Carl Edward Braaten is an American Lutheran theologian and minister.
Biography
Carl Braaten has authored and edited numerous books and theological papers, including Principles of Lutheran Theology, Mother Church: Ecclesiology and Ecumenism and In One Body Through the Cross: The Princeton Proposal for Christian Unity. Along with Robert Jenson, he has been an influential figure in developing and restoring the catholic roots of Lutheranism at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Braaten was born on January 3, 1929, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His parents were Norwegian-Americanpietists, who served as missionaries in Madagascar, and he received his early spiritual formation in that context. After finishing high school at Augustana Academy, a Lutheran boarding school in Canton, South Dakota, he attended St. Olaf College, Luther Seminary, Heidelberg University and Harvard Divinity School where he studied under Paul Tillich and earned his doctoral degree. His doctoral dissertation was titled Christ, Faith and History: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Martin Kähler's Distinction Between the Historical Jesus and the Biblical Christ Developed in the Past and Present Context. He was ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1958. At that time, he began serving a parish in Minneapolis and teaching at Luther Seminary. In 1961 Braaten, together with Robert Jenson, Roy Harrisville, Kent Knutson, James Burtness and others, founded the journal Dialog, which he continued to serve as editor until resigning in 1991. In 1962, Braaten accepted a position at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago where he taught as Professor of Systematic Theology until 1991 and where he is still recognized as Professor Emeritus. In 1991, Braaten and Jenson founded the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology and established a new theological journal, Pro Ecclesia.
Works
Author
History and Hermeneutics Westminster Press, 1966.
The Future of God: The Revolutionary Dynamics of HopeHarper & Row, 1969.
Christ and Counter-Christ: Apocalyptic Themes in Theology and Culture Fortress Press, 1972.
Martin Kähler, The So-Called Historical Jesus and the Historic Biblical Christ, Fortress Press, 1964, reprinted, 1988.
Paul Tillich, Perspectives on Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Protestant Theology, Harper & Row, 1967.
Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought, Harper & Row, 1968, published as A History of Christian Thought, from Its Judaic and Hellenistic Origins to Existentialism, Simon & Schuster, 1972.
Wolfhart Pannenberg, Spirit, Faith, and Church, Westminster Press, 1970.
The Futurist Option, Newman Press, 1970.
The New Church Debate: Issues Facing American Lutheranism, Fortress Press, 1983.
Christian Dogmatics, Fortress Press, 1984.
The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg: Twelve American Critiques, with an Autobiographical Essay and Response, Augsburg Publishing House, 1988.
Our Naming of God: Problems and Prospects of God-Talk Today, Fortress Press, 1989.
Reclaiming the Bible for the Church, W. B. Eerdmans, 1995.
A Map of Twentieth-Century Theology: Readings from Karl Barth to Radical Pluralism, Fortress Press, 1995.
Either/Or: The Gospel or Neopaganism, W. B. Eerdmans, 1995.
The Catholicity of the Reformation, W. B. Eerdmans, 1996.
The Two Cities of God: The Church's Responsibility for the Earthly City, W. B. Eerdmans, 1997.
Union with Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther, W. B. Eerdmans, 1998.
