ABSTRACT
Especially in the Anglo-Saxon environment, theologians have embarked on a new hermeneutical debate. Owing to a certain frustration with the historical-critical approach to the New Testament, supposedly new approaches are discussed and find more and more acceptance. Neo-Barthian approaches like the 'canonical approach' and rediscovered 'biblical theology' are broadly discussed, not to mention the so-called post-modem approaches like reader-response, post-structuralism and deconstruction and whatever can be found in the theological marketplace. What all these approaches to the New Testament have in common is that they are in danger of not ta king seriously Christianity as a historically conditioned religion. The New Testament itself emphasises that it originated from something that happened in history, in a certain place and at a certain time: so Matthew 2:1, Luke 2:lf. Early Christianity, too, was highly conscious of the historical condition of Christianity, as, e.g. the under Pontius Pilate in the creeds indicates. Therefore, to separate Christianity from its historical origin and development me ans seriously to misapprehend its very nature.
