The work which in a translation is now laid before the British public has already been received in Germany with the keenest interest, alike by friends and opponents of the author’s views; and it has served to raise the previously high reputation of a theologian who is second to no University teacher of that country in dialectic acuteness and broad historical grasp of Reformed as well as Lutheran and Pre-Reformation dogma. Dr. Ritschl is not altogether unknown even in this country; and the favour with which his work, in its original form, has been already welcomed, leads to the hope that it may meet with still wider notice, and find still greater usefulness in its present shape. Those who are best acquainted with the literature of the History of Dogma will be the readiest to recognise its importance as a contribution to that branch of theological literature.
I desire to acknowledge my obligations to my friend and fellow-student under Ritschl—the Rev. W. R. Smith, Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis in the Free Church College, Aberdeen—for invaluable advice and assistance, generously given throughout the whole course of my work, in the many difficulties inseparable from the task of translating from a language so rich in theological and metaphysical distinctions as that of Germany. I may add that both to him and to me the task has been one not of scientific interest merely, but also of gratitude for what we feel we owe to Professor Ritschl. JOHN S. BLACK.
KIRKCALDY, May 16, 1872.