Hans Wilhelm Frei
1922-1988
An Annotated Bibliography
§4: 1980s
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The 1980s
- 1980a 'Hans F. Holocaust Testimony', Fortunoff Video Archive
for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library (HVT-170).
To quote the Archive catalogue: 'Videotape testimony of Hans F., who was born in 1922, the youngest of three children, into an assimilated family in Breslau, and moved to Berlin at the age of seven. He is now a professor of Religious Studies and much of his testimony is suffused with a psycho-historical critique of the topics he discusses. From his personal experience, Professor F. tells of his early politicization; his parents' fear for the family; his education in England, where he became a religious Christian (while his father, still in Germany, renounced his own conversion and returned to Judaism as a political protest;) and of the secularized Jews he encountered in the Washington Heights section of New York, where he and his parents lived after emigrating from Germany. He speaks of his discovery of his Jewish heritage through his Christian experiences, and the difficulty of harmonizing in oneself the secular/Christian with the cultural/religious traditions of Judaism. Professor F. pays particular attention to the insidious appeal and powerful organization of the Nazi program and asserts his belief in the necessity to bear witness.' - 1980b Letter to John Woolverton, Jan 23 (YDS 5-109).
Frei belittles his claim to be called a 'theologian', and queries the extent to which he counts as an Anglican - something that has been ambivalent since his time in Austin. - 1980c Letter to Van Harvey, Apr 3 (YDS 2-39).
Frei thanks Harvey for supporting his application for a Guggenheim grant, which was to take Frei to England a little later on. 'I'm going to try and retool a little bit and learn to do a modicum of social history. I may try it out on a parish or two in England, if successful.' - 1980d Letter to Bruce Piersault, July 8 (YDS 4-75).
'No, Eclipse was not influenced by the deconstructionists; I was far too unwashed literarily to know what they or even their predecessors were up to at that point. On the contrary, I was really naively persuaded that there was such a thing as a normative meaning to a narrative text, if not to others. Since then I've become a bit more jaded under their influence, but still feel like digging in my heals rather than celebrating Nietzsche's wild relativistic rhetoric accompanied by Heidegger's pompous obbligato.' - ?1980e Review of Hans Dieter Betz (ed.), The Bible as a Document
of the University, (Missoula: Scholar's Press, 1980), (YDS 10-161).
YDS only has an incomplete draft, which contains brief comments on Ebeling, Barr and Ricoeur (with little critical content) and breaks off in the middle of some comments on Ricoeur. I have been unable to discover if and when it was published. - ?1981a 'The Formation of German Religious Thought in the Passage
from Enlightenment to Romanticism', lecture notes for course RS371b
(YDS 13-199).
Lectures on Lessing, Herder, Kant and Schleiermacher. The course certainly ran until 1981, and the notes include a 1981 exam paper, but Frei may have written the lectures considerably earlier - when preparing his proposed book on German Religious Thought between Enlightenment and Romanticism: Aesthetics, Language and Religious Thought in Lessing, Kant and Herder after the Rockwell lectures (1974c), for instance.
Transcript available. - ?1981b Notes on Erich Auerbach (YDS 13-199).
These notes are included in a pad which also contains lecture notes for ?1981a. Even if those lectures are from the early 'seventies, these notes cannot be from Frei's first reading of Auerbach in 1964.
Transcript available. - ?1981c 'Historical Reference and the Gospels: A Response to
a Critique of The Identity of Jesus Christ' (my title) (YDS 13-199).
These notes are included in that papers for ?1981a, and so may well come from the mid-seventies rather than 1981. They are a response to an unidentified article on The Identity of Jesus Christ (1975a), and deal at some length, and with a conversational clarity uncommon in Frei's more formal writings, with questions about the historicity of the Gospel narratives and the nature of Frei's claims about the resurrection.
Transcript available. - ?1981d Review of Wendelgard von Staden's Darkness Over The Valley:
Growing Up in Nazi Germany (New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1981)
(YDS 10-166).
