Häring's Das Gesetz Christi and Its German Predecessors

Hring’s manual Das Gesetz Christi is agroundbreaking work in the field of moral theology, which can be seen as the successful culmination of long-standing efforts to renew it by the theologians of the so-called Tbingen School. This work seeks to place Das Gesetz Christi systematically in abroader context. It first introduces the life circumstances of its author, then provides abrief description of the so-called manuals, outlines the efforts to revive moral theology in apan-European context using Odon Lottin as an example, and then focuses on the individual German theologians who most influenced Hring, including, in particular, the moral theologians Sailer and Hirscher, the biblical scholar Tillmann, and Hring’s teachers Schilling and Steinbchel. The study goes on to present the full title of Das Gesetz Christi, describes the circumstances of its composition, briefly introduces its structure, presents its original contributions, and traces its overall theological significance from its first publication in 1954 to the second edition of Hring’s manual in 1978‒1981.