Doing Theology When God is Forgotten The Theological Achievement of Wolf Krötke

"Philip G. Ziegler has written a highly readable and highly compelling introduction to the theology of Wolf Krötke, a prominent Protestant theologian from Eastern Germany, whose work is known far too little in the English-speaking world. Ziegler masterfully demonstrates how Krötke, taking seriously a world that has grown forgetful of God, recommends not retreat into vague religiosity or spirituality, but rather attention to the concrete possibilities for human freedom and faithfulness that the Christian gospel itself sets forth. This book will be of interest not only to students of contemporary European church history but also, and especially, to theologians who care about the church and seek clear impulses for its theological renewal." (John Burgess, James Henry Snowden Associate Professor of Systemic Theology, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary)
"Philip G. Ziegler's first major offering fills a gap in the available literature on East German theology. His splendid book is a groundbreaking work introducing the main aspects of a systematic theology developed in the former GDR and, after 1989, under the conditions of fledgling freedom and democracy. With this valuable contribution Ziegler finds a place among the foremost scholars in the field of German - especially East German - theology. The author has done much to promote challenges put to the contemporary scene by the theology developed in an era of socialist dictatorship. The whole book will be a treasure for everyone wanting to know what it was, and still really is, like to do Christian theology in a situation of mass practical-atheism." (Wolf Krötke, Professor Emeritus, Humboldt Universität, Berlin)