YDS has only an incomplete manuscript draft. I have been unable to discover whether or where this was published.
Transcript available. - [1981e] 'D.F. Strauss on Christology: an Answer to Hegel and
Schleiermacher', paper delivered to 'The Biblical Theologians'.
'The Biblical Theologians' were a 'self-selected' group of about 30 theologians in the Northeast of the U.S. I know no more about this paper, but suspect it was a version of 1985c, which was probably complete by now. - 1981f 'History, Salvation-History, and Typology', (YDS 18-278).
Described in 1981i, which places it in April. The talk is, as Frei says in the letter, 'about discerning patterns of providential government in the sequence of historical events'; Frei runs this ecclesiologically in a dialectical way: the people of God are a sign of the eschatological shape of all humanity, and human history in general foreshadows the travail and glory of God's people. As is his wont, Frei rejects any view that might 'reduce specific events to instances of either natural pattern or ideal generalization.' Such a view involves claims about agency and events; it also involves claims about typological reading and political theology.
Transcript available. - 1981g Letter to Owen Chadwick, May 8 (YDS 1-10).
Frei asks Chadwick's advice about conducting social historical research in English parishes.
- 1981h Letter to William Clebsch, July 5 (YDS 1-16).
Frei sent Clebsch, who had just delivered some talk of great historical breadth, his piece on Strauss (1985c), saying, 'Some day, or rather some non-day, St. Peter is going to haul us before him and ask us to account for our friendship. And he is going to smile in a mildly puzzled way and say, "Well, at least I know which one of you is the hedgehog and which the fox"' (the reference being, presumably, to Isaiah Berlin's The Hedgehog and the Fox). It also becomes clear that the Strauss essay is just finished (cf [1981e]) having had 'too much Guggenheim time' spent on it, and that Frei is considering making it the linchpin of the upcoming Shaffer Lectures on Christology (1983a). - 1981i Letter to Julian Hartt, Aug 19 (YDS 2-36).
Gives a detailed synopsis and brief commentary on 1981f. See CPH Ch.7, section 3.
Transcript available. - 1981j Review of Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth: His Life from
Letters and Autobiographical Texts (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1976), Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 51
(August 1981), pp.109-21.
Cf. 1976j, 1978g and 1978j. A draft of this version of the review can be found in YDS 10-162. - 1981k Letter to Roger L. Shinn, Aug 26 (YDS 4-86).
'I am deeply persuaded that materially philosophy must not govern the curriculum or the spirit of modern seminary education, but that formally its thorough-minded, disciplined probing is one of our few protections against the regnant confusion of Christian depth with a soft and addle-brained mentality.' - 1981l 'The History of Modern Theology', lecture transcripts,
Sep 2-Oct 28 (YDS 14-212).
Amongst the papers for 'Modern Christian Thought, 1650-1830' and 'Modern Christian Thought, 1830-1950' (see ?1978a), are a sheaf of transcripts. Bruce Marshall apparently taped this lecture course, and John Wells transcribed the tapes in 1984 - although the typescript reads very much like a summary, and I suspect they are not verbatim transcripts. They get as far as Rousseau. - 1981m Letter to Mark Ellingsen, Oct 20 (YDS 1-23).
On the existence of a 'Yale school': 'I am unable to adumbrate at any length right now, but I am personally doubtful about the persuasiveness of some of the moves I have made in the past; at the very least they need large-scale qualification. Moreover, I may not be in agreement on basic issues with some of my colleagues, and I think I am still in the process of developing a "position", and that may be true of my colleagues also, for all I know.' - 1981n Letter to Paul Ramsey, Dec 9 (YDS 4-82).
The letter contains a rather impressionistic vision of politically engaged theology, describing 'people whose highest agenda, no matter how seriously and committedly they reflect on the problems of American and wider culture, is their single-minded devotion to the Lord of the church and of creation at large' etc. - ?1982a Notes on Jeffrey Stout, 'What is the Meaning of a Text?' in
New Literary History 14 (1982), pp. 1-12 (GF).
