Gustaf Wingren

Gustaf Wingrens bok Predikan, ursprungligen utgiven 1949, är ett av det förra seklets mest centrala och mest kontroversiella svenska teologiska verk. Nu utkommer den på nytt med en nyskriven inledning av Bengt Kristensson Uggla. Gustaf Wingren (1910–2000) var professor i systematisk teologi vid Lunds universitet under mer än ett kvarts sekel. I dag framstår han som en av de verkligt betydande teologerna i det svenska 1900-talet, med ett brett genomslag såväl folkligt som akademiskt. Under senare år har hans tänkande rönt ett förnyat intresse. Ingen svensk teolog har med sådan skärpa försvarat den kristna trons mänskliga ansikte mot antiliberala strömningar i samtidens teologi, kyrko- och samhällsliv.

Gustaf Wingrens skarpa kritik mot sin teologiska samtid var riktad mot försöken att framställa den kristna tron genom att renodla och isolera vad som uppfattades som specifikt kristet så att detta ställdes i motsatsställning till skapelsen och det allmänmänskliga. Mot en sådan kristendomstolkning hävdade han med emfas, att det som faktiskt är egenartat och unikt i evangeliet endast låter sig förstås om man också aktualiserar det som gemensamt för alla människor. Det råder med andra ord en fundamentalt positiv relation mellan skapelse och frälsning, mänskligt och kristet. Den olägenhet av övergående art som bestod i att Wingrens första dogmatik presenterades i två separata böcker Skapelsen och lagen (1958) respektive Evangeliet och kyrkan (1960) kom länge att bli bestående. Här har de båda volymerna förts samman under den övergripande titeln En kristen tro, vilken markerar den dialektik av öppenhet och egenart som är så utmärkande för Gustaf Wingrens teologi. Boken innehåller även ett förord av Bengt Kristensson Uggla, "Människans återställelse" , som introducerar läsaren i Gustaf Wingrens teologiska tänkande.

Gustaf Wingren (1910 2000) var professor i systematisk teologi i Lund åren 1951 77 och är fortfarande en av Sveriges internationellt mest kända teologer. Han var inte bara en av världens främsta experter på kyrkofadern Irenaeus och reformatorn Martin Luther utan framför allt bibelteolog. Hans drivkraft var viljan att ge en bibliskt grundad och samtidigt verklighetsnära tolkning av den mänskliga tillvaron och klargöra hur evangeliet om Kristus talar rakt in i allas liv. Erik Aurelius bor i Lund, han har tidigare varit biskop i Skara stift och dessförinnan professor i biblisk teologi vid universitetet i Göttingen. Det Wingren har skrivit är laddat med energi. Språket är glasklart och medryckande, ofta med pregnanta formuleringar som fastnar i minnet. Det har bidragit till att ge hans böcker många läsare. Nu utges för första gången ett samlat urval av hans bibelteologiskt inriktade artiklar som tidigare publicerats på olika håll. Efter en inledande framställning om Gustaf Wingrens bibelteologi, författad av Erik Aurelius, tar de olika kapitlen i boken upp ämnen som problemet och poängen med att Bibeln har ett gammalt och ett nytt testamente, Kristi uppståndelse som evangeliets seger över livets krav, innebörden i den kristna friheten, evangeliet och staten, diakonins teori och praktik, Guds Ande i naturen och människolivet. Alla artiklarna utmärks av klarspråk tänkvärt klarspråk!

""I have always sought to choose topics that throw light on the integrating function of the Christian faith in human life as a whole. For this reason I have felt that the modern tendency to cut the church off from ordinary human life is the most profound theological tragedy of our time."" This statement by noted by Swedish theologian Gustaf Wingren reflects his independence from the primary train of theological thought in the twentieth century. Where many other theologians, following the lead of Karl Barth, have centered their theologies around the second article of the Apostles' Creed, Wingren has re-emphasized the first article in an attempt to recover the theological importance of the doctrine of creation. Wingren's view, developed in faithfulness to the church's theology, is consonant with the increasing demands that world concerns and problems that are placing on the church. It makes a place for the church within the world, not apart from it; and it opens up the doors of the church to meet life's problems on their own ground. Developed from a series of lectures at the Contemporary Theology Institute in Montreal, this is an important theological work. Here Wingren explores another facet of a theme that he has consistently maintained in his writing. The critical dialog with prominent theologians of recent years develops a strong case for the doctrine of creation as a basic context for theology and leaves no doubt as to which direction the church should move. Gustaf Wingren (1910-2000) was Professor of Systematic Theology at Lund from 1951 to 1977. His other books include The Living Word and Creation and Law.

