Story and Promise: A Brief Theology of the Gospel About Jesus

by Robert W. Jenson

The respected American theologian Robert Jenson here, in brief compass, presents his uncluttered understanding of the Christian message in a form ideal for beginning students, laypeople, and clergy. Professor Jenson sees the heart of the gospel as "the unconditional promise of the ultimate triumph of the love of Jesus of Nazareth" This gospel is based on the story of Jesus and is worked out in the lives of men and of nations as the promise it brings moves towards fulfillment. Story and Promise-we dare to call it a "one-volume dogmatics" -leaves no element of the Christian faith the classical doctrines concerning God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, man, the church; the clearly radical implications of these doctrines for personal and social transformation; the focus of Christian vision on the future as the time when God comes and man becomes what God intends. This book clarifies the traditional problems of faith, and also raises the revolutionary issues marking the end of this century. It is a thoughtful and satisfying piece of systematic theology in a time of shattered understandings of the faith.

Genres: Theology

198 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Robert W. Jenson was a student of Barth's theology for many years, and his doctoral dissertation at the University of Heidelberg earned Barth’s approval as an interpretation of his writings. A native of Wisconsin, Dr. Jenson attended Luther College in Iowa and Luther Theological Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, before studying at Heidelberg where he was awarded his Doctor of Theology, summa cum laude. After doing graduate work at the University of Basel he returned to the United States. He taught theology for many years at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and St. Olaf College. Dr. Jenson also served as Senior Scholar for Research at the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, NJ. He died in 2017.

Reviews

[Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jenson's name crops up often among the modern pastors, theologians, and writers with whom I spend the most time, most notably Chris Green.

I heard this was the best place to start. This was confirmed by a stranger in a coffee shop asking me how I was enjoying Story and Promise, perhaps one of the last books I expected someone to ask me about in public. Turns out the guy is buddies with Green, and he affirmed this was the right place to start with Jenson.

I don't have a whole lot to say about the book, save that I found it provocative, bewildering, and encouraging. It's tough. Jenson's in the habit of making seemingly plain statements that actually upend the whole way I think about a topic. And since this was a library loan, I ended up not marking or noting anything as I went. That's not to say nothing stuck, but I will need to reread when I'm maturer for things to come together more.

I'll share this excerpt because it presumably tells you and me how Jenson is going about his theology, and, while I don't think it's a process original to him, there's a wonderful originality in his phrasing.

"Theological reflection is critical reflection. Again the simplest model: 'Yesterday I said such-and-such, intending to be saying the gospel. How could I have done it better?' Theology is critique of past gospel-saying, by way of preparation for future gospel-saying. It is therefore an unpopular function in the church. Just when the church-school texts are nicely printed, or the church bureaucracy has again reorganized itself for better efficiency, along comes someone who has been doing some thinking, and says the whole thing is an inadequate service to the gospel."

[Yi Shen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most original and compelling works of theology I've ever read. Changed my life.

[Matthew Codd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise introduction to the great mind of Jenson. Highly recommend it to anyone looking to get into his works.

[Drew Banacos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Jenson's view of the gospel as gift/promise. I find this approach to the gospel to be important counter to a societal structure driven by capitalism, wages earned, and competition. This view of the gospel has been helpful to me in my changing views on prayer.

My biggest concern with Jenson's theology as expressed in this work is its enclosed narrative. Jenson, like other post-liberal theologians, wants to emphasize the peculiarity of the Christian faith. The narrative of Christ (life, death, and resurrection) is the word the church must proclaim. The proclamation of the word (in the liturgy of the church specifically) is what makes the church the church. The world does not have anything to contribute to the church in this manner (there is no prophetic word being offered outside of the church). There is this wariness that the church could be co-opted by a political movement. The proclamation of the word can and must be pure from anything external to the church. This would appear to make the civil rights movement irrelevant to the gospel. This makes it seem to me that the only role the church has is as a gathering in the sacred liturgy.

[Jonathan Platter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Jenson is highly respected and influential as well as being controversial. For many, he is this generation's "America's Theologian" (even named America's best theologian by Time magazine). Story and Promise is an early book, written in 1973, yet bears striking resemblance to his mature 1997 and 1999 Systematic Theology: Volume 1: The Triune God and Systematic Theology: Volume 2: The Works of God. Story and Promise is truly his system in germinal and summary form.

Consequently, this would be the ideal place to start for anyone interested in Jenson's theology. It has great energy, propelling one into historical questions concerning the nature of Scripture and it's testimony to YHWH and Jesus, the development of doctrines of God, christology, and Trinity, the meaning of time and history itself, the doctrine of creation and the church, as well as Jenson's scattered reflections on American culture and politics throughout his explication of theology.

While the book is properly a book in theology, and consequently somewhat "abstract", it is neither dry nor impractical. Rather, it immerses the reader -- presumably an intellectually curious Christian -- in the meaning of the life they live by the death and resurrection of Christ. This is, in fact, the single proposition (or narrative) that Jenson believes makes all reality intelligible, and this is the "Barthian" heart of Jenson's theology: that the eternal decision within which all creation receives its being and telos is the election of Jesus Christ as the "person of the future", the fellow of all humanity.

According to Jenson, if Jesus Christ -- the man born of Mary, who ministered to the poor, marginalized, and sinners, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and raised on the third day -- is in fact truly God, then the above Barthian principle is required for Christian theology. To think about what that means for the nature of being, created and divine, read Jenson's Story and Promise. Even where it frustrates the reader or leads them to different conclusions, it does so toward the final aim of speaking the gospel, for which the reader is in its debt.