Frei scribbled quite extensively, and critically, in the margins of his copy. - 1982b 'Theology and the Interpretation of Narrative: Some Hermeneutical
Considerations', paper delivered at Haverford College, revised version
published in TN, pp.94-116.
Frei looks at the relationship between Wissenschaft and Christian self-description in theology and at the impact of different forms of theology upon the sensus literalis of scripture. - [1982c] Paper on Frei's project, AAR conference, New York, December.
I know no more about this.. - 1983a The Shaffer Lectures, delivered at Yale Divinity School,
republished in TCT, pp.8-69.
YDS has 1983a(i) - a draft of most of the material on Kaufman, Tracy, Schleiermacher and Barth (YDS 17-259). The final text initially follows this draft very closely, with the addition of some brief introductory comments at the beginning and end of the section on Gordon Kaufman, and the beginning of the section on David Tracy. A short way in to the Tracy material, however, the final text begins to diverge entirely from the draft, returning only for a brief spell at the start of the section on Barth. The draft also has no section on Schleiermacher. YDS also has 1983a(ii) - an anecdotal introductory section included in the typescript deleted from the published version (YDS 10-172). The final version, 1983a(iii), was published in Types of Christian Theology. Much of the Shaffer material which has been collected in chapter 3 of TCT is reworked from 1982b. The drafts in YDS 10-171 and 10-172 show that TCT chapter five, which the editors (TCT p.x) assign to the Cadbury lectures (1987a), but which David Ford ('On Being Theologically Hospitable to Jesus Christ: The Achievement of Hans Frei') assures us was no part of them, was originally part of the Shaffer Lectures. - 1983b Summary by Bruce Marshall of a discussion with Frei on
Schleiermacher and his place in the typology, Mar 22 (YDS 3-61).
Bruce Marshall appears to have been appointed stenographer to a reading class of Frei's. This is the first of two reports which he produced which exist in the YDS archive. Frei discussed the 'double reference' of Schleiermacher's theology: to the content of consciousness and to the reality of God, or to Wissenschaft and to Christian self-description. - 1983c 'The "Literal Reading" of Biblical Narrative
in the Christian Tradition: Does it Stretch or Will it Break?', paper
delivered at a conference at the University of California, in May; published
in The Bible and the Narrative Tradition, ed. Frank McConnell (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1986), pp.36-77; republished in TN, pp.117-52
(an edited version also reprinted in The Return of Scripture in Judaism
and Christianity, ed Peter Ochs, New York: Paulist Press, 1993, pp.55-82).
This is the essay more than any other which has been taken to mark a 'break' in Frei's work, in which he crystallizes his uneasiness with the project of Identity and Eclipse. - 1983d Bruce Marshall's summary of a discussion with Frei on
Charles Wood, June 1 (YDS 3-61).
Cf 1983b. Frei suggested an 'appendix' to Wood's The Formation of Christian Understanding, which would deal not with the exercise of Christian understanding but with its content, its ascriptive focus. - 1983e Letter to Patrick Sherry; July 5 (YDS 4-91).
Comprising 1983e(i), the letter itself, and 1983e(ii) an accompanying analysis of a dissertation, titled 'Estimate of the Work as a Whole'. In (i), Frei also discusses the essay on Strauss eventually published as 1985c. - [1983f] Paper on Barth and Schleiermacher delivered at the AAR,
December.
I know no more about this - although it may well have been an early version of 1986c. - 1983g 'Autobiographical Notes on "Self"' (YDS
27-335).
Three tantalising sheets of incredibly fragmentary and enigmatic notes. The sheets are undated, but state that Frei was married '35 years ago'.
Partial transcript available. - 1984a 'In Memory of Robert L. Calhoun', address given at
Calhoun's memorial service, in February, published in Reflection 82
(1984), pp.8-9.
