Brunner, Heinrich Emil

(1889–1966)

   Theologian.

   Brunner was born in Winterthur, Switzerland. After serving as a pastor at Obstalden, he taught first at the University of Zürich and then at the Christian University of Tokyo. His work was particularly influenced by the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard and the ideas of the Jewish theologian Martin Buber. Like Karl barth, he opposed the liberalism of Friedrich schleiermacher and his followers, but he and Barth came into sharp disagreement over the question of natural theology. Barth insisted on an uncompromising doctrine of the total transcendent hiddenness of God, while Brunner believed that natural theology provided a starting point of contact between humanity and the gospel and that it was possible to speak of God in terms of analogy.

   Emil Brunner, Christianity and Civilization, Gifford Lectures (1947/8, 1948/9);

   C.W. Kegley (ed.), The Theology of Emil Brunner (1962).