Becoming Human Again: The Theological Life of Gustaf Wingren by Bengt Kristensson (review)

For nearly half a century, Gustaf Wingren (1910–2000) was a theologian with an international reputation and a true force in Swedish academic circles. However, less than two decades after his death, his work has become largely overlooked. Through his excellent intellectual biography of Wingren, Bengt Kristensson Uggla calls attention back to this important figure, reminding us of his significant contributions to twentieth-century theology and advocating for his continued value today.

Contextualization is central to this analysis of Wingren’s theological life. Uggla draws on an impressive array of archival and published sources to provide historical background for Wingren’s life and theology. At times the attention to detail can be almost overwhelming, but through this account Uggla also provides a history of twentieth-century theology and Swedish society alongside his portrait of Wingren.

Conflict comprises much of the context of Wingren’s theology. His thought developed amid several theological debates: pietism versus orthodoxy, then later pietism versus the high church movement; liberal theology versus dialectical theology and motif research; and faith versus reason. Social struggles also shaped his theology, particularly World War II, increasing secularism, and a growing market-driven economy. While these controversies began apart from Wingren, he eventually found himself in the midst of them, disagreeing with all sides.

In all these conflicts, Wingren’s critiques were based on his own emphasis on contextualization and consequently the doctrine of creation. After publishing two historical works on the theology of Luther and Irenaeus, Uggla asserts Wingren makes a “turn toward practical knowledge” in his work Living Word, shifting from a historical to a hermeneutical approach (132). Specifically, Wingren argued theology must explore the connections between the essential aspects of Christian faith and life and the situations shared by all people (156). In other words, theology must be contemporary and contextual and therefore constantly reinterpreted. Those who failed to understand this found themselves targets of Wingren’s sharp critique. Anders Nygren, Karl Barth, and Rudolf Bultmann were the first to be singled out in Wingren’s next work, Theology in Conflict, but others followed. Wingren then fully developed his contextual theology in two works: Creation and Law and Gospel and Church.

Wingren’s focus on contextualization led to a second major shift in his theology during the 1960s and 70s. The change was influenced by societal factors, but also several events within Wingren’s personal life: his withdrawal of his ordination in protest of the rejection of women’s ordination by conservative members of the Church of Sweden; his divorce from his wife of thirty-four years; and his retirement from Lund University. However, Uggla contends nothing was more important in this second shift than his relationship with Greta Hofsten, the woman who eventually became Wingren’s second wife.

Greta Hofsten was a journalist and political activist with her own complicated and fascinating history, some of which Uggla recounts. She and Wingren met in Stockholm in 1967 and soon formed a friendship. According to Uggla, Hofsten was the person who first saw the potential in Wingren’s theology for social critique, and she was the primary inspiration for his second theological shift, from the academic context to the societal. Before his relationship with Hofsten, Wingren had little interest in social and political issues, but through her influence he recontextualized his theology into social criticism (195). In the final decades of his career, in collaboration with Hofsten, Wingren rewrote his previous works for this new context. Luther on Vocation became A Small Catechism; Man and the Incarnation became Human and Christian; Theology in Conflict became Change and Continuity and Silent Interpreter; and Creation and Law and Gospel and Church became Credo. All of the later works were “creative reinterpretation” for the new social context (196).

Uggla’s work makes a valuable contribution to the history of twentieth-century theology in general and Wingren’s theology in particular. Despite the emphasis on history, the biography is organized thematically rather...