Whilst lacking an overall perspective or even, in places, a continuity of theme, this collection of nine papers is a thought-provoking discussion of a variety of theological and hermeneutical concerns about revelation. The book finds its origin in a three-year series of biannual meetings between members of the Oxford and Bonn theology faculties, long linked in partnership, and here engaged on a ‘collaborative research project’. The editors express the hope that through this process the British and German sides of the discussion have understood each other better and with more sensitivity than is usual. Indeed Stanley Hauerwas contributes a foreword which points out that British and Germanic approaches to ‘revelation’ have traditionally been so distinct that ‘this book should not exist’.

But exist it does, and in theory at least one looks forward to seeing what common ground the typically systematising approach of the Germans might find with the traditional British reluctance to do more than discuss possibilities and potential. In practice, I was disappointed that there is relatively little evidence of a new mutual comprehension and even less of a clearly defined way forward. The concluding chapter, perhaps significantly entitled ‘The Productive Vagueness of an Untranslatable Relationship’, sees Caroline Schröder acknowledging the difficulty of even locating the topic of the conferences: was it ‘revelation and story’, or was it Geschichte und Offenbarung’? The German version of the book, we are told, retains ‘story’ as a loan-word. Perhaps both sets of contributors envisage ‘story’ to mean something like the (theological) ‘content’ of the biblical narrative. There is, says Schröder, an agreed commitment to work with the final form of the text and not seek to ‘go behind it’, but, as she avers, it is a little hard to pin down precisely what this cuts out.

Short of synthesis, however, the book offers all kinds of interesting alleyways and proposals. The German contributions evince a concern to take seriously the nuanced theological mediations of the biblical story through such figures as Luther, Schleiermacher and Balthasar. Gerhard Sauter’s opening chapter contains some excellent hermeneutical orientation via the claim that God is the key to the Bible, and he offers three ‘doctrinal polarities’ which aid Scripture reading: spirit and letter; law and gospel; and promise and fulfilment. Ernstpeter Maurer tackles philology, translation and interpretation in dialogue with a careful reading of Schleiermacher which seeks to move beyond the simple grid of psychology and grammar. He concludes with a theological hermeneutic of ‘trinitarian structure’ centring around God’s objectivity; the liberating presence of the divine subject, and the spiritual creativity of language.

The British contributions, on the whole, consist of caveats and reservations, so perhaps not as much gulf-bridging as imagined has taken place. Paul Fiddes provides a fascinating comparison of John’s Gospel and The Tempest, particularly their open-ended, audience-involving epilogues, in order to see how far non-biblical stories can also be vehicles of revelation. Graham Ward spins typically radical and orthodox rings around the notion of allegory, marshalling Aristotle and Gregory of Nyssa to the task of challenging the story/revelation polarity. Probably the nearest the book comes to constructive synthesis is Robert Morgan’s lengthy piece entitled ‘Does the Gospel Story Demand and Discourage Talk of Revelation?’ His answer: yes, both ways, since it emphasises the revelatory significance of Christ and his death and resurrection, but then invites us to a discreet narrative distance away where the gospel stories circle around revelation in veiled and unpredictable ways. A personal view: Morgan’s piece is probably the one for the average reader to start with, and is the most realistic assessment of the possibilities and pitfalls of the story/revelation link.

Overall, then, more a sense of a work in progress than a theological achievement. All the ingredients are here; there is much to chew on; but the cake is not yet fully baked.