"History is the most comprehensive horizon of Christian theology. All theological questions and answers are meaningful only within the framework of history which God has with humanity and through humanity with his whole creation-the history moving toward a future still hidden from the world but already revealed in Jesus Christ." This theme of universal history and the fundamental significance of eschatology pervades these outstanding essays by Europe's foremost theologian.

Pannenberg here definitively articulates the theological importance of history for the understanding of faith, for hermeneutics, and for formulating proper concepts of truth and reason. Throughout he reaffirms his belief that the revelation of God is not a supernatural event that breaks into history from above, but rather that it is history itself. He thus develops a rich background for the studies of the doctrine of God presented in Volume II of BASIC QUESTIONS IN THEOLOGY.

WOLFHART PANNENBERG is Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Munich. He is the author of The Apostles Creed, The Church; Ethics; Faith and Reality; Human Nature, Elec-tion, and History; The Idea of God and Human Freedom; Jesus-God and Man; Theology and the Kingdom of God; and Theology and the Philosophy of Science.