Contains comments on 'generous orthodoxy' and on what it is to be an academic theologian. - 1984b '"Narrative" in Christian and Modern Reading',
delivered to the Duodecim Club on Apr 27 or 28 1984, reprinted in Bruce
D. Marhsall (ed.) Theology and Dialogue: Essays in Conversation with
George Lindbeck (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990),
pp.149-63.
A piece with this title was certainly presented in 1984; whether it is identical with the piece published in Theology and Dialogue, I cannot say - although there is nothing inherently implausible about the content of the latter having been written this early. The essay begins with material drawn directly from the 'Literal Reading' essay (1983c), and then continues with a presentation of a typology of ways of reading realistic narrative in theology. - 1984c Letter to Gene Outka, Aug 8 (YDS 4-74).
Discussing a criticism made of him and others by James Gustafson, Frei says, 'We make truth claims, but in view of the fact that God is not within genus and species as ordinary referential truths are, they have to be logically odd and not so much backed as illustrated by a mix of truth theories, each qualifying the other, all of them inadequate.' He goes on to illustrate his remarks with regard to the resurrection. - 1984d 'George Lindbeck: The Nature of Doctrine',
paper given at the launch of Lindbeck's book, Sep 14; published as 'Epilogue:
George Lindbeck and The Nature of Doctrine' in Theology and Dialogue:
Essays in Conversation with George Lindbeck ed. Bruce D. Marshall (Notre
Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990), pp.275-82.
Frei welcomes the book, giving a short but subtle interpretation in which he takes Lindbeck as a champion of 'the orthodox Christian as liberal humanist' - not a typical reading of the book. 1981n contains a similar portrait of Lindbeck. - 1984e Letter to Gary Comstock, Nov 5 (YDS 12-184).
Comstock wrote two articles ('Truth or Meaning: Ricoeur versus Frei on Biblical Narrative' and 'Two Types of Narrative Theology') in which he thoroughly misunderstood Frei, but which have had more than their fair share of influence on the interpretation of Frei. Frei corresponded with Comstock whilst one of the articles was on the way towards publication, and argued that he was not, in Comstock's terms, a 'pure narrativist' nor really an 'antifoundationalist'.
Transcript available. - ?1985a 'Proposal for a Study of Academic Education in Theological
Studies' (my title) (YDS 12-185).
A brief piece of writing which reads like an official proposal for a project (maybe written for a funding body?) but which begins by discussing the work of George Lindbeck, and so is probably later than The Nature of Doctrine (1984). It points firmly towards the later versions of Frei's typology, in that it speaks enthusiastically of a Weberian sociological approach, an element which was to come to far more prominence in the Princeton lectures. - ?1985b Notes on proofs or photocopies of Ronald Thiemann's Revelation
and Theology (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985),
pp.130-149 (YDS 23-311).
Notes scribbled in the margin of a proof or photocopy. They are not tremendously revealing, apart from showing that Frei had minor some doubts about details of Thiemann's presentation. There are also some clarifications of Frei's own stance: 'The narrative is explicatively and meditatively a character identification in the midst of others who are related to him as he becomes identified. The reference is a totally different matter: the narrative may refer to reality and it may refer (by way of application) to us, but that is a matter of confluence of use with narrative explicative sense, not of explicative sense alone' (this on Thiemann p.145). - 1985c 'David Friedrich Strauss' in Nineteenth
Century Religious Thought in the West, vol. 1, ed. Ninian Smart, John
Clayton, Steven Katz, and Patrick Sherry (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press), pp.215-60.
This article had been finished since early 1981 at least (see 1981h). There are various letters in the archive between Frei, the editors, and CUP concerning the delay, which gave Frei some pain. ćThis was the piece of which he was most proud: a detailed, sensitive exploration of Strauss' views and significance, with sections on Faith and knowledge before Strauss; Strauss and his cause cZl˛bre; the centrality of Christ in Christian theology; Christology and the Hegelian connection; The Life of Jesus; Strauss and Schleiermacher. - 1985d 'Modern Christian Thought, 1650-1830', lecture notes
(YDS 14-215).
