Hans Frei was born in Germany in 1922 and moved to the USA with his family during World War II. After studying under Niebuhr at Yale University he took up a teaching post there. In the 1960's he went to Europe undertaking research in both Gottingen and Cambridge. He died in 1988 at the peak of his career.

This book is the first full study of the whole of Hans Frei's work. Higton draws on a wide range of unpublished material in the Frei archives to present a comprehensive, fresh, and original interpretation of Frei's theology. He places Frei's well-known work on biblical hemeneutics firmly in the context of his theological wrestling with Barth and of the dominant traditions of Western Protestant theology.

"An ambitious theological analysis of one of the most significant and seminal of 20th-century theologians. Through Higton's capacity to focus on what is most significant at each point, he brings the reader to grapple with the debate and a constructive possibility for resolving it. The book is lucidly and accessibly written, and should appeal to those seriously engaged with theological issues. Altogether, it constitutes a major contribution." -Rev. Professor Daniel W. Hardy