ABSTRACT
It is easy to draw sharp contrasts between the characteristic features of systematic theology in the English-and German-speaking worlds. Anglo Saxon systematicians, it may be said, typically begin with questions that belong to the philosophy of religion: the existence, nature, goodness and omnipotence of God. Only then do they go on to discuss the nature and work of Jesus Christ, the Church, doctrines such as justification by faith or the atonement. For, such theologians would ask, what do these other things matter unless we begin by assuring ourselves that there is a God who can be known and who is both powerful and good? To many German-speaking theologians, indeed to theologians in any continental European tradition, this seems per verse. Not only are they often opposed to the idea of natural theology, which seems to be inherent in the Anglo-Saxon way of doing theology, they also question what point there is in thus investigating God in an abstract way. Unless God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who welcomes sinners and sets our fallen human nature free, the attempt to discuss him is empty: any 'knowledge' we acquire as a result is empty knowledge, knowledge of a theory or an abstraction. The correct place to begin is with what we already know of God through his self-disclosure in Christ: more abstract questions can then fall into their proper, subordinate place.