One of the sets of lecture notes mentioned in 1978a. I have drawn attention to this one because the Sept 4 lecture which begins the course discusses 'sensibility' in some detail, clarifying Frei's approach to social and intellectual history. - 1985e 'Response to "Narrative Theology: An Evangelical
Appraisal"', paper delivered in November, Yale; published in Trinity
Journal 8 (Spring 1987), pp.21-4.
A conversational and rambling response to a fairly thorough attack on Frei's work (amongst others) by Carl Henry. The exchange has since been re-examined in detail by George Hunsinger, in an article 'What can Evangelicals and Postliberals Learn from Each Other? The Carl Henry / Hans Frei Exchange Reconsidered'. - 1986a Proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH),
1986 (YDS 6-123), published as 'Proposal for a Project' in TCT, pp.1-7.
The briefest of outlines of the typology of Christian Theology. The YDS 6-123 version has a rewritten beginning. - 1986b 'Conflicts in Interpretation: Resolution, Armistice, or
Co-existence?', the Alexander Thompson Memorial Lecture, Princeton Theological
Seminary, published in TN, pp.153-66.
By way of an examination of a debate on Scriptural historicity between T.H. Huxley and Gladstone, Frei launches into a complex assessment of Frank Kermode's The Genesis of Secrecy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), and finishes with a plea for the literal sense in terms that pick up implicitly on a Barthian/Anselmian doctrine of analogy. - 1986c Papers for a conference on 'Love: the Foundation of Hope' honouring
JYrgen Moltmann and Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, April (YDS 18-268, 11-173).
Consisting of: 1986a(i), some notes Frei made in preparation for his paper; 1986a(ii), the typescript of a paper advertised as called 'To Give and to Receive: Christian Life Across the Barriers', but eventually just titled 'God's Patience and Our Work'; 1986a(iii), the typescript of a replacement paper which Frei prepared and delivered at the conference, simply titled 'Comments'; and 1986a(iv), the drafts and typescript of the section of Frei's paper which dealt with Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel's work. At the conference, Frei apparently became distressed at the direction that was being pursued, and completely re-wrote his paper. 'Comments' lambasts the conference for claiming that it can see more clearly than he thinks the logic of Christian claims allow the dialectical shape to history and the hope which awaits us. Frei calls for a more tentative and broken view through a dark glass.
Transcript available. - 1986d 'Barth and Schleiermacher: Divergence and Convergence',
paper presented at a conference at Stony Point, New York, in May; published
in James O. Duke and Robert F. Streetlam (eds) Barth and Schleiermacher:
Beyond the Impasse? (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), pp.65-87;
republished in TN, pp.177-99.
The paper clarifies the proximity of Barth and Schleiermacher, by looking at how each deals with Christian self-description and philosophy. - ?1986e Notes on Weber (YDS 12-187a).
The two drafts mostly deal with Max Weber, and probably come from 1986 (there is a note from a meeting in October 1986 on the back of one of the sheets). They begin with a social historical analysis of the rise of the profession in Germany, and its relation to the rise of Wissenschaft in German Universities, before switching to an outline of the issues surrounding the typology, and comments on the identification of Jesus. If they are drafts for the Humanities Council Lectures (1987c), they are early ones, and not much by way of actual text survived from them into the lectures. - 1986f Letter to William Placher, 3 Nov (YDS 4-78).
Frei briefly, tentatively, and with barbaric terminology, outlines a Trinitarian view of truth. - 1987a The Edward Cadbury Lectures, University of Birmingham.
The various papers here are in something of a mess, and it seems best simply to list the existing drafts and transcripts, then describe the individual lectures and what exists of them.
