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The Mediator: A Study of the Central Doctrine of the Christian Faith
Translated from the second German edition (1932).
- GenresTheologyBiblical Studies
624 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1932
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About the author
Emil Brunner
184 books11 followersHeinrich Emil Brunner was a Protestant theologian and Professor of Systematic and Practical Theology at the University of Zurich.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 16, 2014
"The fact that God reveals Himself is His love; in the very fact that He comes down to our level, that He comes to us, that He seeks us, He reveals His heart, His will. It is only when we see that the Revealer really is God Himself that we perceive that God is One whose inmost essence is Love, whose inherent Reality is personal, and that It exists for us." (280)
There is a great amount of personal insight into the person and work of Christ here. Brunner stresses (often repetitively) the necessity of special revelation in one's conversion, that faith is quite different from an ascription to a series of dogma. Here and there, very helpful and illuminating, but much of it is, albeit necessary, philosophical fluff.
There is a great amount of personal insight into the person and work of Christ here. Brunner stresses (often repetitively) the necessity of special revelation in one's conversion, that faith is quite different from an ascription to a series of dogma. Here and there, very helpful and illuminating, but much of it is, albeit necessary, philosophical fluff.
July 4, 2021
I just finished "The Mediator: A Study of the Central Doctrine of the Christian Faith," by Emil Brunner. A Forgotten Books printing: check them out, they're awesome and have free ebooks if you must "ebook."
Brunner's first section is rightly dealing with Revelation. It should be noted that he wrote this right after his impressive "Revelation and Reason."
Unlike other forms of revelation the Christian revelation falls into the category of "onceness": it has happened once and for all in a singular event rather than a series. Naturan and scriptural revelation only become clear and make sense in light of the revelation of Jesus. All "revelation" without Jesus is a distortion of who the Revealer is. Thus Jesus as the pinnacle of not "revelation" but Revelation is the Mediator: pure, unblurred, Revelation from God to man as the God-man. Brunner bemoans the confusion of Scripture and the Mediator in verbal inspiration which elevated the record equal to or higher than He who it was a witness to.
This section was 200 pp so cut me some slack of I gave a very basic overview.
This next section deals with the person of Christ:
Brunner spends some time differentiating between the word of God and the Word of God. The prophet may speak the word of God in a non-authorative way and preceed it with "thus says the Lord." Jesus as the Word or LOGOS of God not only speaks the word but carries the authority--thus says the Lord--in Himself. Brunner's illustration is the prophets were the break of dawn before the Sunrise of Jesus.
"Only the Word which becomes flesh is really the Word," p 227.
He goes through "the Word" so completely that you come out in a place where you are offended if you hear someone call scripture "the Word." While Neo-orthodox were by and large Calvinists causing tons of tension between me and them with this sentiment about the Word I throughly agree.
"The Christ who came is the Gospel," p 272.
Finally (each section is 200 pp, so yes "finally") he deals with the work of Christ.
"The coming of the Son of God is His work," p 399.
Getting into the moral influence theory he claims a difference of degree not principal between Jesus' and Socrates' deaths. Strictly speaking, I agree though it would be good for other models to import some moral influence into their models because strictly objective views come across as changing a person's standing once and for all in God thus salvation is tattoo like.
"Reconciliation simply means the removal of a religious error," p 439.
"Thus when we speak of the 'Person' and 'the Work' of the Mediator we mean exactly the same thing. He Himself, because He is what He is, is the Revelation and Atonement," p 490.
That's quite a powerful view.
So Brunner is bent on penal substitution but where he differs from more modern proponents of PSA is he utilizes "expiation" as opposed to the volcano-god's "propiation". This, in my mind, sets him apart. He has tried to think about the implications of holding a propiation view of PSA and couldn't live with it. I'd also say that he softened more later in his career (see below).
(Brunner seems to have lost some of the Calvinist edge by the time he writes his Dogmatics. But in this work he still has a bit of it.)
#TheMediator #EmilBrunner #Brunner #NeoOrthodox #Christology #Atonement #AtonementTheology #WorkOfChrist #PersonOfChrist #RevelationOfGod
Brunner's first section is rightly dealing with Revelation. It should be noted that he wrote this right after his impressive "Revelation and Reason."
Unlike other forms of revelation the Christian revelation falls into the category of "onceness": it has happened once and for all in a singular event rather than a series. Naturan and scriptural revelation only become clear and make sense in light of the revelation of Jesus. All "revelation" without Jesus is a distortion of who the Revealer is. Thus Jesus as the pinnacle of not "revelation" but Revelation is the Mediator: pure, unblurred, Revelation from God to man as the God-man. Brunner bemoans the confusion of Scripture and the Mediator in verbal inspiration which elevated the record equal to or higher than He who it was a witness to.
This section was 200 pp so cut me some slack of I gave a very basic overview.
This next section deals with the person of Christ:
Brunner spends some time differentiating between the word of God and the Word of God. The prophet may speak the word of God in a non-authorative way and preceed it with "thus says the Lord." Jesus as the Word or LOGOS of God not only speaks the word but carries the authority--thus says the Lord--in Himself. Brunner's illustration is the prophets were the break of dawn before the Sunrise of Jesus.
"Only the Word which becomes flesh is really the Word," p 227.
He goes through "the Word" so completely that you come out in a place where you are offended if you hear someone call scripture "the Word." While Neo-orthodox were by and large Calvinists causing tons of tension between me and them with this sentiment about the Word I throughly agree.
"The Christ who came is the Gospel," p 272.
Finally (each section is 200 pp, so yes "finally") he deals with the work of Christ.
"The coming of the Son of God is His work," p 399.
Getting into the moral influence theory he claims a difference of degree not principal between Jesus' and Socrates' deaths. Strictly speaking, I agree though it would be good for other models to import some moral influence into their models because strictly objective views come across as changing a person's standing once and for all in God thus salvation is tattoo like.
"Reconciliation simply means the removal of a religious error," p 439.
"Thus when we speak of the 'Person' and 'the Work' of the Mediator we mean exactly the same thing. He Himself, because He is what He is, is the Revelation and Atonement," p 490.
That's quite a powerful view.
So Brunner is bent on penal substitution but where he differs from more modern proponents of PSA is he utilizes "expiation" as opposed to the volcano-god's "propiation". This, in my mind, sets him apart. He has tried to think about the implications of holding a propiation view of PSA and couldn't live with it. I'd also say that he softened more later in his career (see below).
(Brunner seems to have lost some of the Calvinist edge by the time he writes his Dogmatics. But in this work he still has a bit of it.)
#TheMediator #EmilBrunner #Brunner #NeoOrthodox #Christology #Atonement #AtonementTheology #WorkOfChrist #PersonOfChrist #RevelationOfGod
April 26, 2015
This was a wonderful book. Very deep, meaty explanation about the Mediator, Jesus. I only gave it four stars because it was so difficult to read. I takes time to digest.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews