Dr. Robert W. Yarbrough‘s 1995 Francis Schaeffer Lecture Series at Covenant Theological Seminary on “Adolf Schlatter and the Future of Christianity” is available for free as nine MP3s.
- Schlatter’s Life and Legacy
- Schlatter’s Life and Legacy – Q & A
- Schlatter’s Interpretation of Scripture
- Schlatter’s Interpretation of Scripture – Q & A
- Schlatter’s Methodological Genius
- Schlatter’s Methodological Genius – Q & A
- Schlatter and Prayer
- Schlatter’s Promise for the Church and Theology
- Schlatter’s Promise for the Church and Theology – Q & A
Yarbrough is an expert on Adolf Schlatter. In fact, he has been in Korea this very week lecturing on Schlatter in various venues. Yarbrough asserts that Schlatter’s “impact on generations of German pastors and theologians was enormous, and Schlatter’s stock seems to be rising in contemporary discussions. . . . Once little known in the Anglo-Saxon world there is today fresh interest in his work, in part due to the excellent translations of his two-volume New Testament theology by Andreas Köstenberger” (Salvation Historical Fallacy? [listed below], p. 82).
Yarbrough’s Schlatter contributions include the following (listed in chronological order):
- “The heilsgeschichtliche Perspective in Modern New Testament Theology.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Aberdeen, 1985. [This is not solely devoted to Schlatter, but Schlatter is part of the discussion.]
- “Biblical Authority and the Ethics Gap: The Call to Faith in James and Schlatter.” Presbyterion 22:2 (1996): 67-75.
- Review of Stephen A. Dintamann, Creative Grace: Faith and History in the Theology of Adolf Schlatter. Evangelical Quarterly 68:3 (1996): 253–56.
- Translator of Neuer Werner, Adolf Schlatter: A Biography of Germany’s Premier Biblical Theologian. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996.
- “Adolf Schlatter’s ‘The Significance of Method for Theological Work’: Translation and Commentary.” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 1:2 (1997): 64-76.
- “Adolf Schlatter.” Pages 518–23 in Historical Handbook of Major Bible Interpreters. Edited by Donald McKim. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1998.
- Review of Werner Neuer, Adolf Schlatter: Ein Leben für Theologie und Kirche. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41 (1998): 139–41.
- “Adolf Schlatter.” Pages 59–72 in Biblical Interpreters of the Twentieth Century: A Selection of Evangelical Voices. Edited by Walter Elwell and J. D. Weaver. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999.
- Review of Adolf Schlatter, Romans: The Righteousness of God, translated by Siegfried Schlatzmann. Themelios 24:2 (1999): 63–64.
- “Schlatter Reception Now: His New Testament Theology.” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 3:1 (1999): 52–65.
- “Schlatter Reception Then and Now: His New Testament Theology.” Pages 417–31 in Adolf Schlatter, The Theology of the Apostles. Translated by Andreas J. Köstenberger. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999.
- “Schlatter, Adolf (1852–1938).” Pages 505-7 in The Dictionary of Historical Theology. Edited by Trevor Hart. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.
- “Paul and Salvation History.” Pages 297–342 in The Paradoxes of Paul. Vol. 2 of Justification and Variegated Nomism. Edited by D. A. Carson, Peter T. O’Brien, and Mark A. Seifrid. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 181. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004. [This is not solely devoted to Schlatter, but Schlatter is part of the discussion. See pp. 298, 309, 313–17, 319–21.]
- The Salvation Historical Fallacy? Reassessing the History of New Testament Theology. Edited by Robert Morgan. History of Biblical Interpretation Series 2. Leiden: Deo, 2004. [This is not solely devoted to Schlatter, but Schlatter is part of the discussion. See pp. 3–5, 81–117, 135–36, 141, 150n194, 256, 267n33, 275n89, 280n123, 286n158, 301n230, 325–28, 342–43, 380–81.]
- Co-translator with Andreas J. Köstenberger of Adolf Schlatter, Do We Know Jesus? Grand Rapids: Kregel: 2005.
- “Witness to the Gospel in Academe: Adolf Schlatter as a Teacher of the Church.” Perichoresis 4:1 (2006): 1–17.
- Revision of “Adolf Schlatter (1852–1938).” In Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters. Edited by Donald McKim. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, forthcoming (November 2007). [This volume is a significant revision of McKim’s Historical Handbook of Major Bible Interpreters.]
What do you think about Schlatter? I have been slowly reading the above mentioned biography that my wife picked up for a dollar or two at a bargain bookstore.
He doesn’t seem, at least at the beginning of the book, to be all that clearly evangelical in today’s terminology.
Hey, Larry. I don’t pretend to be a Schlatter scholar, not least because my primary source reading is thin. At this point I’m eager to learn more from and about Schlatter because I’ve heard nothing but glowing praise for him from professors who discuss him (both at BJU and TEDS). Dr. Yarbrough writes this on page 505 of “Schlatter, Adolf (1852–1938)” in The Dictionary of Historical Theology (referenced above): “In autobiographical publications Schlatter stresses the formative influence of his parents’ Christian convictions. These helped instil in Schlatter a high regard for the Bible and a sense of the church’s importance. Christian love and community were also tangible realities in a home with eight children. Yet as a student Schlatter wrestled with Christian truth claims. He was confronted in his university training with the scientific scepticism that dominated the Continent in the 1870s. One of his teachers was Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), and his reading of Spinoza (1632–77) posed a particular challenge. In the end, however, Schlatter reaffirmed classic Christian belief, albeit with an academic and technical sophistication still being discovered today.”
I have no formal qualifications but I have read four of Schlatter’s writings that are printed in English. I have to say that my Christian thinking was seriously challenged after having read these books. Particularly where Schlatter speaks about the second cognitive endeavor, something obligatory to the Christian walk. I highly recommend Schlatter and the lectures by Dr Yarbrough.