This book contains essays by Jens Schröter dealing with philosophical and hermeneutical observations concerning the history of early Christianity, central areas of the history of theology of early Christianity, those developments which led to the creation of the New Testament canon, and the question how it would be possible to develop a comprehensive approach to a theology of the New Testament in view of the individual writings which are contained in it.

In the studies of this volume, Jens Schröter deals with four subject areas. The first part of the book contains philosophical and hermeneutical observations concerning the history of early Christianity. In a follow-up to Johann Gustav Droysen, the author takes a look at recent discussions on the hermeneutics of history. Based on this, he uses the second part of the work to examine central areas of the history of theology of early Christianity. In the third part, he takes a look at those developments which led to the creation of the New Testament canon, and in doing so shows that those joint convictions which were clearly defined in various ways in the early Christian writings were the guiding factor. In the last part of the book, the author examines how it would be possible to develop a comprehensive approach to a theology of the New Testament in view of the individual writings which are contained in the New Testament.

Autorentext
Geboren 1961; 1992 Promotion; 1996 Habilitation; Professor für Exegese und Theologie des Neuen Testaments sowie die antiken christlichen Apokryphen an der Theologischen Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.