Review by Choice Review
Pannenberg's latest contribution to contemporary theology is nothing short of monumental and establishes him-already eminent in the field of theological anthropology-as peerless in the area this work addresses. It is not a systematic-theological, but a fundamental-theological anthropology. Its starting point is not dogmatic data or presuppositions founded on revelation but scientific observations of human beings, with a view to laying theological claim to the phenomena described in biology, psychology, cultural anthropology, and sociology. Pannenberg treats his material in three major divisions, beginning from the most particular and basic biological observations of the individual human subject, progressing to the person as a social being, and ending with the person as builder of culture. In the process he argues critically (to a fault) and compellingly that only a transcendent identity (the spirit) can and does found the human being as historical, ``exocentric,'' (p. 37 and passim), and ecstatic. The argument of his work will be most accessible to scholars of post-Englightenment thought, but even these will need Teutonic persistence to stay to the end. One should not ask for a longer work, but many readers will be disappointed in the paltry space devoted to a specifically Christian assessment of the data, while excessive space is given to tedious commentary on previous scholarship. Name, subject, and scripture indexes. No bibliography, but references abound in the extravagant notes. The translation is both accurate and literate. The printing is of high quality, the binding is not. Absence of this book from research libraries should be unforgivable.-D.G. Schultenover, Creighton University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
