Paths Not Taken: Fates of Theology from Luther through Leibniz

In this book, Paul Hinlicky suggests that—to the detriment of the church as a whole—Martin Luther’s legacy did not unfold as he himself would have hoped or expected. Paths Not Taken analyzes the unhappy fate of theology in the tradition of Luther through the pivotal early modern theological philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. Through this lens Hinlicky shows how the twofold intention of reforming the Church according to the gospel and providing a Christian philosophy of culture for a renewed Christendom diverged along the way. In his conclusion Hinlicky considers three outstanding contemporary representatives of theology in Luther’s tradition—Pannenberg, Jungel, and Jenson—and settles on a path to be taken by Lutheran theology after Christendom, and after modernity.