The publication series of the Frey-Grynaeisches Institut in Basel puts the emphasis on the link between academic theology and its environment in terms of humanities and cultural studies. Many points of departure for this approach are supplied by the humanistic legacy of the city of Basel and the history of the institute itself, which goes back over 250 years. Litterae covers a broad spectrum from classical literary studies and philology through to the concrete alphabetic letters as they relate to a media history of Christianity. Here too, the history of letterpress printing and the libraries of Basel form a fascinating context for the theme.
The second half of the 18th century brought new currency to Martin Opitz's dictum that poetry is "concealed theology" at its root. Johann Caspar Lavater's drama "Abraham and Isaac" (1776) turns the biblical narrative into an exemplary illustration of his unshakeable conviction that man can affect God's decisions through faith and prayer. In Friedrich Schiller's "Semele" (1779) the question of God's credible self-disclosure to humans proves to be a kind of concealed theology.
Karl Pestalozzi, Emeritus Universität Basel, Schweiz.
