From 1926 to 1936 Rudolf Bultmann offered an introductory course in theology, the so-called theological encyclopedia, which he continually revised and refined. The work, finally published posthumously, shows the early, combative Bultmann struggling with inherited tradition and critical of Schleiermacher, Brunner, and Troeltsch. Yet it also presents "as useful a prolegomenon to his principal works as anything he subsequently offered," says translator Roy A. Harrisville, and discusses fully the relationship of biblical interpretation and systematic theology.