Boken Credo skrevs som en lärobok åt det svenska skol- och universitetsväsendet. Enligt läroplanerna på den tiden, vid 1970-talets början, skulle läraren i religionskunskap jämföra kristendomen med andra aktuella livsåskådningar. Detta var anledningen till att flera olika »ismer« fungerade i bokens text 1974. Ganska stort utrymme ägnade jag då åt marxis- men (muren mitt i Tyskland var en viktig fa

This book is a continuation of the development of thought begun by the author in his Creation and Law, published in 1961. Together the two books cover most of the great themes usually considered in a work of dogmatics. Though this book is not organized and written as a dogmatics in the formal sense, the author treats in it the major doctrines of the Christian faith: the relation of law and gospel, the two natures of Christ, sin, grace, sacraments, the Word of God, etc. Running through and informing the discussion of these and other doctrines is one major theme: the relation between creation and redemption. Taking his cue from Irenaeus, Wingren defines this relation in a variety of ways. Because he takes the relation between creation and redemption so seriously, Old Testament Prehistory comes to its own. The first article of the Creed is more than that the stress on the humanity of Christ rules out all docetism: the church is understood as the body of Christ fulfilling its mission through preaching, and the parousia is not merely the end but the fulfillment of creation. In the final analysis, however, Wingren's dogmatics has an ethical thrust of profound significance for our understanding of living a Christian life in our workaday world. His careful analysis of the relation between creation and redemption, as epitomized for the Christian in baptism, prevents an unambiguous affirmation of the church as completely redemptive, or of creation as wholly good or wholly evil. The eschatological dimension of life - life lived between the beginning and the end - becomes a dominant feature of the Christian's posture in the world until Christ is all in all. Wingren here completes his argument for a due regard for the three articles of the Creed as the best key to the structure of Biblical truth and the best defense against the tendencies in contemporary theology to force it into monistic philosophical molds. The argument is impressively presented and demands serious consideration. Wingren is unquestionably one of the most vigorous participants in the current discussion of the problems of theological method and procedure. - George S. Hendry Princeton Theological Seminary Gustaf Wingren is a weighty theological thinker. He will in all likelihood become increasingly influential both in the United States and on the world scene. GOSPEL AND CHURCH is a study in combination of classical theological solidity and modern theological flexibility. Although the Lutheran tradition shapes Wingren's basic thinking, his theology is always in the grand style of ecumenical concern and creativity. - Nels F. S. Ferre Andover Newton Theological School Gustaf Wingren (1910-2000) was Professor of Systematic Theology at Lund from 1951-1977. His other books include 'The Living Word' and 'Creation and Law'.

Wingren claims that in a theologian like Irenaeus there are parts of the Biblical message which are interpreted in greater clarity and power than in any later period of Christian thought. As such, this book deserves the sympathetic attention of theologians both Catholic and Protestant. To summarize it is nearly impossible in view of the richness and fullness of the discussion. We may say, however, that for Irenaeus God made man for growth, yet man was defeated by that Satan whom God also created. The Son of God served to recapitulate and reverse Adam's fall and to restore humanity's lost God-given potentiality for growth. In the Church, through word and sacrament, Christ's benefits are made available to all. In the final consummation, when man becomes like God he is in actual fact becoming man. God and man are not fundamentally in opposition to one another. The only thing to add about Wingren's book is that it must be read. There are very few studies of classical Christian theology which come close to it in clarity, completeness, or convincing power.

... C]oncern about the inherited doctrine of vocation and its relevance for modern life] was generated out of the complexities and frustrations especially of industrial life, and it has produced a voluminous literature of a popular and semi-popular kind which has served to drive home the problem of daily work upon the conscience of contemporary Christians, and also to provide certain resources for handling it. In addition to this varied literature, the last years have also seen a very general discussion of the question at every level of church life: in ecumencal conferences, in the curricular material of the major denominations, and in conferences and study groups of all kinds. About the urgency and importance of the problem of vocation there is now no doubt. But now we find that the rather simple formulae in which we have been dealing with it do justice neither to the Biblical and Reformation inheritance, nor to the profound dilemmas that appear not only in industry, but in every area of professional and commercial life. The problem now is not only to equip our lay-people with fuller theological resources for the understanding of the meaning of discipleship, but to utilize their practical experience of day-to-day dilemmas and day to-day decisions. ... Gustaf Wingren's conscientious analysis of Luther's teaching on the matter...remains our prime resource for the understanding of the relation of faith and works. Nothing could exceed the patience and thoroughness with which Wingren has combed through the Luther corpus.... I]t will serve to put the full range of Luther's insight at the disposal of those who care for theology as part of their care of all the Churches. Alexander Miller Stanford University