Our Faith
by Emil Brunner

Forward

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." That is no simile, but a literal law of life. There is a pernicious anaemia of the soul, a starvation of the soul as well as of the body. Humanity in our time suffers from chronic undernourishment of its soul. It is not sufficient help merely to print and sell copies of the Bible; not sufficient help, even, if men read it. The Bible can nourish us only if it is understood and personally appropriated as God's own Word. But for many -- whatever the cause may be -- the Bible is indigestible; it does not speak to their need.

Such people seek, therefore, an interpreter to translate the great, difficult, strange words of the Bible into the familiar language of daily life. The performance of this task, in my opinion, is the true service of theology, -- to think through the message of God's work in Jesus Christ -- think it through so long and so thoroughly that it can be spoken simply and intelligibly to every man in the language of his time.

In a time like ours when all outward securities are shaken as perhaps never before, many are beginning to listen to Truth which is not from man. A new hunger for the Word of God is passing through the world -- the English-speaking world no less than Europe and the East. The Word of God is the one thing which is able to unite East and West, the whole dismembered mankind, and to reshape it into one big family of nations. It is a special satisfaction to me that this little book after having been translated into several continental languages,* can now appear simultaneously in both English and Japanese. May it help in bringing to our consciousness that we are all called to one aim as we are all created by one Creator after His image.

EMIL BRUNNER

Zurich, August, 1936.

*0ur faith has appeared in French, Dutch, Danish, and Hungarian translations; a Czech edition is in preparation (Translator).