BRUNNER, HEINRICH EMIL

Protestant theologian; b. Winterthur, Switzerland, Dec. 23, 1889; d. Zurich, April 6, 1966. An influential proponent of dialectical theology, together with Karl Barth, he led the movement away from nineteenth-century theological liberalism in favor of neo-orthodoxy.

Brunner studied theology in Zurich, Berlin, and Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and taught at the University of Zurich from 1924 until 1966. He also lectured at Princeton Theological Seminary (1938–39) and the Christian University of Japan (1953–55); because of his travels and the rapid translation of his works into English, he formed an important bridge between American and European theology. His continual concern to apply Christian theology to social problems led him from an early commitment to religious socialism to a passionate opposition to totalitarianism and communism, whose anthropological basis, according to Brunner, was atheism and the devaluation of the individual before the state. He was an ardent ecumenist, although he did not see any great value in organizational unity.

The key to Brunner's thought is his concept of the dialectical relationship between philosophy and theology, faith and reason, the gospel and the law. Philosophy does make a positive contribution to the theological enterprise by delimiting the boundaries of human reason and establishing a basis for a natural ethics. There are "orders of creation" that supply norms to which revelation itself testifies. But the philosophical experience of God is at best paradoxical; as Kierkegaard pointed out, no synthesis based on human reason is possible. In contrast to philosophy, revelation comes only through a personal encounter with Christ as mediated through scripture. In Jesus Christ, God discloses himself as Person whom man must acknowledge in an I-Thou relationship. Indeed, man can only be understood as a being-in-response. Man, as the image of God, is personally related and totally responsible to the holy, loving God. But man is also in revolt against God and can be saved only by the effective action of Christ the mediator who enables man to achieve integrity through personal communion with God and his fellow men.

Bibliography: e. brunner, Revelation and Reason (Philadelphia 1946); The Mediator (1947); The Divine Imperative (1947); Man in Revolt (1947); Dogmatics, 3 v. (1950–61). c. kegley, ed., Theology of Emil Brunner (New York 1962). r. thompson, The Function and Limits of Faith and Reason: A Critique of Brunner's Methodology (Chicago 1970). m. g. mckim, Emil Brunner: A Bibliography (Lanham, MD 1996). j. e. humphrey, Emil Brunner (Waco, TX 1976).

[t. mcfadden]