From Tradition to Gospel - Tapa dura

"The method of Formgeschichte seeks to help in answering the historical questions as to the nature and trustworthiness of our knowledge of Jesus, and also in solving a theological problem properly so-called. It shows in what way the earliest testimony about Jesus was interwoven with the earliest testimony about the salvation which had appeared in Jesus Christ. Thereby it attempts to emphasise and illuminate the chief elements of the message upon which Christianity was founded." From the Author's Preface Ably translated by Bertram Lee-Woolf, this is the classic exposition of the German school of theology known as Formgeschichte or "the criticism of literary form," which through literary and historical analysis seeks to understand the origins of the traditions of the New Testament, and in so doing bring to light the original intentions and interests of those earliest traditions.

Dr. Martin Dibelius (1883-1947) was responsible for the term Formgeschichte and was both the pioneer and the best exponent of the method. His earliest theological studies were directed mainly towards the Semitic languages, and he took a doctorate in Semitic Philology at Tubingen. From 1915 until his death, he held the Chair of New Testament Exegesis and Criticism in Heidelberg.