Twentieth Century Religious Thought Volume I: Christianity

Twentieth Century Religious Thought Volume I: Christianity

Scope

Twentieth Century Religious Thought is a multivolume, cross-searchable online collection that brings together the seminal works and archival materials related to key worldwide religious thinkers from the early 1900s until the turn of the 21st century.

Volume I will grow to include 150,000 pages of scholarship from influential theologians in the Christian tradition. It will include roughly 100,000 pages of published writings, along with complementary archival resources. The collection will reflect the increasingly global and pluralistic character of religious scholarship by including voices from other religions—including Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism—that have generated meaningful interfaith dialogue. It will also incorporate works from members of previously marginalized groups, among them key feminist theologians and scholars.

Twentieth Century Religious Thought covers the major strains and new directions in religious questioning that have often altered the very framework of given traditions. In addition to studying scholars’ ideas separately, researchers will be able to explore broader schools of thought to examine how different theories, denominations, faiths, and political and cultural groups have intersected, differed, and influenced one another. Central topics in Volume I will include Protestantism, Catholicism, Evangelicalism, Lutheranism, liberation theology, systematic theology, dialectical theology, and theocentric theology.

Volume I features more than 30 authors from Europe, North America, Asia, and Latin America, including:

  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • Leonardo Boff
  • Sergei Bulgakov
  • Rudolf Bultmann
  • Henri de Lubac
  • Gustavo Gutièrrez
  • Stanley Hauerwas
  • Jurgen Moltmann
  • Wolfhart Pannenberg
  • Karl Rahner
  • Rosemary Radford Ruether
  • Albert Schweitzer
  • Dorothee Soëlle
  • Ernst Troeltsch
  • Hans Urs von Balthasar
  • Adolf von Harnack

The initial release will include original and translated materials in English; future updates to the collection will include works in the writers’ native languages (i.e., French, Spanish, and German). The depth of coverage and the variety of voices, including explorations of race, gender, and class, will enable a nuanced exploration of individual practices.

The collection will incorporate content from the field’s leading partners including Fortress Press and Ignatius Press, and an expert editorial board will advise on the inclusion of materials. Board members include:

  • Diane Apostolos-Cappadona—Christian studies professor at Georgetown University
  • Yvonne Haddad—Professor of the History of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University
  • Zayn Kassam—Associate professor of religious studies at Pomona College 
  • Rosemary Radford Ruether—professor of Feminist Theology at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University
  • David Stubbs—Professor of Ethics and Theology at Western Theological Seminary
  • David Thomas—Professor of Christianity and Islam and Nadir Dinshaw Professor of Interreligious Relations at University of Birmingham

Teaching power

Twentieth Century Religious Thought will help students and scholars understand multiple perspectives by letting users:

  • Browse by type of theology, author,  religion, and work.
  • Experience the conversations within and between schools of thought in a transnational perspective.
  • Explore rare, international, in-copyright materials and personal papers not otherwise accessible.
  • Compare select documents in their native languages and in English translations.
  • Use archival materials to critically examine key writings in context.
  • Examine the nuances of individual religious practice.
  • Trace how belief systems grew and diversified as a result of the Great Depression, World War I and II, globalization, scientific discovery, and other major events.
  • Access links to related Web sites and resources.

About the series

Twentieth Century Religious Thought will contain four volumes, available singly or together as a series. Developed under the guidance of specialists in the field, the series will provide a comprehensive and rare assemblage of important and unique materials, the essential works documenting religious thinking in the 20th century.

Key concepts and theories, such as ethics, truth, emptiness, doctrine, and reincarnation, will be explored and examined across religions, while specific dogmas and philosophies will also be studied in depth. Students and scholars will experience the conversations within and among schools of thought through the key authors who have shaped the conversations and understandings.

For further context, the series will include foundational classical texts, bibliographies, lesson plans, a chronology with links to documents, selected essays by renowned scholars, and links to open-access Web resources.

Following the launch of Volume I: Christianity, Twentieth Century Religious Thought will grow by 2015 to include:

  • Volume II: Islam—100,000 pages, including printed works and archival material, covering the major trends in 20th century Islamic thought, with key influential works of the late 19th century. Most titles will be in English, with selected works in Arabic and Roman languages.
  • Volume III: Judaism—100,000 pages of printed works and archival material from authors in Europe, the United States, and Israel, showing the evolution of Jewish thought in the 20th century and the impact of the Holocaust on religion, thought, and politics. Most titles will be in English, with selected titles in Hebrew and Roman languages.
  • Volume IV: Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism—150,000 pages of printed works and archival material documenting the key works and practices of these influential Eastern religions. Most titles will be in English, with selected titles in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Roman languages.

This series adds to Alexander Street’s rich offerings for the study of religion and social thought, including Social Theory, The Digital Karl Barth Library, The Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts, and The Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation.

Once completed, the four volumes of Twentieth Century Religious Thought will constitute a major resource on all aspects of theological thought, dialogue, and experience across cultures, laying the foundation for historical and contemporary understandings.

Publication details

Volume I: Christianity will be available online to academic, public, and school libraries worldwide via subscription or one-time purchase of perpetual rights. Prices are scaled to institutional size and budget.

For those who own the The Digital Karl Barth Library, the collection is cross-searchable along with all volumes inTwentieth Century Religious Thought through a single interface. To request a free trial or price quote, please e-mail sales [at] alexanderstreet [dot] com.