- 1987a(i): 'Lecture 1: The Theological Faculty in Modern Universities: Growth of a Profession' (YDS 11-173f) - originally headed 'Lecture 2'; a discussion of the Christian identification of Jesus Christ and his cosmic scope;
- 1987a(ii): 'Lecture 2: The Theological Faculty in Modern Universities: Growth of a Profession' (YDS 11-173f) - a discussion which follows on from (i), treating the essence of Christianity and then the contemporary social organisation of theological study;
- 1978a(iii): 'Lecture 2: The Theological Faculty in Modern Universities: Growth of a Profession' (YDS 11-173f) - largely about Schweitzer, although the lecture begins with a discussion of realism, including realism in the English novel;
- 1987a(iv): Untitled (YDS 11-173f) - deals with natural and revealed religion, theology and philosophy, medieval and modern universities, and German and American university organisation;
- 1987a(v): 'Theology in the University: Growth of a Profession (The Case of the University of Berlin)' (YDS 11-173d) - begins with material on Weber, and on the professionalization of the German academy, then moves on to Schleiermacher, before degenerating into notes;
- 1987a(vi) 'IV: Kant' (YDS 11-173e) - a typescript made from a tape recording of the relevant lecture. Treats type 1 (without introducing the typology);
- 1987a(vii) 'The Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith: Mediating Theology as System' (YDS 11-173d and 173e) - turns from German to American material; and then turns to David Tracy for type 2;
- 1987a(viii) 'Ad Hoc Correlation' (editors' title) (YDS 11-173d and 173e) - material from the Cadbury Lectures dealing with types 3 and 4; published in TCT, pp.70-91 (Ch.6);
- 1987a(ix) 'The End of Academic Theology' (YDS 11-173d and 173e) - material from the Cadbury Lectures dealing with type 5; published in TCT, pp.92-4 (Ch.7).
According to the description provided by David Ford in 'On Being Theologically Hospitable to Jesus Christ: The Achievement of Hans Frei', the actual lectures were as follows:
- Cadbury 1: 'According to the Text: The Specificity and Universality of Jesus Christ,' probably 1987a(i); reworked for the Humanities Council Lectures material found in TCT pp.133-146;
- Cadbury 2: 'The Theological Faculty in Modern Universities: Growth of a Profession', reworked for Humanities Council Lecture material found on TCT pp.95-116 (although it also contained material, now lost, on Locke); related to 1987a(ii), (iv) and (v);
- Cadbury 3: 'Teaching about Reason and History: The Rational Pursuit of Jesus'; reworked for the Humanities Council Lectures, and can also mostly be found in TCT pp.95-116, although there was extra material on 'Edward Farley and Van Harvey and about the contrast between England, where geology became the paradigmatic science, and Germany, where it was history; and there was also a summary of the five types of the typology' according to David Ford; related to 1987a(ii), (iv) and (v);
- Cadbury 4: 'Mediating between Church and Academy: The Turn to the Subject'; Frei was behind schedule by this time, and in fact delivered 1987a(vi), on Kant;
- Cadbury 5: 'The Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith: Mediating Theology'; Frei, still behind, reached the material which he had intended for the previous lecture: Pietism, Methodism, idealism, Romanticism, Marx, and Strauss; this lecture appears to be completely missing;
- Cadbury 6: 'The Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith: Mediating Theology without System' = 1987a(viii);
- Cadbury 7: 'Restoring the Priority of the Text: the Hermeneutical Term'; Frei, behind, continued to deliver the material on types 3 and 4 found in 1987a(viii);
- Cadbury 8: 'Knowing Jesus and Learning to Live Christianly: The End of Academic Theology?' = 1987a(x); Frei was running behind and so this material is shorter than might be expected.
It is clearer even from the list of lectures that, far more than is apparent in the arrangement of material in TCT, Frei's typology project was firmly embedded (a) in his projected history of Christology, and (b) within a discussion of the Christian identification of Jesus of Nazareth.
- 1987b Curriculum Vitae.
