Scope

Twentieth Century Religious Thought: Volume I, Christianity features scholarship from influential theologians in the Christian tradition, including extensive representation of feminist theologians and other previously marginalized and lesser-known voices. Created with scholars in mind, the collection couples the original materials with complementary resources, including meaningful interfaith writings and scholarly analyses of archival texts.

With 150,000 pages of scholarship in one convenient online database, this resource gives students and scholars unprecedented access to the diverse ideas that have shaped understandings of Christianity across history. For the first time, researchers can search across hundreds of fully-digitized documents to instantly compare how different theories, denominations, and cultural groups have intersected, differed, and influenced one another.

Content

Twentieth Century Religious Thought: Volume I, Christianity shares the voices of more than 30 theologians from Europe, North America, Asia, and Latin America, including. Featured materials include:

• The writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, leading figure in the Protestant fight against Naziism, whose works are available for the first time together in both English and German
• Nearly the complete works of Hans Urs Von Baltasar, including the series Theo-Drama, Theo-Logic, and Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics
• Personal papers of Reinhold Niebuhr, which are available online nowhere else
• Texts penned by Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), including Church, Ecumenism and Politics: New Endeavors in Ecclesiology, and Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religion
• The writings of Rosemary Radford Ruether, noted American feminist theologian, author of Women and Redemption: A Theological History
• Works from James Hal Cone, including A Black Theology of Liberation and God of the Oppressed
• Writings of Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutierrez, considered the father of liberation theology

Central topics in Twentieth Century Religious Thought: Volume I, Christianity include Protestantism, Catholicism, Evangelicalism, Lutheranism, liberation theology, systematic theology, dialectical theology, and theocentric theology. In addition to English language texts and translations, the collection will also grow to include works in writers’ native languages (i.e., French, Spanish, and German).

Tools for learning and scholarship

The functionality behind Twentieth Century Religious Thought makes it easy for students and scholars of religion, theology, social thought, and history to locate the most relevant materials. With unprecedented ease and clarity, users can contrast texts, discover rare works, and explore new avenues of inquiry. No other resource makes it so easy for researchers to examine the impact of World War II on various schools of Christian thought, isolate all usages of the phrase “cheap grace” across dozens of texts, or delve into varied perspectives on the Second Vatican Council.

Twentieth Century Religious Thought helps students and scholars synthesize multiple perspectives by letting users:

• Browse by type of theology, subject, author, religion, work, person discussed, and more.
• 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.

About the advisory board

The collection incorporates content from the field’s leading publishers, including Fortress Press and Ignatius Press, and an expert editorial board advises 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

Twentieth Century Religious Thought: Volume I, Christianity is a key component of the Twentieth Century Religious Thought Library: 

• Twentieth Century Religious Thought: Volume I, Christianity
• Twentieth Century Religious Thought: Volume II, Islam
• Twentieth Century Religious Thought: Volume III, Judaism
• Twentieth Century Religious Thought: Volume IV, Eastern Religions
• Twentieth Century Religious Thought: Volume V, Religion in Video

Testimonials