1928–1988

Wolfhart Pannenberg: revelation as history

Wolfhart Pannenberg had a mystical experience in his youth and became disillusioned with Marxism. He studied under Karl Barth in Basel and then in Heidelberg under Gerhard von Rad. There the interdisciplinary "Pannenberg circle" took shape. His early works include the collection Revelation as History (1961) and the book Jesus – God and Man (1964).

Pannenberg taught at Wuppertal, Mainz, and, from 1968, Munich. He crowned his career with the three-volume Systematic Theology (1988), the boldest attempt since Barth at a unified presentation of Christian doctrine.