In Heidegger and Theology, Judith Wolfe carefully traces the theological origins of Martin Heidegger's philosophy and then extends this analysis to consider the role these origins play throughout his thought. Through a very productive use of the category of eschatology, Wolfe maps the development of Heidegger's philosophy as well as the complex and changing engagements between his philosophy and theology. She pays close attention to newly available resources, in particular Heidegger's letters, manuscript notes, and early texts. The result is a book of excellent scholarship that offers much to a wide variety of readers. For those new to Heidegger's thought, it provides a rich introduction to his philosophy. For scholars, it offers a perspective on Heidegger's thought that is nuanced through newer source materials. For all readers, it includes interesting biographical information on Heidegger's life, friendships, and the various influences on his intellectual development.

Wolfe first explores Heidegger's path from Catholicism through Protestantism to his “emancipation of philosophy from theology as an independent mediatrix of authentic existence” (62). Wolfe sees several dynamics at work that contribute to Heidegger's early thought, including Heidegger's understanding that “the eschatological dimension of early Christian spirituality emerged as a kind of immediate, intuitive religious feeling” (22) and his insistence upon the need for “a theology capable of giving this experience expression from within” (23). This, Wolfe suggests, leads to Heidegger's “dynamic reimagining of the basis of religious (and with it, of all) experience” (34) and his a-theistic phenomenology. In Being and Time, Wolfe notes, Heidegger develops his insight that “the question of Being can only be raised in and through (a properly questioning) life,” an insight, she argues, that is constructively analogous to the Christian understanding that “the question of God can never be raised purely conceptually, but only in and through a life of faith” (84). For Wolfe, Heidegger's understanding of Dasein in Being and Time is eschatological in that “it envisions the possibility of authentic existence as dependent on a certain (existential) relation to one's future” (85); authentic Dasein, in its thrownness, living into possibility, is eschatological.

It is this emphasis on eschatology, Wolfe suggests, that contributed to Heidegger's relation to National Socialist ideology and the Third Reich: “His support for the Nazis was rooted in a pre-existing, quasi-theological taste for eschatology” (118). Wolfe argues that as Heidegger became disillusioned with Nazi ideology, he turned instead to an increasingly apophatic eschatology. Influenced by the poetry of Hölderlin and Rilke, Wolfe notes, Heidegger developed his later philosophy: “his critique of metaphysics as onto-theology, and his call to an ascetic, quasi-mystical discipline of thought capable of waiting for the advent of the ‘last god’” (130).

Finally, Wolfe charts Heidegger's influence on theology and offers a brief reception history of this influence, providing the reader with a very helpful and concise overview of Heidegger's theological legacy. Wolfe highlights Heidegger's wish for an engaging Mitdenken, a thinking-with, as well as his “consistent emphasis on the need to live philosophically” on paths of thought (198). In Heidegger and Theology, Judith Wolfe accomplishes precisely this, offering readers a rich and thoughtful Mitdenken, thinking with Martin Heidegger as she approaches his work through newer source materials that serve to bring to light and engage the theological paths in Heidegger's phenomenology.