploration of what love means, what makes the divine love of God, and how we must become lovers of God in the footsteps of saints like Francis de Sales, John of the Cross, and Thérèse of Lisieux.
6. Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann is a German Reformed theologian and served as a pastor from 1952 to 1958 in Bremen, Germany. He is professor emeritus of systematic theology at the University of Tübingen and the 2000 recipient of the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in religion.
Moltmann is known for his Theology of Hope, in which he digs deep into the foundations of Christian hope and into the exercise of this hope in thought and action in the world today.
Theology of Hope: On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology
Regular price: $22.99
The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation & Criticism of Christian Theology
Regular price: $26.99
7. Richard Bauckham
Richard Bauckham is senior scholar at Ridley Hall in Cambridge and visiting professor at St. Mellitus College. He is a fellow of The British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Bauckham’s most famous work is probably the insightful historical study Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, in which Bauckham argues that the four Gospels are based on the eyewitness testimony of those who personally knew Jesus. He also challenges readers to end the classic division between the “historical Jesus” and the “Christ of faith,” proposing instead the “Jesus of testimony” as presented by the Gospels.
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, 2nd ed.
Regular price: $33.99
Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church (Bloomsbury Academic Collections)
Regular price: $29.99
8. Carl F. H. Henry
Carl F. H. Henry helped launch the National Association of Evangelicals and served on its board for many years. Henry also assisted Rev. Billy Graham in founding Christianity Today, where he served as editor for twelve years.
Henry’s book, Basics of the Faith, provides an overview of essential Christian doctrines from some of the best minds of mid-twentieth century evangelicalism around the globe, including Philip E. Hughes, John Murray, and J. I. Packer. His magnum opus is God, Revelation, and Authority.
Basics of the Faith: An Evangelical Introduction to Christian Doctrine
Regular price: $19.99
Architect of Evangelicalism: The Essential Essays of Carl F. H. Henry
Regular price: $16.99
9. Alexander Schmemann
Alexander Schmemann was an Orthodox priest, teacher, and writer who explained issues such as secularism and Christian culture from the perspective of the unbroken experience of the church.
Schmemann wrote For the Life of the World, where he suggests an approach to the world and life within it which stems from the liturgical experience of the Orthodox Church.
10. N. T. Wright
Nicholas Thomas (“N. T.” or “Tom”) Wright is a New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian, and Anglican bishop and research professor emeritus of New Testament and early Christianity at St. Mary’s College. He is known for excellent prose, deep historical knowledge, and his controversial “New Perspective on Paul.”
Wright is also an apologist, and one of his popular books, Surprised by Hope, is a kind of apologetic. It frames the resurrection of the dead—a topic on which Wright has written at great length in the highly praised The Resurrection of the Son of God—as the appropriate hope for all believers, rather than a disembodied “spiritual” existence.
Wright’s major academic works come in the Christian Origins and the Question of God series, but he has written very insightful and accessible commentaries on every book of the New Testament in his New Testament for Everyone series.
11. John Polkinghorne
John Polkinghorne was a distinguished physicist who spent recent decades studying and writing about the relationship between science and faith. He became an Anglican priest in 1979 and a leading spokesman for the faith among serious scientists.
The Eerdmans John Polkinghorne Collection (2 vols.) includes The Work of Love and The Trinity and an Entangled World.
Science and Christian Belief: Theological Reflections of a Bottom-up Thinker
Regular price: $12.99
12. Walter Brueggemann
Walter Brueggemann is professor emeritus at the mainline Protestant Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, and past president of the Society of Biblical Literature.
His book Deliver Us: Salvation and the Liberating God of the Bible explains how the themes of the exodus event and the stories of the giving of the law that follow lay the groundwork for a biblical understanding of salvation. This volume also reveals Brueggemann’s clear understanding that divine liberation from exploitation and acquisitiveness also means liberation for generous action for the common benefit.
13. John Dominic Crossan
John Dominic Crossan is professor emeritus at DePaul University. He participated in the (in)famous Jesus Seminar, which voted with colored beads about the historicity of the various sayings and acts of Jesus recorded in the Gospels.
The Select Works of John Dominic Crossan (8 vols.) examines how Jesus’s teachings are presented throughout several nontraditional sources and examines the Galilean’s teaching from several new angles. In this collection, Crossan also explores how apocryphal texts like the Gospels of Thomas and Peter can affect the way we read accounts of Jesus in the traditional canon.
Gospel Truth (134894)
How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis Through Revelation (audio)
Regular price: $19.99
14. Diana Butler Bass
Diana Butler Bass is senior research fellow and director of the Project on Congregations of Intentional Practice, a research study of mainline Protestant churches at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia.
In her book The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church, Bass argues that there are signs that mainline Protestant churches are indeed changing, finding a new vitality intentionally grounded in Christian practices and laying the groundwork for a new type of congregation.
15. Lauren Winner
Lauren Winner writes and lectures widely on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish-Christian relations. Winner has appeared on PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and has served as a commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
In Mudhouse Sabbath, Winner illuminates eleven spiritual practices that can transform the way we view the world and God. In Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity, Winner speaks candidly to single Christians about the difficulty—and the importance—of sexual chastity. She uses phrases like “confession” and “sin” as she grounds her discussion of chastity first and foremost in Scripture. She confronts cultural lies about sex and challenges how we talk about sex in church.
16. Craig Bartholomew
Craig G. Bartholomew is director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics and has authored several influential books on the Old Testament and hermeneutics.
In Excellent Preaching: Proclaiming the Gospel in Its Context and Ours, Bartholomew teaches pastors how to preach so that the powerful message of the Bible penetrates the daily lives of their congregations. While pastors need to be intimately acquainted with Scripture, they also need to understand the context in which they preach, with the realization that good contextualization requires hard work.
Excellent Preaching: Proclaiming the Gospel in Its Context and Ours
Regular price: $7.99
When You Want to Yell at God: The Book of Job (Transformative Word)
Regular price: $4.99
The Drama of Scripture: Finding our Place in the Biblical Story, 2nd ed.
Regular price: $24.99
Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture
Regular price: $44.99
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