The 'Writing in Process or Projected' section now reads: 'A book on Christology in Germany and England from 1700 to 1950; A book on theological typology and sensus literalis in modern theology (based on the Shaffer Lectures at Yale Divinity School, 1983, and the Cadbury Lectures, University of Birmingham, 1987).' - 1987c The Humanities Council Lectures, delivered in Princeton.
Comprising: 1987c(i), a short draft for a portion of the lectures (YDS 11-173); 1987c(ii), an old ending to the first lecture (YDS 11-173); and 1987c(iii), the published text of the lectures, TCT pp.95-116 and 116-132: 'The Case of Berlin, 1810'; 'Types of Academic Theology'; and 'The Encounter of Jesus with the German Academy'. Cf 1987a. - 1987d 'On the Going Down of Christ into Hell' (YDS 12-186).
This and 1987f and g were prepared for a book on the on the Thirty-Nine articles, to be edited by John F. Woolverton and A. Katherine Grieb (Church Hymnal Corporation). 'What is important is not that there be a real location called hell, so that someone could descend into it. Rather, Jesus Christ is so real - and therefore his cross so efficacious - that he defines, undergoes, and overcomes whatever it is that is absolutely and unequivocally hellish.'
Transcript available. - 1987e 'Of the Resurrection of Christ', published as 'How
it All Began: On the Resurrection of Christ' in Anglican and Episcopal
History 53.2 (June 1989), pp.139-45; reprinted in TN, pp. 200-6.
The piece on the resurrection by and large presents familiar themes - and shows the extent to which the Christological heart of Frei's theology had remained stable through all the changes in his methodology. On the copy of this article in YDS 10-157, Frei appended a note 'For George [Lindbeck?] from a would-be-catechist/theologian who would like to combine second-order with (at least) first-and-a-half order statements.' - 1987f 'Of the Holy Ghost' (YDS 12-186).
'In the logic of the Christian faith nothing is more naturally congruent than saying "do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God" and saying "The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God."' See CPH Ch.8, section 7.
Transcript available. - ?1988a Notes on H. Richard Niebuhr (YDS 19-275).
There are three separate sets of notes, all of which may well come from the same time, and one of which (the longest) has a scribbled note about plane times in Feb 1988 on it. There is ?1988a(i) a 16-page piece which begins with quotes from Niebuhr's The Responsible Self and then becomes a lecture, dealing with the difference between H. Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr. There is also ?1988a(ii) a shorter, 7-page manuscript, giving broken notes for a talk on Niebuhr as an interpreter of history. Then there are ?1988a(iii) some rough pages of outline notes on, amongst other things, Niebuhr's critical idealism. - 1988b Lectures on Modern Christian Thought 1830-1950, Jan 18 -
Apr 27 (YDS 15-231).
This is the last of Frei's runs through his lecture course on Modern Christian Thought (see ?1978a), and there is a fairly complete set of notes for the course which were evidently written at least in part whilst the course was taking place. - 1988c Sermon on Jn 15:5, (YDS 11-175a).
The sermon is for the 'class of 1988'. It begins with a meditation on 'the strange, beautiful mosaics in early Byzantine churches: those calm, unearthly figures whose gaze is fixed on a sight not visible to us. It continues, eventually, with a discussion of the Christian community worldwide as our first community - a theme Frei runs with an ecumenical slant. - 1988d 'H. Richard Niebuhr on History, Church and Nation',
paper written for September conference at Harvard, published in Ronald
F. Thiemann (ed.) The Legacy of H. Richard Niebuhr (Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1991) pp.1-23; republished in TN, pp.213-33.
The paper was delivered in Frei's absence when he fell ill - fatally, as it turned out. In his final work, Frei carries on that strand of political thinking about history and providence which was evident in the lecture on 'History, Salvation-History, and Typology' (1981f) and in Frei's contributions to the Moltmann conference (1986c). It also picks up on Frei's engagement with Niebuhr in a way which goes beyond the already remarkable service which Frei had done Niebuhr way back in 1957 (1957a and 1957b).
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