Denkraum Katechismus

Since his early Luther studies, Oswald Bayer has placed God's Word, understood as a promise, at the center of theology. As Bayer has shown impressively in the past four decades of his theological work, all of theology develops from the indication of God's promising self-revelation. Oswald Bayer's suggestion to use the catechism as a basis for systematic theology is one of a series of attempts to answer the question »What is theology?« With the expression »catechetical systematics«, he hinted in his book »Theology« at a plan which he himself has carried out to some extent only but which does however call for further exploration. The essays in this volume accept this challenge in multifaceted aspects by using the catechism as their basis for orientation. The objective of the title »Catechism as a Realm of Thought« is to point out that such an orientation is not restrictive and that it opens up large avenues of thought and of responsibility.