This page provides a list of selected books and essays published by Johann Baptist Metz in English. Additional sections suggest some helpful secondary sources and indicate his most recent books in German.
Primary Sources (Chronological)
Metz, Johann Baptist. “Unbelief as a Theological Problem.” The Church and the World (Fundamental Theology), Concilium 6 (1965). New York: Paulist P, 59-77.
—. “Apologetics.” Sacramentum Mundi. New York: Herder and Herder, 1968.
—. “Political Theology.” Sacramentum Mundi. New York: Herder and Herder, 1968.
—. Poverty of Spirit. Translated by John Drury. New York: Newman Press, 1968. Inclusive language translation by Carole Farris, New York: Paulist P, 1998.
—. Theology of the World. Translated by William Glen-Doepel. New York: Seabury P, 1973.
—. “Prophetic Authority.” Translated by David Kelly and Henry Vander Goot. In Religion and Political Society. Introduction by David Kelly, edited by J. Moltmann, W. Oelmüller, amd J.B. Metz. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.
—. Followers of Christ. Translated by Thomas Linton. New York: Search P Ltd., 1978.
“In the face of the widening gap between the rich and the poor and of the promising exchange between cultural and religious worlds, voicing the suffering of others is the absolute prerequisite for any future politics of peace, for new forms of social solidarity.”
— Johann Baptist Metz
—. “For a Renewed Church Before a New Council: A Concept in Four Theses.” In Vatican III: The Work That Needs To Be Done. Edited by David Tracy et al. New York: Seabury P, 1978. 137-45.
— and J. Moltmann. Meditations on the Passion. Translated by Edmund Colledge. New York: Paulist P, 1979.
— and Karl Rahner. The Courage to Pray. Translated by Sarah O’Brien Twohig. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1981.
—. The Emergent Church. Translated by Peter Mann. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1981.
—. “Facing the Jews: Christian Theology after Auschwitz.” In The Holocaust as Interruption. Edited by Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza and David Tracy. Concilium 175. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark Ltd., 1984. 26-33.
—. “Productive Noncontemporaneity.” In Observations on the “Spiritual Situation of the Age”: Contemporary German Perspectives. Edited by Jürgen Habermas, translated with an introduction by Andrew Buchwalten. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1984. 169-77.
—. “Theology Today: New Crises and New Visions.” Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America 40 (1985): 1-15.
—. “The ‘One World’: A Challenge to Western Christianity.” Translated by Peter Kenny. In Radical Pluralism and Truth: David Tracy and the Hermeneutics of Religion. Edited by Werner G. Jeanrond and Jennifer L. Rilke. New York: Crossroad, 1991. 203-14.
—. “Suffering unto God.” Translated by J. Matthew Ashley. Critical Inquiry 20.4 (1994): 611-22.
— and J. Moltmann. In Faith and the Future: Essays on Theology, Solidarity and Modernity. Edited with introduction by Francis Schüssler Fiorenza. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995.
—.”The Last Universalists.” In The Future of Theology: Essays in Honor of Jürgen Moltmann. Edited by Miroslav Volf, Carmen Krieg, and Thomas Kucharz. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1996. 47-51.
—. A Passion for God: The Mystical-Political Dimension of Christianity. Translated and edited by J. Matthew Ashley. New York: Paulist P, 1998.
“I somehow breathe air that blows from the end of time.”
— Johann Baptist Metz
—. Hope Against Hope: Johann Baptist Metz and Elie Wiesel Speak Out on the Holocaust. Edited by Ekkehard Schuster and Reinhold Boschert-Kimming. Translated by J. Matthew Ashley. New York: Paulist P, 1999.
—. “In the Pluralism of Religious and Cultural Worlds: Notes Toward a Theological and Political Program.” Translated by John K. Downey and Heiko Wiggers in Cross Currents 49.2 (1999): 227-36.
—. Love’s Strategy: The Political Theology of Johann Baptist Metz. Edited with an introduction by John K. Downey. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999.
—. “In Memory of the Other’s Suffering: Theological Reflections on the Future of Faith and Culture.” Translated by Peter Kenny. In The Critical Spirit: Theology at the Crossroads of Faith and Culture. Edited by Andrew Pierce and Geraldine Smyth, OP. Dublin: Columbia P, 2003. 179-88.
—. “On the Way to a Christology after Auschwitz.” Translated by J. Matthew Ashley. In Who Do You Say That I Am? Confessing the Mystery of Christ. Edited by John Cavadini and Laura Holt. Notre Dame, IN: U of Notre Dame P, 2004. 147-53.
—. “God: Against the Myth of the Eternity of Time.” Translated by J. Matthew Ashley. In The End of Time? The Provocation of Talking about God. Tiemo Peters and Claus Urban, Editors. New York: Paulist Press, 2004. 26-46.
—.”Under the Spell of Cultural Amnesia? An Example from Europe and Its Consequences.” Translated by John K. Downey and Steve Ostovich. In Missing God? Cultural Amnesia and Political Theology. John K. Downey, Jürgen Manemann, and Steven T. Ostovich, Editors. Münster: Lit Verlag, 2006. 5-10.
—. Faith in History and Society: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology. Translated by J. Matthew Ashley. New York: Crossroad 2007.
—. “Facing the World: A Theological and Biographical Inquiry.” Translated by John K. Downey. Theological Studies 75.1 (2014): 23-33.
—. Remembering and Resisting: The New Political Theology. Edited by John K. Downey. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022.
Secondary Sources
Ashley, J. Matthew. Interruptions: Mysticism, Politics and Theology in the Work of Johann Baptist Metz. Notre Dame, IN.: U of Notre Dame P, 1998.
Copeland, M. Shawn. “Political Theology as Interruptive.” Presidential Address for Catholic Theological Society of America. CTSA Proceedings 59 (2004): 71-82.
Downey, John K., Jürgen Manemann, Steve T. Ostovich, Eds., Missing God? Cultural Amnesia and Political Theology. Münster: Lit Verlag, 2006.
—, Steve Ostovich, and Johann M. Vento, Eds. Facing the World: Political Theology and Mercy. New York: Paulist P, 2018.
Martinez, Gaspar. Confronting the Mystery of God: Political, Liberation, and Public Theologies. New York: Continuum, 2001.
Ostovich, Steven T. “The Political Theology of J. B. Metz.” In Reason in History: Theology and Science as Community Activities. Atlanta: Scholars P, 1990. 33-95.
Peters, Tiemo Rainer. “Johann Baptist Metz: Theology of the Missing God.” In Downey et al., Missing God: Cultural Amnesia and Political Theology above, 12-18.
Most Recent Works in German
Metz, J.B. Memoria Passionis: Ein provozierendes Gedächtnis in pluralistischer Gesellschaft. Freiburg: Herder, 2006.
—. Mystik der offenen Augen: Wenn Spiritualität aufbricht. Freiburg: Herder, 2011.
—. Gesammelte Schriften. 9 vols. Edited by Johann Reikerstorfer. Freiburg: Herder, 2015-20.
—. Ein Bekenntnis zum Glauben in dieser Zeit: Vorlesungen zum Würzburger Synodendokument “Unsere Hoffnung.” 2 vols. Edited and prepared by Johann Reikerstorfer. Frieburg: Herder, 2022.
