This book is written in the hope that a neglected period of history might be better understood. What will be argues is that many of the themes which began to dominate theology in the 1930s were already present well before the First World War. Similarly, the criticism of liberalism which Barth refined into an art form after the First World War was paralleled many years earlier in perhaps unlikely places. The plot itself is complex and has many unexpected turns, especially in the matter of theological diplomacy between England and Germany. Yet, what the author hopes is more interesting are the relationships between theology, Bible, culture and society which emerge. He has sought to situate theological ideas in their broader context: eschatology was particularly suited as a theological counterpart tothe cultural contradictions and inequalities of modernity which found expression in the year before 1914.
